Elsewhere (and speaking of ripping off), ‘Lonely’ is a blatant stab at the guitar-led pop rock space that Ed Sheeran so comfortably (or not) inhabits, whilst ‘Monday’ is an absolute mess of combined inspirations. Shockingly, they do… by immediately ripping off U2 for the last minute or so. It’s dull, and it would also appear that Rick Rubin kicked in the studio door at the two-minute, twenty-seven seconds mark with the hopes of inspiring the band to change things up a little. ‘My Life’, for instance, is an exhaustingly self-indulgent ballad Dan Reynolds drearily bears his soul atop a plinky-plonky keyboard melody, with such lyrical choices as ”I’m running out of my mind, is this really my life”. Well, wherever I’m going, I certainly hope it isn’t in a U-turn back towards this album.
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By this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if one or a few readers are now questioning whether or not my ramblings even make sense or where I’m going with this. I feel like Ellen Burstyn in Requiem For a Dream being screamed at constantly by Shooter McGavin, and I just want it to stop. I see ‘One Day’, I hear ‘Monday’ before I’ve even gotten around to listening to the damn thing. ‘My Life’, ‘Easy Come Easy Go’, ‘No Time For Toxic People’, ‘Giants’ and ‘One Day’, for instance – all of which I already feel like I’ve heard before the track even begins. Hell, I wanted to like this band once upon a time… but here we are, and while the group’s latest offering Mercury – Act I may choose to swan around masquerading as an experience ripe with musical diversity, proudly standing tall to loudly proclaim Act I as if inferring the beginning of a grand, majestical auditory tale, it does so with the arrogance and stupidity of a sentient plank of wood.Įven just reading through the track list is enough to warrant a quiet groan of exasperation, as you will likely begin to imagine the exaggeratedly bombastic choruses that – no doubt – all chant the track title with the same miserably repetitious manner as has been seen to befit the last four releases from Las Vegas, Nevada’s crown jewel, Imagine Dragons. Am I a naïve, optimistic fool for doing so? Sure, why not. I wanted Imagine Dragons to release something that actually drops the pretentious golden eagle of soulless trite that the four-piece has seen fit to wave in our faces for the last decade, and just make something good. I want to believe that no matter how poor an artist’s output becomes, there is always the chance of recuperation – take Eminem’s whiplash recovery from Revival to Kamikaze, or Nickelback’s Feed the Machine, for example. Now, to put my cards on the table as open and honestly as possible… I genuinely wanted to like this album. Sure, with the goal of pandering to as many commercial audiences as logistically possible, you’ll get the odd R&B flavoured track, the occasional guitar riff and solo, or some peppered instances of EDM… but it’s all been violently shoved into the Imagine Dragons Magic Music Machine, and the mincemeat that eventually comes out the other end all looks the fucking same.
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Because in spite of my snide reference to several genres’ that could technically be associated with the band, this wasn’t at all to imply that Imagine Dragons actually intends on genuinely committing to any of them. But you know what? If you did in fact decide to Frankenstein yourself together a listenable Imagine Dragons album from nine years’ worth of (what you would hope to be) accumulated stylistic growth, experimentation, and increased emphasis on trying new ideas for the sake of keeping things fresh and interesting, you wouldn’t have a clue where any of it came from.
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And maybe – just, maybe – across all sixty tracks produced from Night Visions to Mercury – Act 1 there is a salvageable ten track experience in there that could be crudely pieced together. Over the last nine years, Las Vegas, Nevada-hailing pop rock (… and arena pop, and alt rock, and electronic rock, and arena rock …) act Imagine Dragons have released a grand total of five albums. Why are we still stomping around in this vapid, flaccid, cookie cutter bullshit? Why, Imagine Dragons? Why are we still doing this? Why are you still pursuing the same exhausted, overblown, overworked, overproduced, over commercialised nonsense? In fact, fuck it – I’m done being nice. Review Summary: There are only so many times we can do this, boys.Īt this point, it isn’t even a question that warrants an answer anymore… but I’m asking it anyway.