What I'm really surprised by is that this album isn't super commercial. Clearly enough single material but I expected this just to be radio hits. I fucking love the feel of their older stuff in some of these songs.
The Timbaland-ish beat on Friction is awesome! Dreams, I Bet My Life & Friction are the top 3 for me after the first few listens.
I've gotta say I'm glad this album finally delivered for me. I wasn't too keen on the promotional songs, but even now in the context of the whole album they fit much better. That said, they're still the weakest songs on Smoke + Mirrors IMO. Top Moments: Smoke + Mirrors - Awesome dreamy song. And dat guitar solo outro. Friction - Love it so much! It's so different yet so Imagine Dragons. The heavy outro is pretty cool too. Dreams - Like everyone else, this song is beautiful. Trouble - Imagine Dragons channeling their inner Mumford & Sons? I'm down. The Fall - It's no "Nothing Left To Say", but it'll do as a finale. Thief - Why the hell was this NOT on the album? Release - Acoustic anything from this band is amazeballs. That said I'm gonna be that guy who says they never quite captured lightning in a bottle again like they did with Radioactive.
So, I can't stop listening to "Second Chances". This might be one of my favorite songs I've heard in years. I have no doubt now that this is my favorite from the album (And it's a bonus track of all things!).
I'm So Sorry and Friction are fucking boss. Gold, I Bet My Life and Smoke and Mirrors are pretty good. The rest of the album is just alright
Monster ended up being on the album My life has literally just been made. Monster is my favorite Imagine Dragons song EDIT: The Super Deluxe version is only sold in Norway?
Top moments: Polaroid Friction Summer Hopeless Opus The Fall Thief (THIS IS SO GOOD D: ) The Unknown Second Chances Warriors Monster Who We Are (Some may argue including Warriors, Monster, and Who We Are are cheating, but they are on the Super Deluxe Version, which is the version I have so I am counting them as songs on this album. Plus they are better than most of the new songs in my opinion.) Songs I Don't care for: Shots Gold I'm So Sorry I Bet My Life. [You can see why I was skeptical about this album as all of these were listenable before the album came out.] I will say this album does not touch Night Visions, but it's hard to beat an album where every song is good. The bonus tracks are also way better than the actual album. This album could have been way better if you cut out the first 5 tracks and made the bonus tracks normal tracks in my opinion. Other than the beginning of the album, I think this cd is very solid. Every song after the first five are above average at worst and it has some standout new tracks that are on par with Night Visions quality songs! This album is also an hour and 20 minutes, that can be both good and bad, and that is yet to be determined. Only have had one listen so far, so I need more listens but this was my first impression.
So I've never been a big fan of these guys. I liked Radioactive. Everything else including I Bet My Life seemed to be trend hopping a bit. But this album... Woo! Love it. The tone of his voice. The atmosphere. It really feels like the album I wish Coldplay would make. I can get past Shots and IBML because the rest is amazing. So props to them for making me a fan of the band and not the one outlier song that was mainly Alex da Kid's sound with some guitar on top.
I really like this album. I'm surprised "Gold", "Dream", "Warriors", "Who We Are" and "Monster" are the only songs produced by Alex da Kid here. Nice balance between pop, rock and electronic music. It's hard to pick favorites. Superior to Night Visions in every way possible.
This has been on repeat the whole day for me. Already my favorite Imagine Dragons album and possibly my biggest Album of the Year so far. Personal favorites are "I'm So Sorry", "Dream", "Polaroid", and "Friction".
This has been on repeat for me since I downloaded the leak and I can honestly say I enjoy this album way more than I ever did Night Visions. I think they took more risks on this album and diversified their sound much more and it really paid off.
My ambivalent feelings about Imagine Dragon's music have grown towards the negative side after this release.
I like the first three tracks, Smoke and Mirrors blew me away. The others all sound nice but nothing has really caught my attention on the first listen, maybe after a few more listens.
i used to like them, stopped caring for them i just gave this a listen... and i still no longer care for them. idk its just..boring and bland
The band is currently doing a listening party on Twitter for Smoke + Mirrors, giving commentary and answering questions as well. Check it out! They're currently on "I Bet My Life". https://twitter.com/Imaginedragons
If I were to rank my favourites: 01. Friction 02. Thief 03. The Unknown 04. Dream 05. Second Chances I had to delete "Hopeless Opus" off my phone, though. "Cherry bomb, cherry bomb".... are you fucking kidding me?
Random Story: Met this guy last night at Endgame, a videogame bar in Tempe, who's favorite band used to be Blink-182 (my favorite band) and who's favorite band is now Imagine Dragons (In my top 8 favorite bands). Thought that was pretty cool. He agreed with me that Nigh Visions was better, which was cool as well that we shared the same opinion. Also, Top 5 new songs from the album: 1. Thief 2. Friction 3. Polaroid 4. The Unknown 5. Second chances Top 5 on album (Super Deluxe Edition): 1. Monster (still my favorite ID song) 2. Thief 3. Friction 4. Who We Are 5. Warriors
01. Dream 02. Smoke + Mirrors 03. Shots 04. I'm So Sorry 05. The Fall I've been able to get past the background vocals in I Bet My Life so the only song I don't really like anymore is Trouble.