Imagine Dragons.Photo: Courtesy KIDinaKORNER/Interscope/UME
Fresh off the release of the new double albumMercury - Acts 1 & 2,Imagine Dragonsis revisiting the record that launched its career.
On Friday, the pop-rock band releasedNight Visions (Expanded Edition), a repackaged version of the 2012 debut album that brought Imagine Dragons worldwide fame via the multi-platinum hit singles “It’s Time,” “Radioactive,” “Demons” and “On Top of the World.”
Available in multipledigital and physical formats,Night Visions (Expanded Edition)features all 11 tracks from the original album and nine songs previously released on various deluxe editions, plus demos of “Love of Mine” and “Bubble,” two songs recorded during theNight Visionssessions but never shared with listeners — until now.
“There are a lot of songs that get left off that are a point of contention amongst the band. We have had many late-night arguments about what makes the record,” frontman and vocalist Dan Reynolds tells PEOPLE.
Imagine Dragons.Courtesy KIDinaKORNER/Interscope/UME
After a decade of holding back the scrapped tracks, which some members of the band — which also features guitarist Wayne Sermon, bassist Ben McKee and drummer Daniel Platzman — wanted to include on the initialNight Visionstrack listing, “Love of Mine” and “Bubble” proved themselves as standouts worthy of release.
“Some songs that you thought were important, you listen to now and just smile, and you’re grateful that they never saw the light of day, but these are two songs that we felt represent that era well,” continues Reynolds, 35. “‘Bubble’ is a really jovial, happy, ironic song that always has made us smile, so we wanted to finish it.”
Looking back on the album, which Reynolds says “changed his life forever,” allowed the frontman to reflect on a flurry of intense personal experiences he was going through at the time of its creation. “It’s hard for me to even recall many memories during that time,” he explains. “I think I was shell-shocked to the extreme.”
Reynolds continued, “I was a Mormon missionary who had just gotten home from the mission and was very lost, losing my own faith and religion and kind of scrambling. Then, suddenly I was married and had a child and was broke.”
After tying the knot with fellow musicianAja Volkmanin March 2011 and welcoming their first child, now-10-year-old daughter Arrow, in August of the following year, Reynolds says the couple was struggling to make ends meet as Imagine Dragons craftedNight Visions.
“It was like, ‘When you have a show, bring the money, and we’ll go to Trader Joe’s and buy some groceries for the week. And then when I have a show, vice versa,'” he recalls. “It was a scary time and then suddenly, the band just blew up so quickly and it changed everything for me.”
Imagine Dragons.Eric Ray Davidson
Since then, the band has notched more than 10 more worldwide hit songs including two additional diamond-certified singles — 2017’s “Believer” and “Thunder” — and consistently performed arena concerts around the world through today, as Imagine Dragons is currently in the midst of theMercury World Tour. It’s safe to sayNight Visionswas a strong launching pad for a lasting music career.
“I’m so very, very grateful for that record. I listen back to [the songs], and it makes me smile because there’s a lot of themes and such that I’ve since moved past — like heartache about losing religion,” explains Reynolds. “That’s something that is not part of my life anymore, but I can look back on it and smile and be grateful for the 22-year-old Dan who was flailing and looking for a foundation.”
source: people.com
