Imagine Dragons Return to its Origins

Demons, Radioactive, Whatever It Takes and now Natural! Imagine Dragons released their fourth studio album called Origins.

It has been one year and a half since Imagine Dragons left us with their album Evolve. Dan Reynold, Wayne Sermon, Ben McKee and Daniel Platzman come back with its ‘sister’. The album was made with the producers Joel Little (Lorde), Mattman & Robin (Selena Gomez) and John Hill (Florence + the Machine). A return to their roots you will say? And it is for sure. Imagine Dragons return with a catchy album. "I wanted to get people moving and motivated", said Wayne. They explore themes of love, divorce, suicide and depression through either slow and chilly music, or punchy songs.

Imagine Dragons always make hits. Origins is an alternative rock album brought to light with more digital sounds than ever. The explosive drum beats of Natural lead the dance of the album through a vivid rhythm and a rocking instrumentation. It shows how you can learn to love yourself and turn the hateful words and judging eyes meaningless. It is about "finding yourself and being willing and able to stand up to whatever adversity comes your way" (Dan). The dynamic of the song announces the album’s colour. The piano enters on Boomerang where Dan is talking about a girl who should live but who always comes back. 'Machine' and 'Bullet In A Gun' are very similar in their styles and sounding. There is a myriad of different machine sounds and electronic noises. In 'Machine', Dan is yelling the chorus, everything gets silent and then beats again. Being an artist is not always easy in this thriving world and 'Bullet In A Gun' reflects on this.

Then comes the song 'Bad Liar' which is about Dan’s divorce. He wrote it with his wife before they separated. He sings a tumultuous relationship."We couldn’t lie to each other and we kind of perceived this might be the end of us", he said in an interview. The thing is that since the beginning of November, they are dating again. 'Bad Liar' will put you out of space and such will do Stuck. You will wish to fly with Dan Reynold’s lyrical flights of fancy. 'West Coast' is more folky and country. The guitar is almost played in fingerpicking and sounding like a banjo.

At some point in your life, you could have been a loser in making wrong decisions. Zero is about "accepting and finding a little bit of levity and joy in being a zero". There is more tempo, but the verses are quite sad. Dan really put his soul into it and deals with suicide and deep depression. The original clap hands remind the dynamic of their first album and the music Top of the World. Although the album is mostly rock, the song 'Digital' is very disturbing. It gives you the feeling of being attacked. It is aggressive and intense. Indeed, it sounds differently from the rest of the album and don’t have the same style at all. It is more of a dubstep song. Love songs like 'Only' or 'Love', will bring you up to dance and you will lose your voice shouting the chorus. There are life songs that will teach you how to love, not just your lover but every people on earth.

Overly, Origins is in the vibe of Imagine Dragons style and is a pretty good album. They have introduced new surprising sounds in it and have done a great job.