The Details
- Imagine Dragons
- Continued Silence EP
Perhaps taking a cue from Coldplay and its eclectic pop approach, newer bands such as Young the Giant, Foster the People and Neon Trees have turned to electronics, hip-hop and new wave to brighten up their rock signifiers. Sonically, the Las Vegas-bred Imagine Dragons fits in with those groups, although on a national level, they’re the new kids on the block: After self-releasing three EPs, the group recently inked a major label deal with Interscope, or more specifically KIDinaKORNER, a sub-imprint spearheaded by Alex Da Kid, the producer responsible for Eminem’s “Love the Way You Lie” and B.o.B.’s “Airplanes.”
The Details
- CD release show
- With Cynics, Play for Keeps, Avalon Landin.
- March 2, 6 p.m., $12-$15, all-ages
- Hard Rock Cafe (Strip), 733-7625
The first release under their partnership is the solid if unspectacular Continued Silence EP, a six-song taster where organic sounds collide with digital sophistication. Quirky whistling effects and pattering handclaps create syncopated stutters on the tropical-breeze uplift “On Top of the World,” a thematic and stylistic companion to older tune “It’s Time” (which also appears on the EP). Elsewhere, haunted folk spars with staticky, slurred electrobeats on the ominous highlight “Radioactive,” while cheesy electronic drums zip through the rabble-rousing folk-pop howl “Round and Round.”
If Continued Silence has a significant weakness, it’s that its lyrics are so universal they border on generic and trite (“We are all living the same way, the same way/We are escaping the same way, the same way/Circling”). Though the sentiments probably come from a sincere place, listeners might wish they were as intriguing as Imagine Dragons’ colorful music.
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