Smoke + Mirrors by Imagine Dragons

             For the longest time I didn’t realize Imagine Dragons had released a new album.  I kept hearing new songs from them in different places, but I thought they’d simply rereleased the same album with some additional songs attached.  This is something I know other musical artists have done, so I didn’t bother to look into the music I was hearing.  It wasn’t until a figure skater used one of Imagine Dragons’ songs in her program that I decided to see what I may be missing.  As I a result, I found out I was missing an entire album.  All that music I had been hearing was not a rerelease.  It was part of an entirely new piece of work, and I had to check it out.     

                Right from the start of Smoke + Mirrors I could tell that Imagine Dragons had stayed true to who they are.  The sounds and beats are the same as their previous album, Night Visions, but not so similar that I would mistake them for the same album.  I was very happy about this, because sometimes artists can get stuck with what has worked in the past and not venture out to try something new.  They can also try something that is so far off from where they came from that no one recognizes them.  Imagine Dragons managed to find a good balance between the two.

                On this album there is a great mix of songs.  All sorts of styles are used throughout.  Some are easy to dance to while others have more of a Hard Rock edge.  Then there are the songs that are softer and slower.  I mention these three in particular because all three types are in the first three songs.  That is how varied this album is.  The first three songs all have different sounds and styles applied to them.  Then it’s on to the fourth song, and that comes off as a Hard Country Rock.  That’s what I really like about this band.  They are able to flip between genres, but yet somehow keep their rock the entire time.  The song “I’m So Sorry” is a perfect example of this.  It’s the one I said was like Hard Country Rock, but what I didn’t mention was that partway through it breaks into more of an R&B sound, then it goes back again.  This mixing of genres, whether in the same song or throughout the album, is not an easy thing to pull off, but Imagine Dragons manages to, and in a way that always makes sense.

                As much as I enjoy the music of this album, there is something else I’d like to note that in essence has nothing to do with the music of Smoke + Mirrors.  That something is the booklet that comes with the CD.  It’s not something I always look at when I have a CD, but this time I noticed the artwork that was included.  It was very surrealist and I loved it.  Even more important to me was that artwork was included at all.  With so many people downloading music, it would be easy for musical artists to half-heartedly put a CD booklet together, implying they were doing it in the first place.  Instead, Imagine Dragons took extra efforts to make this booklet of interest.  Not only did they have different artwork, but the lyrics to the songs were included as well.  This is something I always appreciate because I, as probably do most others, sometimes mishear lyrics.  With the lyrics in the booklet, I can go straight to the source and find out what was actually said.  That’s much preferable to singing the wrong words since doing that can completely alter the meaning of a song. 

             It’s this type of care and attention to detail that makes me like Imagine Dragons so much. They haven’t forgotten those who still go out and buy CDs, even though the numbers are lessening. Instead, they create something interesting for those who do. The fact that they have great music on top of their consideration, makes this a band whose work I will be following for a long time to come.