Imagine Dragons are one of the biggest bands of the 21st century, breaking records throughout their entire career and crafting anthems so quintessential of the stadiums that they so frequently occupy. The now Grammy award winning Las Vegas based band are releasing their sixth studio album ‘LOOM’ much to the anxious excitement of their worldwide base of fans.
The band recently took one of their longest breaks from touring in recent times, making sure to spend that time with their family and friends. Inspired by this, the members of Imagine Dragons then returned with a fresh perspective to take into the production of this latest album. In a time where genre boundaries are breaking down by the second and stylistic creativity is being pushed into places not seen before, Imagine Dragons have attempted to shift their sound to a place of relevance in this modern soundscape.
It’s fair to say that straight off the bat, Imagine Dragons succeed in taking their sound to a new place, but not necessarily one without faults. ‘LOOM’ opens with ‘Waking Up’, showcasing a questionable vocal take from Dan Reynolds that seems to be showing off his best Eminem impression. The choices regarding the vocal track in this song are certainly something with certain sections verging on the ridiculous. Luckily this opening song doesn’t stick around for too long with a runtime of under 3 minutes, but unfortunately it’s not the end of some of these problems.
The next track on the album is hit single ‘Nice To Meet You’ which fortunately is a lot better than the prior. This song sets one of the patterns of the album – when going for a more chilled-out sound, ‘LOOM’ seems to work much better, the electronic elements that the band are so insistent on ramming into this album play off a more lowkey ‘vibey’ atmosphere so much better than they do in the more upbeat attempts, just as long as they keep them on a leash. However, this song still isn’t perfect, once you move past the incredibly punchy drums and the Post Malone sounding vocals, the single lacks some depth – it feels very surface level (as does most of the album), which isn’t inherently bad but coming from an album that’s supposedly influenced by the bands many loved ones, seems unfortunate. All this being said though, on repeat listens it certainly gets stuck in your head and it’s definitely one you’ll find yourself moving to – much better.
Going into the third song, the vocals feel much better in this track, the cleaner sounding vocals sound much more authentic than in other songs where they’re drenched in effects. The production of this song, like the rest of the album, all sounds as brilliant as we have come to expect from the giants that are Imagine Dragons, but unfortunately just like the rest of the album some elements aren’t needed. The almost ‘dubsteppy’ bass section in this song might work for some people, but in my opinion, it just doesn’t land and shows clearly the main issue with ‘LOOM‘ – it’s full of extra elements that end up taking away from the songs.
PHOTO BY @ERICRAYDAVIDSON
Luckily the next few tracks continue with the cleaner vocals, while ‘In Your Corner’ displays another example of this album working best when taking a more chilled approach. The end of ‘In Your Corner’ is definitely one of my favourite parts of this album, if you can get past the simplicity of the lyrics, it comes across as a really poignant song with the track building to an orchestral finish, displaying elements of that stadium-lifting potential that everyone knows this band possesses.
The album continues to gradually build through ‘Gods Don’t Pray’, ‘Don’t Forget Me’, and ‘Kid’, with the ballad of ‘Don’t Forget Me’ easily being the best of the three – another emotional peak in the album’s sub half-hour runtime. While I am always a sucker for an album closer (its getting telegraphic at this point), I do think the closer of ‘Fire In These Hills’ could be the best track on the album. It’s almost a perfect point between the sound we’re used to with Imagine Dragons and where this album seems to have landed. While slightly dented by a needless amount of delay, the vocals on this track are full of the emotionality and character that has been missing. The electronic elements are kept tame enough that it becomes a really tasteful close to an album that should have been closer to the sound they showed they could accomplish with this track.
Ultimately this album is not up to the standards that we know Imagine Dragons can achieve, but this can be expected when trying to go in new directions and find a new sound. This album definitely has its highs, it’s not terrible and it obviously has elements that should be praised. However, there is points in this album where it sounds like the band has got ahead of themselves in trying to blend new sounds and go in a new direction resulting in the detriment of the actual songs.
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