Be sure to check back often for updates as new albums are announced each week. Pointing out to myself all the beauty that surrounds me.Below, check out Official Charts' calendar of upcoming album releases for 2021. The simple things that keep me going every day. “I wanted to end the record by focusing on all the things that make me happy. Setting the foundation for a more steady and stable future,” said Reynolds. However, I really wanted it to end on a celebratory note. “This record deals with a lot of searching and loneliness, struggling with the finite state of reality. I believe that by singing about my own struggle with it, it hopefully will bring someone else some sort of peace or resolve.”įor all its anguish, “Mercury - Act 1” ends with two upbeat songs, the tropical-tinged “No Time for Toxic People” and the Hawaiian-flavored “One Day,” with the hopeful lyric: “I know that one day/I'll be that thing that makes you happy.” It evokes perfect waves and sun through the clouds. And the point of art is to share our darkest moments as well as the light ones. But I also don’t want to shame anyone for their circumstances. The last thing that I want to do is to glorify it. “I have watched my friends die to drug addiction. It can look incredibly painful and ugly,” he said. Because in its most honest sense, there is nothing beautiful or alluring about it at all. “I just tried to paint an honest depiction of sobriety and addiction. Reynolds said he agonized about frankly discussing his own addiction battles, worried that fans might wrongly think he was glorifying drugs. I owe them vulnerability and honesty only.”
“And that I really would be doing them a disservice if I ever tried to re-create the past or sugarcoat the present. He told me to never worry about pushing them in uncomfortable ways,” Reynolds said. They not only want to grow with me, but they expected it. “Rick reminded me that over the last decade my fans have grown up with me. The big arena-ready sounds of “Believer” and “Radioactive” earlier in their career have given way to murkier, smaller songs with electronic flourishes.įor “Mercury - Act 1,” the Dragons leaned on superstar producer Rick Rubin, who urged the band to go deeper into the darkness and not worry if what they found would alienate fans. Imagine Dragons - which includes guitarist Wayne Sermon, drummer Daniel Platzman and bassist Ben McKee - have always evolved their sound, but this, their fifth studio album, is a quite radical step. I certainly have not even begun to master it, especially being an introvert, but it is one of my greatest life goals.” “I want to grow as close as I can with those that I love, and that really requires being raw and honest. The deaths had the effect of reminding Reynolds how short life is, and he says he wants to make the most of the days he has left, staying present and vulnerable. He lost loved ones to cancer, including his business manager, an ex-girlfriend and his sister-in-law, which inspired “Wrecked.”
He separated from wife Aja Volkman, but the couple reunited in late 2018 after a seven-month break and welcomed a fourth child, son Valentine, the next fall. The album was written over a three-year period and much happened in Reynolds' life. “I’m finding it hard to love myself,” he sings on ”My Life." On “Lonely,” he offers: “These days, I’m becoming everything I hate.” The song ”Dull Knives" has Reynolds' almost screaming in anguish: “Won’t someone please save my life?” and one song has the sing-along chorus: “It’s OK to be not OK.” The 13-track collection uses Reynolds' falsetto to great effect to explore different sonic landscapes, and his lyrics ache with a portrait of a man who has lost friends to cancer, had his personal life collapse and battled depression and addiction. “This record is primarily about taking action and rebuilding.” I spent a lot of my time embracing that self-pity and wallowing in it,” he says from his home in Las Vegas. “In a lot of ways I felt like my foundation was completely ripped from under me over the last decade.