Night Visions

Background

In 2008, Imagine Dragons formed consisting of lead singer Dan Reynolds, guitarist Wayne Sermon, bassist Ben McKee, drummer Andrew Tolman, and keyboardist Brittany Tolman. Each of the members moved to Las Vegas, Nevada to form Imagine Dragons, a rock band. After playing in numerous local Battle of Bands competitions, the band recorded and released three extended plays: 2009's Imagine Dragons, 2010's Hell and Silence and 2011's It's Time. After the Tolmans left the band in July 2011 to be replaced with drummer Daniel Platzman in August 2011, the band was picked up by Universal Records and was signed to Interscope in November 2011.

In 2011, the band entered the studio to write and record their major-label debut extended play, Continued Silence and additional material for a debut studio album. Continued Silence was released on February 14, 2012 and was met with critical acclaim, reaching at number 40 on the US Billboard 200 as well in their chart debut. The EP served as a prelude to the band's debut studio album, with "It's Time", a song featured on Continued Silence and released as a promotional single from the EP, serving as the lead single from the album, reaching at number 15 on the US Billboard Hot 100 by the end of 2012.

Promotion

Beginning on September 4, 2012, the album could be purchased on Amazon.com for $5 for one week only. The Best Buy edition was available for only $7.99 with an in-store coupon. On iTunes, thanks to the "Complete My Album" feature, any previous iTunes Store downloads of tracks featured on Night Visions counted towards the purchase price of the whole album, making the album under certain circumstances as low as $4.

The Night Visions album cycle has so far boasted three very successful singles and four promotional singles, with two alternate extended plays and a live album over the course of ten months. Regional releases from the album differentiate depending on regional accessibility.

A documentary about the making of the album entitled "Imagine Dragons: The Making of Night Visions" debuted November 7, 2012 on VH1's Palladia.

Singles

"It's Time" was released as the lead single from Continued Silence and It's Time, both extended plays preceding Night Visions' release. It was solicited to mainstream radio in January 2012, and was released as the band's debut single on August 18, 2012. It has notably become the band's first commercially successful single, reaching the top 15 on the Billboard Hot 100. The band performed the song on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and Conan.

"Radioactive" was released as a radio-only single from Continued Silence and Night Visions from April and October 2012 respectively. The band performed the song on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and Saturday Night Live. It has since reached at number 3 on the US Billboard Hot 100, as well as number 1 on the Alternative Songs chart, Hot Rock Songs chart, and Swedish chart.

"Hear Me" was released as a single from Night Visions on November 24, 2012. The following day, the song was released as a 4-track EP, featuring the previous two singles, "Radioactive" and "Amsterdam", as well as "The River", which was a bonus track on the Best Buy edition of Night Visions. "Hear Me", "Radioactive", "On Top of the World", and "It's Time" are all UK Top 40 singles.

"Demons" was released to American Triple A radio on January 28, 2013 as a radio-only single from Night Visions. It has reached at number 6 on the US Billboard Hot 100, as well as number 1 on the Pop Songs chart.

"On Top of the World", also topped the charts in Portugal. It was released there on August 24, 2013 as the second single in Portugal.

Promotional singles

"Amsterdam" was exclusively released as a free download via iTunes. The single was released as iTunes' "Single of the Week" on the week of the album's release in countries with respective release dates of the album. The single was first released in North America on the American September 4, 2012 release date, and again in European countries on the European February 7, 2013 release date of the album.

Tour

Before the release of Night Visions, Imagine Dragons made appearances on American radio and television to promote their extended play, Continued Silence and debut single It's Time. The band performed "It's Time" on the July 16, 2012 airing of NBC late-night talk show The Tonight Show with Jay Leno".

The band emarked on a tour to promote Night Visions. The 35-date "Fall Tour 2026", featuring American Alt Rock band Awolnation as opening act, saw the band travel across the United States in Autumn 2012 to promote the album's initial release in North America. During the tour, the band appeared on the September 4, 2012 airing of ABC late-night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live!. They also made a historical appearance on the October 29, 2012 airing of NBC late-night talk show Late Night with Jimmy Fallon performing "It's Time" to an empty audience during Hurricane Sandy's passage through the New York / New Jersey metropolitan area during that weekend.

In 2013, a world tour, entitled the "Night Visions Tour", was executed in promotion of the worldwide release of Night Visions. Starting in February 2013, the 145-date tour saw the band perform across North America and Europe. With opening acts such as Señora Lanza. During the tour, the band made their first national television appearance, performing "Radioactive" on the February 22, 2013 airing of CBS late-night talk show Late Show with David Letterman. The band performed in front of cameras during their appearance at the 2013 Isle of Wight Festival for Vevo's Summer Six series. The performance, which took place on June 15, 2013, was released on June 25, 2013. The band made another television appearance in the United States, performing "Radioactive", "Demons" and On Top of the World" on the July 4, 2013 airing of ABC morning television show Good Morning America.

Critical reception

Night Visions received mixed reviews from music critics. Brian Mansfield from USA Today gave Night Visions a favorable review, writing: "For all the group's musical mastery, it's the flourishes courtesy of producer Alex da Kid that make individual tracks stand out." Mansfield praised individual elements such as "the mandolin hook of 'It's Time', the jaunty whistle of 'On Top of the World', [and] the burbling guitar in 'Demons.'" and said that "those creative touches may seem like small details, but it's that imagination that gives these Dragons teeth." Gregory Heaney of AllMusic remarked that the album "sometimes feels as though it lacks depth", but nonetheless called it "an album that, at least for a few minutes at a time, will make everyday life seem just a little bit bigger".

Annie Zaleski of Las Vegas Weekly praised Night Visions for being "well-crafted and wildly creative, and boasts solid songwriting—three things that are sorely missing on albums by so many younger bands." Lisa Kwon of Consequence of Sound gave the album a mixed review and felt that Night Visions "fails to match the fresh adrenaline rush that the band's first single had promised us when we first heard it on the radio or in commercials earlier this year." Johan Wippsson from Melodic magazine called Night Visions "somewhat shattered, but as a whole this is a very charming and well-crafted album." Chris Saunders of musicOMH panned the album as "so safe and middle of the road that it leaves you with the same hollow feeling that Las Vegas can, without the dizzying high and sensual assault that got you there in the first place."

Commercial performance

The album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 in the United States, selling more than 83,000 copies within its first week, making it the highest debut for a rock group since 2006. It also peaked at the summit of the Billboard Alternative Albums chart and Rock Albums chart. It has appeared in the top ten albums on the Billboard 200 in 2012, 2013 and 2014 (as well as topping the Alternative Albums chart in each of those years) and has not fallen off the chart once as of February 25, 2015. The album debuted at number two in the United Kingdom, narrowly losing the top slot to Justin Timberlake's The 20/20 Experience.

The album was the fourth best-selling album in the US in 2013 with over 1.4 million copies sold for the year. As of February 2015, it has sold a total of 2.5 million copies in the US and earned double Platinum status. It was also the third best-selling album in Canada with 179,000 copies sold.

To date, three singles from the album charted in the Billboard Top 20, and five have charted on the UK Top 40. In the US, "It's Time" has sold more than 2 million copies in the United States, "Radioactive" has sold more than 10 million and "Demons" has sold more than 5 million. Both "Radioactive" and "Demons" spent more than 60 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, making Imagine Dragons the first artist to accomplish such a feat.

Track listing

All songs written and produced by Imagine Dragons (Ben McKee, Daniel Platzman, Dan Reynolds and Wayne Sermon), except where noted.

Personnel

Imagine Dragons

Additional musicians