Imagine Dragons - Origins (Album Review)

With a name like Imagine Dragons you'd think they'd come up with a more creative album...

Just a year after the repetitive, parody-like Evolve, Imagine Dragons are back with their 4th studio album. I apologise in advance for the length of this review but here we go - >

I will say that in some ways this is an improvement from Evolve in that it's more engaging and ventures into some new territory, but unfortunately that new territory is a weird brand of brash, oversold electropop.

In fact, most of these songs start of with a cool minimalistic beat that wouldn't be out of place in the house scene. Or the current trap-pop scene.
They then build in the typical Imagine Dragons-esque way by adding layers upon layers of loud beats, bass, synths and Dan's ever-whining vocals. It results in almost every song being this big, steroid-charged boost of nothing... I mean, I'll give it to them the lyrics have improved; they've become more personal and interesting although as ever can be generalised into feel-good-by-complaining generic pop rock. My question is simple - whatever happened to the 'rock' part?

Sure this band isn't the only pop-rock band in history to have huge but meaningless choruses and whiney verses: take Nickelback or One Republic, Mumford & Sons or Bastille, or even Florence + The Machine at times. In the case of Bastille this is especially true, and like Imagine Dragons they incorporate weird drum 'n' bass and electropop elements into their music just to amp it up to the highest possible level of loudness and grandeur, but without the substance of the rock music it's trying to be. There are plenty of substanceless rock bands out there and Imagine Dragons are one of them. That remains their problem after 3 albums that have had decreasing amounts of importance. I'm not saying they need real instruments to achieve substance because it didn't work for Nickelback and continues not to work for Mumford & Sons. No, the instruments aren't the problem, it's how they use what they have. In the past they've proven themselves to be able to write good songs, some good rock songs even. You don't need guitars to do that, just look at LCD Soundsystem. To make good rock songs you need substance.

If Imagine Dragons put out music a little less frequently and instead took time to think about what they were writing so it didn't just mirror everything they've done before; if they thought about how to make their songs sound strong without just adding loads of layers of stuff; if they looked at dynamics, tone, texture, instrumentation and melodies and how they all work together then maybe they would come back with some truly good, meaningful music. Until then, I can't give this band a positive score. With songs like "Natural", "Bad Liar" and "Digital" all showing some potential improvements at writing lyrics, the instrumentation has yet to do anything other than what they always do. Even on the ballads at the end of the album ("Stuck" and "Love") that have much more restrained instrumentation end up falling prey to pop clichés that haunt most modern ballads.

Overall this album underperforms in all categories, even falling short in chart success compared to their other albums. Perhaps it is a step up from Evolve, it's certainly more ambitious, but it isn't a good enough album for me to come back to any of the songs after this review. For me, Origins gets a 3.5 out of 10.

Best Songs: Natural, Bullet In A Gun, Love

Worst Song/s: Machine, Zero, Stuck

There are other bands that do this so much better than Imagine Dragons. If you want massive electropop songs, I recommend listening to Chvrches. If you want great rock music I recommend listening to Yonaka.