What We're Listening To: "Smoke + Mirrors" by Imagine Dragons

Following the resounding success of their mainstream debut "Night Visions", Las Vegas Alt-Rock outfit Imagine Dragons had everything going for them. Following a massive tour, award show performances and acceptance speeches, and the plethora of charms that accompany major breakout success, it seemed that the sky would be the limit for Dan Reynolds and company on their follow-up album. After loving "Night Visions", seeing them perform on tour and hearing that Dan Reynolds had allegedly wrote tens of songs before grinding the material down to typical album length, "Smoke + Mirrors" was a very personally anticipated record.

So what went wrong?

Many of the important elements from the band's first album remain on "Smoke + Mirrors". From the arena-adaptable gang vocals, huge reverb tones, massive percussion, and a pop-radio sensible lead single, it is confusing when viewed from a wide lens or a first listen that this album drew so much ire from critics and general disappointment from diehard fans. The band experiments with folk, EDM, and even hip-hop again on this album, and it also seems like the lead guitar is deployed on this collection of tracks in a more effective and pleasing manner than on their debut.

Sadly, making great music is much more nuanced than getting by on the same idea, but by the same token taking risks that are ill-conceived can also lead to an overall lackluster endeavor. At best, there is an ethereal finesse or a "mojo" that Reynolds seemed to lose writing for this record that was present on "Night Visions". At worst, much of the songwriting comes off as a bland and tiresome retread, with each song seeming to have the same core concept and structure as the song before. I'm not at all saying that Reynold's source material was inherently uninteresting, but I am saying that when Vampire Weekend did an album about struggling/dealing with agnosticism they attacked the subject matter with different emotional lenses and angles that produced songs that were fresh and independent of one another. Melodic potency is also something that this album lacks for minutes at a time and tracks like "Smoke and Mirrors", "It Comes Back To You", and "Trouble" are completely non-memorable because of this.

This album doesn't do everything wrong; I am still a fan of "I Bet My Life", the first single off of this record, and the songs "Shots", "Summer" and "Hopeless Opus" are representative of the kinds of supporting songs this album could've and should've had on it instead of throwaways like the pretentious "Gold". Additionally, the associated bonus tracks "Battle Cry" and "Warriors" are dramatic and generally enjoyable.

In fairness, this band had a lot of people expecting great things to follow their debut that set the bar astronomically high to begin with, and it seemed for awhile that the Alt-Rock crown (which I think is buried in Seattle somewhere) was theirs for the taking. It is unfortunate then that this band could have solidified themselves as permanent heavyweights in their genre with their sophomore album and simply didn't deliver. Dan Reynolds is instead found spinning the tires in the mud of the infamous sophomore slump, and one can only hope that this promising group can return with an album that has a little more replay value in a few years.

Rating: 5/10

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