Review Summary: Deja Vu...
The fact that Imagine Dragons have been re-releasing the same tracks from their early EP’s onto their newer ones and even their first LP is a bit sickening. Out of the 11 tracks on Imagine Dragon’s debut “Night Visions” only six of the eleven tracks on the LP were actually produced for the album, the rest belonged rather to previous release “Continued Silence” from earlier in the year, or even the EP’s dating back to 2009.
With the release of The Archive, shortly following up their album debut, Imagine Dragons sticks with the same shtick they've followed for the last fours years. Which is re-releasing their most boring, and least promising tracks for another pointless EP. The Archive EP feels like a b-sides compilation to a b-sides compilation. No joke either, every song on here is rather overstuffed to the point that it’s nauseating. The EP suffers from one major drawback once you get passed the fact there’s nothing new offered from the group, which is that almost every song tries to act like a Stadium Rock hit and misses it’s mark.
The majority of the tracks on this EP are loud and over-produced, stuffed with more than enough Hip-Hop bass lines and loud drum kicks. While it worked in their favor for “Radioactive” with its Dubstep-esque bassline and punch “dance-to-it” kicks it completely falls flat for songs like “Round and Round” where the sloppy sound mixing in the blaring loud choruses beat pattern and unnecessary abundance of Hi-Hats that are enough to make anyone crazy, it’s tiring to hear since you have already heard the same structure from every other song they've released since Continued Silence.
Even songs that shouldn't be over produced and over the top, like “My Fault” are guilty of the same problem. With soothing verses followed by more poorly mixed chorus drums and kicks screaming out “Subwoofer Fuel.” While considering the song is supposed to resemble some form of heartbreak and regret, with the unnecessarily loud chorus, you probably wouldn't be able to hear the theme anyways. The only time when the EP has the decency to stop trying too hard are with the tracks “Selene” and “The River” which also happen to be the tracks from earlier works, before they got picked up and screwed over by Alex Da Kid and Interscope.
Both are admiringly good tracks, “Selene” having snazzy Synths and catchy riffs that help kick the track along it’s way and “The River” is a nice and calming song, which shows Imagine Dragons not being over the top in it’s track and sounding realistic with it’s smooth guitar playing and nicely polished chorus. Though sadly, neither songs are enough to compensate for the mess the other three tracks in the EP bring. With the incredibly poor production, overstuffed songs, and dull forgettable tracks, The Archive EP will drive away old fans who already own the EP’s content and new fans who are looking for more to digest, leaving a sour taste in everyone’s mouth until Imagine Dragons brings something new for us to wash it down with.
Then again, who am I kidding? It’s probably just going to be a compilation of the other EP’s.
Recommended Tracks:
The River
Selene
