Imagine Dragons - "LOOM"
This one's been LOOMING, alright...
It’s been almost twelve years now since “Radioactive” released and dominated everything, rocketing Imagine Dragons to the forefront of…well, everything.
And it’s been about six years since the internet, collectively, decided that, as it turns out, Imagine Dragons is just the new Nickelback — too formulaic and simplistic, and so on.
But they’re still kicking. And my nine-year-old loves them. So despite whatever misgivings I might have, as previous reviews have shown,1 it behooves me to try and get in front of their new material as much as possible so I can try to filter out any truly awful tracks.
Because they have had some awful tracks.
Loom is their seventh (or sixth, depending on how you look at it)2 studio album, and it is, thankfully, not as bad as it could have been.
Imagine Dragons hasn’t really altered their formula all that much. Their songs still lean into the rhythm/beat aspect, but the percussion is all electronic this time around. Drummer Daniel Platzman has been on hiatus since early 2023. So the band has compensated by leaning into electronic and R&B elements (including a few clap tracks) for much of the album. The melodies and hooks have, if anything, gotten more attention as a result. Several tracks on Loom are catchy as hell; real drums would improve them, though.
They’re also definitely short and formulated for radio. But it’s Pop Rock, so that really just feels like part of the deal.
If you’re looking for standouts — “Eyes Closed” and “Don’t Forget Me” (which is one of the few with actual percussion) are the clear winners.
It is a slim album, at only 31 minutes (if you include the bonus remix of “Eyes Closed”), but the worst tracks here are only ‘forgettable’, as opposed to genuinely bad.
It’s much better than their last outing, and there are core elements that they could shape into something really good, but Loom isn’t quite there yet.
Rating: Yellow
Imagine Dragons really haven’t been anywhere near their peak in a while, but I only have two reviews on record:
Mercury (Act I) - Green
Mercury (Act II) - Orange
Mercury was a double-album, with the two separate acts initially released as separate albums; thus, these were reviewed individually. And Act II was significantly worse than Act I. Imagine Dragons bills the final double-album as a single release, though.
Even though it clearly wasn’t.