In Believer, Reynolds tells a story with a powerful message-the film showcases Reynolds as a likable, empathetic figure who works hard to earn a new point of view. In June, HBO released a documentary called Believer, which follows Reynolds as he learns about LGBTQ Mormon youth and their struggles to find an identity within an oppressive church.
Evolve imagine dragons album tv#
In TV terms, it’s like a hoary crossover episode of “Black Mirror” and “This Is Us.”Īlthough Origins leans far too heavily on Instagram-quote culture-the idea that any snippet of thought, removed from context, can build a base of inspiration-Reynolds is a passionate and versatile singer. Origins wants to conversate with the current moment, but it never amounts to a coherent statement. Since their songs scan like a competent survey of the entirety of mid-aughts pop rock, there’s no real personality to identify within the songs. Stylistically, the singer tries on enough hats to differentiate Origins’ collection of music from the more homogenous Evolve, in particular, the Bleachers-meets-Coldplay pop of single “Zero,” a nod to soul music on “Cool Out,” and the “ Wake Me Up”-core country textures of “West Coast.”īut with its tired aphorisms and eerily familiar sonic environments, it never adds up to be much of a comment on the music Imagine Dragons is referencing. Reynolds, though, uses that tension to increasingly hollow effect. The anthems-“Natural,” “Bad Liar,” “Machine”-lean heavily on the trusty loud-quiet-loud dynamic that buoyed the bands’ past hits. The music is categorically soaring and sometimes pleasant, because sometimes the algorithm finds you where you want to be found. Reynolds feels compelled to turn his attention to this modern life, outlining his grievances in language that feels almost too accessible: “How many artists fear the light? Fear the pain, go insane?” he asks on “Bullet in a Gun.” On closer “Real Life” he ponders, “Hey, turn your phone off, won’t you look me in my eye?/Can we live that real life?” Do we live in a society? Imagine Dragons are almost positive we do. On their new album, Origins, Reynolds finds himself on the other side of the personal darkness that shaded Evolve, emerging with a more positive outlook, a world-weary curiosity now turned outward. They make low-hanging-fruit music, which can be great in theory, but because of all the styles it stitches together, their songs something more distant and mutated. Since Imagine Dragons scaled to a mass audience so quickly, their songs have had to stay just as huge. It had the inescapable “Thunder,” a song that bored itself deep into the collective consciousness thanks in part to a mind-numbingly catchy chorus and ubiquitous Microsoft and Jeep ads. Their third album, 2017’s Evolve, sold 147,000 copies in its first week, an incredible amount in the streaming era. After the breakout success of “Radioactive,” Imagine Dragons’ sophomore record, Smoke + Mirrors, topped the Billboard chart in its first week. How did Imagine Dragons become so huge despite the fact that the average American couldn’t pick out a single Dragon in a lineup? Their sound is kind of like the machine learning output of the Lumineers, the Chainsmokers, and a SoulCycle playlist. They turned down their guitars and turned up every expensive synth pad known to man, and exactly one collaboration with Kendrick Lamar later, they were one of the biggest new rock bands in the country.
Their breakthrough hit, “ Radioactive,” stayed on the Hot 100 chart for a record-setting 87 weeks. The rise of the Las Vegas rock band in 2013 coincided with the lull in the format’s popularity, yet, remarkably, they were a runaway success. The album was also nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards.Imagine Dragons have become a case study for rock music fading out of the zeitgeist. It was promoted with the singles "Believer", "Thunder", "Whatever It Takes", and "Next to Me", as well as a world tour produced by Live Nation and supported with Grouplove and K. Evolve peaked at number 2 on the US Billboard 200, and received mixed reviews from critics some acknowledged the band's claim of evolution, while others described it as lifeless and commercially-oriented. In comparison to Smoke + Mirrors and their 2012 debut Night Visions, frontman Dan Reynolds called the album an "evolution" for the band. After the release of their previous album Smoke + Mirrors (2015) and its respective world tour, a self-imposed hiatus for 2016 and cryptic messages from the band through their social media gained anticipation for their third album it was finally announced on May 9, 2017, along with the initiation of its pre-order.
Evolve (stylized as ƎVOLVE) is the third studio album by American pop rock band Imagine Dragons, released on Jby Kidinakorner and Interscope Records.