Imagine Dragons - Origins (2018)

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Imagine Dragons - Origins (2018)

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Delivered swiftly after Evolve – it follows that 2017 set by a mere 17 months, practically a blip in the context of modern pop – Origins adheres to its predecessor's kaleidoscopic digital aesthetic. Nominally a rock band – and they're more than comfortable pulsing to a big, banging beat – Imagine Dragons are deliberately amorphous, a blob rolling along sucking up anything in its path. Often, they're content patrolling their own backyard, relying on an EDM-inflected arena rock that consciously recalls Coldplay at both their sweetest and most urgent. The difference with Origins is, this blob sucks up a bunch of different sounds. "Only" shimmers with retro-synths that stir up the ghosts of new wave, "West Coast" stomps like early Mumford & Sons, "Machine" bounces to a malicious industrial throb, "Cool Out" glides along to a neon-lit groove. Every one of these slight variations in sound do fit within the wheelhouse of Imagine Dragons, but that's only because the group takes pains to be able to fit onto every kind of playlist imaginable: rock, pop, electronic, soul – any popular sound that can be sculpted and shaped by a streaming service. As such, listening to Origins uncannily re-creates what it's like to experience – or maybe more accurately, consume – popular rock-oriented music in 2018: everything sounds vaguely familiar, vaguely connected, all designed to function as a soundtrack to whatever task you'd like.

by Stephen Thomas Erlewine, allmusic

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Imagine Dragons - Origins (2018)

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Imagine Dragons - Origins (2018)

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Imagine Dragons - Origins (2018)

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