Origins (Deluxe) - Imagine Dragons Album Song Review

DISCLAIMER: All of my reviews is from my perspective. The review may not be what others perceive it to be, however for this is my own blog about my perception on music. Thank you for my public announcement. 

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Natural

Imagine Dragons start this song with their famous harmonic entrance. The band makes a comeback with a powerful album and powerful first song. This song was originally released July 17, 2018, however, it was brought back for the official album.

Natural is about finding a natural beauty and strength deep inside of you. The song talks about different adversities that come in your way, and how the singer over came all of his. Natural is a song to show what you can overcome even in the darkest of time; becoming a song about empowerment and strength.

Boomerang

This song gives me vibes of Night Visions era of Imagine Dragons. This song blending ballad and pop gives a great bass of the drums pounding in the back. It gives a story of a man letting his lover go, and yet they always end up coming back together. He describes the lover as a boomerang who continues coming back to him, even if he is the one who is ready to move on. He wants to move on with his life, however the lover returns. It is a song that most people who have broken up with an ex, and regret it, can understand. It even can connect to people who broke up with an ex that is their own boomerang. The claps make this song move with a bit more impact, with the addition to the vocal harmony blending in the background.

Machine

With my personal favorite song on the album, it gives me vibes of the Imagine Dragons that drew me into their music. I get vibes of Ready Aim Fire when I listen to this song. One thing I love about Imagine Dragons is that everyone of their songs has a different sound. Yes they have similar tones to them, but most of the songs actually have a different sound.

The meaning of this song brings a surreal feeling towards society. It talks about the singer living in this protective society, following all the rules. The singer begins to wonder and question about the things he has been living around. He realizes that he is not this machine that functions in society. He proves that he has his own thinking, and can create the world in his won vision. He then goes on to tell the children of this world that they are not machines, but goes to say the truth. He declares that he is not a part of anyone's machine, but is his own machine. He declares that he is the machine of his own life.

I don't even know if I got that one correctly. 😅

Cool Out

Think of this scenario. A teenage group of kids listening to this song while riding the coast of California in their blue mustang convertible. It then goes to show a sequence of them going to a cafe and even going surfing. This song gives off those type of vibes for me.

I can't really crack the code for the meaning of cool out, however it seems to be about another broken relationship. Maybe the singer and his lover are needing to "take a break." The singer tells his lover that he doesn't think that he is the one for them; so, he sets them on their way, giving them some advice that they should follow.

Bad Liar

Before I get into the review of this song, I need to make it clear that my absolute favorite line in this song is, "Integrity, faith and crocodile tears." Anyways, Bad Liar gives vibes of a man venturing through the jungle to find his unfortunate love. The love has fallen from his grasp, and he searches for them, finally grasping them by the hand and just stares into their eyes while singing the chorus. They fill guilty, and admit it all. It kind of goes along with the meaning of the song. According to Genius, who I credit a lot on my reviews, mentioned that lead singer Dan Reynolds mentioned that this song was written with his wife Aja. The two were going to have a divorce, but ended up not doing so. Quoted, Reynolds says, "the writing process was pretty wild, because the song is obviously about the tumultuous relationship." This can be found in an interview with Zane Lowe. I quote Genius like this because it embodies the meaning of this song. That wild venture through the jungle, just to make ends right with his love.

Personally, I love the tune and meaning of this song. I love how Dan realized that they couldn't lie with each other; each other being his wife and himself. It is a song about a growing relationship and a journey to make things better once more. At least that is my view of the song.

West Coast

This adventurous, acoustic song takes the listeners on a road trip through the west coast. Their hair in the wind, as they smell the salty air of the sea. The song tells a story of a boy who has been through the worst of things. He realizes that he can't be the hero from the comics or the spirit creatures in religion, but he knows that he will be the West Coast for the girl. He claims that he is "the sun...the waves...and the one that you love the most." The girl, who is in love with the West Coast can see the "vow" that the boy makes to her by saying that he is imperfect, but he is the thing that she will need and can relay on. This cute little song gives a reassuring tale that brings a smile to my face.

Zero (from the original motion picture "Ralph Breaks the Internet.")

Personally, I am loving that Imagine Dragons is making music specifically for movies. It seems to allow them to be creative with a piece of music and show how their music impacts entertainment. Especially since their music videos seem like mini movies anyways. This song actually reminds me of the song Rio Rio by Ester Dean ft. BOB if the song was sped up a bit more.

Zero is a song about a person (Ralph most likely) that doesn't feel like he really belongs and lives his life like he doesn't belong. However, he gets tired of people complaining to him, so he tells them his story about the things he has faced in his life. A true story that makes people relate to a video game villain even more than we did when we saw the movie. 

Bullet In A Gun

Welcome to the song of the Imagine Dragons dystopia movie. Before Radioactive plays, a hip hop sounding song plays as the protagonist realizes what path they should finally take. With the beginning hip hop beat that merges into the background beat, this song takes the listener to their dystopian selves. With the repeated words, "my time will come," it reminds the listener that we all have our time where we do something worth wild. Just like a bullet in a gun, we have to wait for our moment to shine. However, just as that bullet, we will shine.

The last part of this song is hard for me to decipher, but it actually is my favorite part of this song. It brings out great rhetorical questions that most people don't think about in today's society.

Digital

With the repetitive words, I can see this song being played for a Nike commercial or a cool cellphone commercial. Even the song brings out that it has been saying the same thing over and over again. In this verse, Imagine Dragons does hit a little heavy metal, but not too much.

The song gives me feelings of a revolution. This revolution is about how everything is like digits, everything is a rhythm of the same heartbeat. We all want to change the same synchronization of a world we live in, but everyone just says that, they never act. No one can see that anything is wrong because they are on the outside, but us, everyone else can see how this system is corrupt with digits and programmed hearts. Although, like I always mention, this is just what I hear and see from my perspective on things. 

Only

Once again my heart is warmed with a song full of love and meaning. Although the song does sound, in the chorus, like a Chainsmokers song, it is still a song that brings a smile to my face. This song tells a story about how a man and his love are the only two in the world. They are the answer for each other and the key to unlocking one another. He tells his love that they are living in their dream when it is just the two of them, and, adding the title, only them.

Stuck

"Time goes by and still I'm stuck on you." Yeah, I can feel that. I can't tell if this soft song is suppose to be a memory of the love, or a present day telling of their love. From what I can tell, it is a story about how they were with them and the love left them, now they wish and long for them to come back. The love is stuck on their mind and all they do is long to feel the embrace of their love once more. 

Love

This song brings up an issue that is going on through society today. It questions where we all go wrong in creating the world for today's society. All we see is hatred, while the singer questions why we can't all be brothers and sisters. He questions war, and makes a point to bring out the issue of all of us being human. We all have the same blood and we all have the same heartbeat. This song reminds me of Black Eyed Peas' song Where is the Love. Love is a song about things that we have forgotten are the roots of all of our origins. No pun intended.

Birds

As the first song in the deluxe edition, Birds starts us off on a beat that reminds me of beats of common hip hop songs and R&B songs. Of course it stays within Imagine Dragons' genre of music, but that is just what the beats remind me of.

Birds is a song about wanting to remember the wonderful past of a past relationship. The man thinks of all the their memories, hoping that they could at least cross paths with each other, however just as birds flying in different directions, the two are going opposite ways. The singer relates himself to the birds in the sky, and hopes that the girl can see is the shadow that watches over their memories flying by.

I don't even know what I put there, I am just comprehending gibberish now and hoping it works out. Sorry if it doesn't make sense.

Burn Out

Burn Out has a nice melody and tune to it. The melody has great high notes that go along well with the marching beat in the background.

The meaning of the song seems to have more of an innocent outlook then I expected it to. The pure things in life are so priceless that it is hard to obtain them. Things like peace, strength, a listening voice, innocence, and happiness are things that are hard to obtain, so the singer wishes for them to be captured in a box so that he can cherish them. The downpour in his life s going to past, but he hopes that before it passes, the thing that is giving him all of those things in the box do not burn out due to his pain. It kind of reminds me of a quote. "Will you stay with me even though I am broken in a million pieces?" 

Real Life

This whole album is the realization of what this world is forgetting. Real Life sums up this whole society and the album with a beautiful sweep. The song is about how electronics get into the way of letting us see the world that we live in. It covers our eyes from the people we love, the world that we have never seen, and the losses we lose as this world progresses. Once we live our real life, out of our cell phones, we can see and learn new things that we could never imagine. Things that could save our lives.



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