Imagine Dragons’ New Album Is a Feat Worthy of Legendary Producer Rick Rubin
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Imagine Dragons recently debuted their most ambitious undertaking yet in massive double disc album, Mercury Acts 1&2, and they enlisted the aid of producer and living legend Rick Rubin to get it done.
With the 32-track epic, the group makes the boldest artistic statement of their career thus far. Executive produced by Rick Rubin, the double album includes hit singles “Enemy” and “Sharks.” Most recently, the band’s current single “Bones” went #1 at Alt Radio. While Act 1 explores themes such as love, faith, pain, passion and loss, Act 2 focuses on sorting through personal loss and the biggest existential questions of their career.
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About the album, lead singer Dan Reynolds says, “Mercury – Act 1 is focused on the immediacy of death. What does that sound like? What does that feel like? Mercury — Act 2 is focused on the process that comes after. So it’s the coping, the waking up and life has to continue on. When you’ve lost someone you love, life continues. This album is about loss, grief, and life. I think throwing life in there is so important because there is a lot of joy to this record. It’s about being present.”
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The video for “Sharks” made its global broadcast premiere on MTV Live and MTVU, as well as on the MTV Times Square billboards. Directed by VMA Award winner Drew Kirsch [Taylor Swift], the video is set against the iconic backdrop of the Las Vegas strip and follows Imagine Dragons on the heist of their lives across iconic Las Vegas locations including Bellagio, Allegiant Stadium, Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay, “O” by Cirque du Soleil and more.
Imagine Dragons paved the way for their new album with the release of a series of recent anthemic chart topping singles. Thus far, “Bones.” has gathered over 331 million streams to date and the accompanying music video has scored 31 million-plus YouTube views. The song also cracked the Billboard Hot 100 and attracted widespread acclaim. Their prior single, the global smash “Enemy,” has racked up 4.6 billion combined streams across two versions (including a collaboration with GRAMMY-nominated, East Atlanta-based rapper J.I.D). “Enemy,” which was tapped for Riot Games’ animated series “Arcane,” went No.1 at Alternative Radio and No. 1 at Top 40 Radio.
Last week, the band released the 10th anniversary of their groundbreaking debut LP with Night Visions (Expanded Edition) (KIDinaKORNER/Interscope/UME) out now. It notably boasts nine additional studio tracks and two previously unreleased songs, “Love of Mine” and “Bubble.”
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With over 66 million album equivalents and 55 million digital songs sold, not to mention over 110 billion combined streams, Imagine Dragons are one of rock’s biggest bands of the past decade, and they’ve fully reinvented the genre in that time. In short, they own Billboard’s Top 3 rock songs of the 2010s — “Believer,” “Thunder,” and “Radioactive.” Formed in 2009, Imagine Dragons developed a grassroots following with a series of independent EPs before making their major-label debut on KIDinaKORNER/Interscope with 2012’s Continued Silence EP. That same year, their LP debut NIGHT VISIONS entered the Billboard 200 at No. 2, while lead track “Radioactive” topped Billboard’s Hot Rock Songs, won a GRAMMY® for Best Rock Performance, and achieved RIAA Diamond status. After achieving their first #1 at Alt Radio with “Radioactive,” the band immediately repeated this feat with “Demons,” marking the first back-to-back #1’s for the band, with both songs in the Top 5 simultaneously. NIGHT VISIONS is now 7x platinum in the US alone. 2015’s platinum-selling Smoke + Mirrors debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. The 3x platinum-selling album EVOLVE followed in 2017, earning a GRAMMY® nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album and unleashing three No. 1 Alternative radio hits: “Believer,” GRAMMY®-nominated “Thunder,” and “Whatever It Takes.” All three songs were also top 5 hits at Alternative radio. “Believer” was the quickest song to reach #1 for Imagine Dragons, taking only 8 weeks to reach the top of the charts, with “Thunder” following closely in its rise to the #1 spot. With these singles, it marked the second time Imagine Dragons had back-to-back #1s, making Imagine Dragons one of only four bands to ever achieve simultaneous Top 5 singles and the only band to repeat this feat. The band’s fourth album and platinum-selling, ORIGINS, debuted atop Billboard’s Top Alternative Albums and Top Rock Albums charts, while its lead single “Natural” spent nine weeks at No. 1 at alternative radio.
Above: Imagine Dragons photographed by Eric Ray Davidson
For their fifth studio album—Imagine Dragons’ first new music since 2018—the band teamed up with esteemed producer Rick Rubin. 2021’s Mercury — Act 1 debuted in the Billboard 200 top 10 and at No. 2 on Billboard’s Top Alternative Albums and Top Rock Albums charts. It also launched the singles “Wrecked,” “Cutthroat,” and “Follow You,” with the latter reaching No. 1 on both Mediabase’s Alternative Radio and Billboard’s Alternative Airplay charts. “Follow You” marked the band’s quickest ascent to the top of that Billboard chart, surpassing the respective seven- and eight-week climbs for “Natural” (2018) and “Believer” (2017). Then came “Enemy.” Originally released as the theme to Netflix’s Arcane, the hit racked up more than 4.6 billion combined global streams across two versions (including a collaboration with GRAMMY®-nominated, Atlanta-based rapper J.I.D), helping make Imagine Dragons the highest streaming American band in the US in 2021. In 2022, they expanded the world of Mercury with a double album, Mercury – Acts 1 & 2, including the single “Bones,” which has gathered over 380 million streams to date, and the accompanying music video has scored 38 million-plus YouTube views.
Sorting through personal loss and the biggest existential questions of their career, singer/songwriter Dan Reynolds (above on the Howard Stern Show) says the two-part release is about learning to “accept the unknown” and “let go,” healing feelings Imagine Dragons are hoping to share with fans as they embark on some of their biggest shows ever this summer.
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