Album Review: Imagine Dragons – Loom
3 min read
Las Vegas pop-rockers Imagine Dragons have released their sixth studio album Loom through Kidinakorner and Interscope Records – the first since drummer Daniel Platzman went on a temporary hiatus for health reasons around a year ago… a hiatus which feels less temporary and more permanent as time goes on. Lead vocalist Dan Reynolds took inspiration for much of the album from the ending of a ten year relationship he had been in, with the record about the ending of it and beginning of new things. Even the album title Loom had dual meaning – whilst it can mean something (normally bad, but not necessarily) is coming your way, it could also represent an actual loom, and the weaving together of ideas and sounds.
Starting off with Wake Up, which has a bouncy beat and quite a poppy feel, following the classic blueprint of some of Imagine Dragons biggest songs – a faux ending, hitting you with an more grandiose chorus after it seemed the songs climax had happened – and this is swiftly followed by latest single release Nice to Meet You. Again, absolutely rooted in pop, there is a catchy hook (‘do-do-do-d-do-doo’ lodges in your brain, trust me) and a nice up tempo bouncy beat. Following the latest single release is the first release from the album, Eyes Closed, a song which I feel takes elements of Linkin Park, EDM and pop and, for me, doesn’t deliver. Take Me to the Beach continues with the same robotic voice modulator in the previous track, with a touch of 1950’s western-style swing to the guitars, whilst following track In Your Corner has a more lo-fi down tempo beat, and is my favourite track on the album.
Kicking off the second half of the album, Gods Don’t Pray has a touch of the Caribbean about it, with the ska-esque instrumentation running through the track. We turn the tempo down a notch with Don’t Forget Me which has an uplifting, euphoric ‘end of a movie’ feel to it, whilst penultimate track, Kid, is (frankly) quite forgettable. Rounding off proceedings, Fire in These Hills is a the closest we get to a rock ballad on the album, which picks up pace as the track progresses, a skip beat running all the way through to the crescendo at the end.
Honestly, I wasn’t a fan of Loom – I loved Night Vision and I (in hindsight, forlornly) was hoping for more of that than a Mercury or Origins style album… even though Origins does have a couple of great tracks… sadly Loom did not deliver that. It’s understandable that the band moved towards the anthemic pop tracks has borne them with recent success, however it feels like Loom was created on a laptop rather than in a recording studio. As a result, despite several attempts to vary style, it all sounds a bit ‘samey’ to me – the proof of the pudding being that despite only being half an hour long, I struggled not to skip through (not a good sign). I have no doubt that there will be some hits from this album, as there were a few catchy hooks, but I’m saddened with the offering and I doubt I’ll be adding any tracks to my Spotify favourites list any time soon.
