Imagine Dragons – It’s Time
“Imagine Dragons” is an anagram of their secret original name. Our guess? Migraine Gonads…
[Video][Website]
[3.75]
Patrick St. Michel: Originally, I’d just jotted down “music designed for movie trailers” and was going to call it a day on this shouty number that relies on constant peaks and told-not-shown lyrics about being yourself. Then I saw that “It’s Time” appeared in the trailer for The Perks Of Being A Wallflower, and I just sort of shook my head.
[3]
Edward Okulicz: I get the feeling if this doesn’t take, it’s just going to be re-released until it actually becomes a big hit. A bit yelpy and fussy, and the verses’ melody is strained at its higher notes, but the chorus is an exemplar of empty stadium anthemics, rather than an embarrassment. I blame/credit (delete as appropriate, though I can’t work out which is) Coldplay for this as much as The Killers.
[6]
Iain Mew: Full of empty gestures reaching for the epic — but the extra voices joining in at the end is the only bit that really bothers me, and I can enjoy the bravado at least as much as in The Killers’ attempts at same. Plus I like the snap-clap rhythm and jangle, which does much to carry me through past the vocals.
[6]
Jonathan Bradley: Is Vegas filled with earnest young men whose voices swell with Brandon Flowers–esque passion whenever a chorus drifts near? If so, surely they need not be raised in the house that fun. built?
[3]
Will Adams: A recipe: two parts fun. percussion, three parts shouting, clichés. Instructions: mix first two ingredients into a large bowl, whisk until smooth. Add clichés until desired wateriness is achieved. Bake at 105 degrees for two minutes. Serve lukewarm.
[3]
Brad Shoup: It’s like all my past 7s and 8s are kicking my teeth in outside a coffeeshop.
[4]
Anthony Easton: I find this obnoxious, and am not quite sure why. It’s not trying too hard, but it’s not being lazy, and yet the sweet spot in the middle doesn’t exactly emerge. It has handclaps, but they seem to disappear. The vocal is a bit whiny — but i have liked whiny before. Maybe it’s because the first line rhymes “spent” and “went” — or maybe it rests on cliches, without really moving past them, or maybe I just don’t have the energy for an anemic anthem to stasis.
[2]
Jonathan Bogart: Please, never do change. That way I’ll know for sure that I never have to pay you the slightest attention again.
[3]
Just trying my hand at this blurbing thing:
I feel like I should like this song more than I do. The verses are pretty solid, and I’m always a sucker for a good handclap breakdown, but the chorus is far too trite, both musically and lyrically, to be more than slightly affecting. What a waste of a beat as powerful and danceable as the one that opens the track. [5]
…yeah.