Evolve (Imagine Dragons album)

In February 2016, after the success of their second album Smoke + Mirrors and a ten month long world tour, the members of Imagine Dragons vowed to take time off from the band. In an interview with Billboard, lead singer Dan Reynolds stated that the group would be on hiatus for the remainder of the year, explaining "We [Imagine Dragons] haven't stopped in, like, six years, so we've forced ourselves to at least take a year off."^[2] Throughout 2016, the band contributed songs to the soundtracks for Me Before You, Suicide Squad and Passengers, as well as playing at several shows.

The band first began preparing their third album on September 13, 2016, with a picture of guitarist Wayne Sermon in the band's recording studio and continued releasing cryptic messages over the next four months. On January 24, 2017, the band tweeted "goodnight +",^[3] effectively ending the Smoke + Mirrors album cycle.

Reynolds had noted that the album, compared to Night Visions and Smoke + Mirrors, is "an evolution for Imagine Dragons".^[4] The album's sound has been described as arena rock,^[5] EDM^[6] electronic,^[7] pop,^[8] and pop rock,^[9] while containing elements of hip-hop and R&B.^[10][11]

In the months leading up to the album's release, Imagine Dragons used the caption "ƎE" in multiple social media posts. The group announced the title of their third album on May 8, and started the album pre-order along with the release of "Whatever It Takes" at 9 pm PT.

More information Aggregate scores, Source ...

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	4.6/10[23]
Metacritic	47/100[24]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[11]
The Guardian	[5]
The Independent	[25]
The Irish Times	[9]
London Evening Standard	[26]
Newsday	B+[10]
NME	[27][28]
Rolling Stone	[29]
State	[30]
The Times	[31]

Close

Evolve received mixed reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 47, based on 7 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews".^[24] Glenn Gamboa from Newsday gave the album a score of B+, stating that the group, "seem ready to transcend genre labels—they just want to make good music that interests them."^[10] In a three-out-of-five-star review from NME, Alex Flood wrote, "This latest effort might represent a small progression, but it's far from an evolution."^[27] AllMusic also gave a three-out-of-five review on the album, with Stephen Thomas Erlewine saying, "its bold, colorful textures elbow aside any notions of introspection or reflection."^[11] Rob Harvilla from The Ringer gave the album a mixed review, concluding: "All of which is to say that Evolve isn't great by any means, but it's awfully shrewd, and you might end up rooting for it if only because there's nobody else to root for. It's probably the band's best album: It is definitely their slickest, their deftest, their shortest."^[32]

The album also garnered some negative reviews. In a more negative review, Classic Rock Magazine gave the album one and a half stars out of five, commenting that the band aims for more rock noise, although, "it [Evolve] just comes off like Michael Bolton dad dancing to Justin Timberlake at a family wedding."^[33] Hannah J. Davies of The Guardian gave the album two stars out of five, calling the album, "lifeless electronic-tinged arena rock."^[5] The Independent gave Evolve two-out-of-five stars, describing it as, "mostly devolving back into the hoariest of tired rock cliches (including what sounds like roto-toms), and plodding grimly towards the summer’s festivals."^[25]

Evolve debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 with 147,000 album-equivalent units, of which 109,000 were pure album sales.^[34] It is Imagine Dragons' third top five album.^[34] As of December 2, 2024, the album has been certified 4× Platinum by the RIAA.^[35]

Credits for "Evolve" are adapted from the official liner notes, Tidal and AllMusic,^[39] with "Next To Me" being referred to as track 1.

Imagine Dragons

• Dan Reynolds – lead vocals, keyboards, backing vocals, acoustic guitar
• Wayne Sermon – electric guitar, backing vocals, acoustic guitar
• Ben McKee – bass guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
• Daniel Platzman – drums, percussion, backing vocals

Production

• Alex da Kid – executive production; production, programming, songwriting (tracks 1, 8, 10, 12 & "Roots")
• Mattman & Robin – production, songwriting (tracks 2, 4, 5, 11)
• Joel Little – production (track 3)
• John Hill – production (track 6)
• Tim Randolph – production (tracks 7, 9 & "Levitate")
• Jayson DeZuzio – production (tracks 8, 10)
• Manny Marroquin – mixing (tracks 1, 8, 10, 12)
• Serban Ghenea – mixing (tracks 2–7, 9, 11 & "Levitate")
• Robert Orton – mixing ("Levitate")
• John Hanes – mix engineering (tracks 2–7, 9, 11, "Levitate")
• Rob Cohen – engineering, vocal production (track 6)
• Dave Cerminara – engineering (tracks 7 & 9)
• Travis Ference – engineering (tracks 8, 10 & 12)
• Randy Merrill – mastering (tracks 2, 3, 5–12
• Tom Coyne – mastering (track 4 & "Levitate")
• Kaskade – remixing ("Believer (Kaskade Remix)")
• Beeple – art and design
• Dina Hovsepian – layout design
• Eliot Lee Hazel – photography
• Mac Reynolds – management
• Robert Reynolds – legal
• Jeff Schwartz – business manager
• Carrie Martin – booking
• James Whitting – U.K./Europe booking
• Hillary Siskind – press
• Lisa Gottgeil – press
• Matt LaMatte – marketing

• List of number-one albums of 2017 (Canada)
• List of number-one albums of 2017 (Finland)
• List of number-one albums of 2017 (Norway)
• List of number-one hits of 2017 (Switzerland)