Review Summary: Repetitive Gimmicky and annoying at times
Imagine walking into a bakery and you find yourself looking at a cake...let's go with chocolate. It looks incredible, the top is covered with sprinkled strings of caramel and almonds, blue icing is along the edges, and purple flowers bloom from the sides. You can even smell its chocolatey goodness through the glass counter in front of you. You have to buy it. It just looks too good. However, when you take it home and sit down in your kitchen to take that first bite, anticipating the taste of the wondrous high glucose dessert you've acquired, you realize something...there’s no cake. All it is is icing and you sit there alone in your kitchen overwhelmed with feelings of confusion and disappointment.
Imagine Dragons is a similar experience. Something you’re excited about at first then you are horribly disappointed. Maybe not "horribly" disappointed because icing by itself isn't that bad, but it's not enough to fill your stomach. The album Imagine Dragons is exactly like that, icing without the cake.
So let's start the review
Dan Reynolds - Vocals, Percussion
Ben McKee - Bass, Backing Vocals
Wayne "Wing" Sermon - Guitar, Cello, Backing Vocals....Hahaha his nickname is Wing....i copied and pasted from wiki i don't feel like talking about the band members. I don't care enough
Dan Platzman - Drums, Viola, Backing Vocals
Night Visions is one of the most popular records of the mainstream music industry today, and not without reason. It's fun, sounds cool, and is catchy (at least to the musically uninclined). Night Visions starts with arguably the best track on the record, Radioactive. The song is a great introduction to the world of Imagine Dragons. The melody is full of life, energy, and excitement. Radioactive is comparable to the excitement of that first bite of cake I described earlier. However, as you sink your teeth into Night Visions you begin to hear its lack of…well music. All the songs basically stick with the same structure; an athematic beat in the background to give that "we can get through anything feeling" and Dan Reynolds singing forgettable lyrics. The frosted-coated formula is also often accompanied by a choir of background vocals to put some extra sprinkles on top the icing.
Now let’s discuss some of the tracks on the record. I won’t go over all of them because I’ll end up repeating myself. I’ll start with the opener, Radioactive, the one I mentioned previously. The track is likeable immediately with a catchy drumbeat, Reynold singing epic uninspired lyrics, and “Whoas” as backing vocals. Hmmm doesn’t that description sound familiar. It’s Time introduces clapping and a string instrument to the recipe. Demons’ hook is found within the chorus vocals. On Top of the World, my personal favorite, has a bouncy feel and adds some more “silly” sounds on the cakeless, cake. The next two songs are relatively forgettable with similar sounds as the previous tracks but with less attractive hooks. The few songs following those specifically Every Night and Underdog both suffer from annoying repetitive two line choruses. As the Night Vision reaches its end the songs begin to pick up in quality again. The River’s epicness factor is reduced, and has an attractive raindrop-sounding guitar. The track has an interesting melody like water flowing down a creek. One of the better tracks simply because it’s different, and the closer track Selene has an addictive, clean and crisp guitar riff.
Each song in Night Visions uses variations of the frosted-coated formula, so the songs at least sound a little different. Oh I forgot the lyrics for each song are also different. Essentially what I'm saying is that as you listen to Night Visions it becomes increasingly repetitive. Imagine Dragons didn’t even use more than one color of icing on their cake of lies, which makes me want to give this album a 2.0 instead of a 2.5. They never really give their own sound a chance. The sound they created isn’t bad, but it seems they were more focused on the production of their music more than the music itself.
Cake without icing will always beat icing by itself.
