Imagine Dragons’ debut album, Night Visions, has taken its time to come out in the UK. If given the opportunity, allocate some time to listen to a couple of tracks on Spotify or YouTube (I’d recommend Radioactive or It’s Time) and hopefully you’ll understand why I’ve annoyed my friends by endlessly going on about this cool band who only had a single EP out in the UK. Unfortunately they come under the genre ‘indie rock’, which could quite possibly mean anything. If you’re a fan of bands like Of Monsters And Men, the Neon Trees or even the Killers you may well turn out to enjoy Night Visions.
To the album itself, ‘Radioactive’ is the first song you’ll come across. Bass heavy, it is testament to the unique sounds Imagine Dragons have to offer. As a single it is (at time of writing) number 12 in the charts and is the most successful of their songs in the UK so far. Other entries into the singles chart include ‘It’s Time’, actually my personal favourite of the entire album. Far more upbeat than Radioactive, with muffled drums and a clapping audience (there is a fantastic acoustic version on YouTube with the entire drum track done through clapping and slapping), and will inevitably get stuck in your head.
Other chart entries include the upbeat but slightly shallow ‘On Top Of The World’, which is far more ‘indie-pop’ than anything else. A very easy listen, but lacking in depth compared to some of the other tracks. There is also the title track of their first UK EP, ‘Hear Me’, which is more similar to ‘Radioactive’ in style and what I’ve come to see as the signature sound of Imagine Dragons. Other strong tracks on the album include ‘Tiptoe’ and ‘Demons’, but the end of the album is slightly weaker, with tracks such as ‘Underdog’ and ‘Nothing Left To Say/Rocks’ being disappointing compared to the rest of the album.
This album currently tips Bastille’s Bad Blood off the top spot as my favourite album so far this year. If you do listen to Night Visions give the extended version a listen, as it has some excellent extra tracks such as ‘Working Man’ and ‘Round and Round’. Regardless of which version you go for, it is an excellent album, and one that I’d thoroughly recommend to anyone with a passing interest the increasingly vague genre of ‘alternative rock’.
Night Visions is out now.
