Awesome Music / Imagine Dragons

Night Visions

• "Radioactive" manages to very effectively convey a post-apocalyptic feel. It's their most well known song for a reason.
  • The live version arguably tops it by adding two minutes of drum-banging and violin-strumming before the final chorus.
  • The version featuring a rap buildup from Kendrick Lamar? Awesome. The live version at the Grammys featuring Kendrick Lamar mashing up both "Radioactive" and "M.A.A.D. City"? God damn.
• "Tiptoe" has everything that makes Imagine Dragons great: epic beats, big chorus, electronic-rock sound, and apocalyptic but hopeful lyrics.
• "It's Time" really shows off how awesome Dan Reynolds's vocals are.
• "On Top of the World" is the happiest song they've done, and it makes you wanna dance.
• "Amsterdam" gives Coldplay a run for their epic, anthemic pop songwriting money.
• "Bleeding Out" is plain epic, what with that bass drum and lyrics about sacrifice.
• "Nothing Left To Say", especially the bridge before the last chorus, with the windy sound effect and Dan Reynolds's wail of "I'm drowning in the waters of my SOOOUUULLL".

Smoke + Mirrors

• "Shots" combines some emotionally wrenching self-loathing lyrics with infectious synthesized beats.
• "I Bet My Life" is a power ballad worthy of Olympic Games montages, and it was written as an apology to the singer's uber-religious Mormon family, who disapproved of him going into music.
• "It Comes Back to You" and "Summer" both tie for the best song off Smoke + Mirrors, both being irresistibly groovy tracks with immense guitar licks and catchy drum parts. And man, that theremin on "Summer".
• "Not Today", their song from Me Before You, is another sad song, and is much more minimalist, showing that Imagine Dragons can be awesome with nothing but piano and Dan's voice.
• "Gold", an incredibly epic and powerful song about how Ambition Is Evil, has some of their strongest drums ever. The vocals are also incredible, whether soft or screamed, the "NUTSAAAACK" Mondegreen aside.
• "I'm So Sorry" is one of the most hard-hitting songs on the album Smoke + Mirrors, with an earth-shaking drum and guitar lick and powerful vocals to back it up.
• "Levitate" is one of Imagine Dragons's most heartwarming songs, with excellent vocal harmonies to boot.
• "Polaroid" has incredibly fast singing, a ridiculously catchy melody, and amazing layered voices in the chorus. Each repetition of the chorus gets more intense, meaning guaranteed chills by the third repetition.

Evolve

• "Believer", their first solo single in two years, has a pulse-pounding backbeat that is greatly accentuated by the fluid and fast-paced rap-sung lyrics. Even better is that, after the incredibly melancholy tone of Smoke + Mirrors, this song has a fantastic message of learning to pick yourself up after the bad times and keep pushing on towards a brighter future.
• "Thunder", especially with its roaring chorus and use of drums. The remix with K.Flay and the medley with Khalid and his song "Young, Dumb and Broke" (itself an example of awesome music) is awesome as well.
• "Whatever it Takes", with an incredibly fast opening and pounding drums. It rivals "Believer" as the most inspirational song from Evolve.
• "Walking the Wire", a very sweet love song further enhanced by clapping, soothing synth beats, and some of Dan's best vocals.
• "Yesterday" is a joyous celebration of everywhere Dan has been and everywhere he's going. The rhythms and backing vocals are great, even by the high standards of the band.
• "Next to Me", a true Tear Jerker about a man's wife who sticks with him in spite of all the problems. Dan's self-loathing comes in strongly, and it has Reality Subtext regarding his divorce. Add some of Dan's best singing, and you have a classic.

Origins

• "Natural", another very inspirational song, has the same rapid singing as the others, but also opens with an otherworldly humming. Add in a pounding beat, and you can see why ESPN used it.
• "Zero", their song from Ralph Breaks the Internet, is incredibly catchy and heartwarming, with Dan's incredibly fast singing as the cherry on top.
• "Machine", a somewhat old-fashioned protest song enhanced by Dan's passionate voice and excellent electronic instruments.
• "West Coast" is incredibly sweet, and its acoustic guitar and backing vocals are simply heavenly.
• "Birds" is already quite a powerful song thanks to its percussion, but the passionate vocals from Italian singer Elisa in this remix are beautiful.

Mercury

• "Follow You" has epic drums and excellent scatting in the chorus. It takes everything that works from the band's love songs and adds the bombast of their inspirational songs.
• "Cutthroat" has some of Dan's best singing, with incredibly clean scream-singing and a catchy pre-chorus.
• "My Life" has an almost Broadway feel to its melody, with epic violins and excellent arpeggios backing it up. The lamenting lyrics cinch it as a worthy opener to Mercury — Act 1.
• "Lonely" has a very soul vibe to it, with plaintive vocals from Dan and a truly fantastic bridge.
• "Enemy" is an epic intro to Arcane that has an equally epic pre-chorus beat drop. Oh, the misery...
• "Waves" is a powerful and sad song about accepting whatever life throws at you, good and bad. The "la da da da da" bit in the chorus is infectious, and Dan's singing is at its most passionate. But its best moment is probably the bit of silence in the bridge that really lets the line "This day could be your last" sink in.
• "I Wish" is another very sad one, with passionate singing from Dan and a very strong piano part in the chorus and an amazing horn section in the bridge. You really feel Dan's regret in this one.
• "Symphony" is a sweet, energetic, and earnest song about appreciating the people that matter in your life. But what makes this one special is that the band expands beyond their usual range of instruments and gets into Heavy Meta territory with a trumpet, trombone, saxophone, and flute, all of which get called out in the lyrics, and one of the band's best guitar solos.
• "They Don't Know You Like I Do" is a beautiful closer for the Mercury duology. The first verse and chorus are very gentle, but the much more aggressive second verse slams you with a great organ part. And just when you think it's about to end, there's a wonderful minute-long section of scatting worthy of "Hey Jude."

Other songs

• "Ready Aim Fire", their contribution to the Iron Man 3 tie-in soundtrack Heroes Fall, sounds worthier of Iron Man than almost all of the other songs on that soundtrack do.
• "Monster", their Infinity Blade III song, epically expresses a torture caused from an inner turmoil, but also a determination to overcome that turmoil. Players can use the Imagine Dragons axe to make the song play every time they fight.
• "Who We Are", a song they recorded for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, sounds like a fitting anthem for a political uprising, dedicating verses to both District 12 and President Snow.
• "Battle Cry", one of two songs they did for Transformers: Age of Extinction, takes a minute to build, but once it does? Oh boy... shit gets REAL.
• "Warriors", their anthem for the 2014 League of Legends World Championship, makes a powerful proclamation of undying ambition and competitive spirit. Even cooler is the fact that in-game SFX play during the song, namely, the sound of entering champion selection is heard at the start of the song, then the champion selected sound is heard before every chorus.

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