It’s a shame that there’s little sense of digging further into that pivotal moment. The song is apparently inspired by a “life-changing” text from Reynolds’ wife as he was on his way to finalise their divorce, which indirectly led to them getting back together. It’s also the best track here, and a demonstration of what Imagine Dragons do best – penning stadium-ready anthems with fist-clenching emotional heft. Leaping between all of these disparate sounds, cohesion is clearly not a focus here. When he hits full-pelt, it feels flat – not even a gratuitously yowling guitar solo can yank it back. In writing ‘Dull Knives’, Imagine Dragons presumably went into the studio intent on writing their very own ‘The Black Parade’ – and while Reynolds’ exposed, raw vocal shows a less polished side to the frontman at times, the song lacks all of emo’s knowing theatrical flourish. “ Your heart is frozen over,” frontman Dan Reynolds sings, “I’m a four-leaf clovеr”. The beaming ‘No Time For Toxic People’ tries its hand at ‘Lover’-era Taylor Swift, but stumbles over unclear imagery. Often, listening to ‘Mercury – Act 1’ feels like navigating a torrential downpour of spaghetti being flung at the wall from cider advert soundtrack vibes to ‘Cutthroat”s thoroughly unconvincing attempt at screamo.
The question is, having dominated the previous one, do they have anything new to offer it? Teaming up with enigmatic producer Rick Rubin for their fifth album ‘Mercury – Act 1’, they now find themselves releasing music in a brand new decade. When the Las Vegas band released their last record ‘Origins’ in 2018 they were officially Spotify’s most listened-to group, and based on sales and streams, they’re one of the most wildly successful bands of the 2010s. Think of Imagine Dragons and the phrase ‘doing massive numbers’ comes to mind.
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