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''Smoke + Mirrors'' is the second studio album by American
pop rock Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock) is a fusion genre and form of rock music characterized by a strong commercial appeal, with more emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than standard rock musi ...
band
Imagine Dragons Imagine Dragons are an American pop rock band formed in 2008, based in Las Vegas, Nevada. The band currently consists of lead singer Dan Reynolds, guitarist Wayne Sermon, and bassist Ben McKee. They first gained exposure with the release of ...
. The album was recorded during 2014 at the band's home studio in
Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...
,
Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...
. Self-produced by members of the band along with English hip-hop producer Alex da Kid, the album was released by
Interscope Records Interscope Records is an American record label based in Santa Monica, California, owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture ...
and Grant's Kidinakorner label on February 17, 2015, in the United States. The album received generally mixed reviews from music critics upon release. However, it debuted at number one on the ''Billboard'' 200 in the United States, moving more than 172,000 units (becoming their only album to date to debut at number one), and also debuted at number one on the
UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...
and the
Canadian Albums Chart The ''Billboard'' Canadian Albums is the official record chart A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music according to certain criteria during a given ...
. It has since been certified gold in the United States, United Kingdom, Mexico, and Brazil. The album was supported by three singles: " I Bet My Life", "
Gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...
" and " Shots". As of December 2024, the album has sold over 2,000,000 copies in the US. The band released a compilation album of fourteen previously unreleased demos from ''Smoke + Mirrors'' to commemorate its tenth anniversary. The album, ''Reflections (from the Vault of Smoke + Mirrors)'', was released on February 21, 2025 and preceded by the promotional single "Monica".


Background

In 2012, Imagine Dragons released their debut
studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...
''
Night Visions ''Night Visions'' is the debut studio album by American pop rock band Imagine Dragons. It was released on September 4, 2012, through Kidinakorner and Interscope Records. The album was primarily produced by the band themselves, as well as Engli ...
''. The album, produced by the band along with Alexander Grant and Brandon Darner, launched the band into international mainstream commercial success, charting within the top ten of 14 national
record chart A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide charts, ofte ...
s, in addition to charting on eight others. Certified Platinum by seven national music associations, including 2× Platinum in the United States by the
RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
and 3× Platinum in Canada by
Music Canada Music Canada is a non-profit Industry trade group, trade organization that was founded 9 April 1963 in Toronto to represent the interests of companies that record, manufacture, produce, and distribute music in Canada. It also offers benefits to s ...
, the album was initially met with first week sales in excess of 83,000 copies, the highest charting for a debut rock album since 2006. The album was also nominated for the 2014 Juno Award for International Album of the Year. The band released six singles during the ''Night Visions'' album cycle in 2012 and 2013, five of which charted on the ''
Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
''
Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), o ...
. "
Radioactive Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A material containing unstable nuclei is conside ...
," a 2013 single, sold more than nine million singles in the United States, spending more than one year consecutively on the Billboard Hot 100. Peaking at no. 3 on the chart, it also broke the record for the longest run into the top five and is the best-selling rock single on the Nielsen SoundScan running list of best-selling rock tracks in digital history. ''
Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
'' listed the band as one of "2012's Brightest New Stars" and later "The Breakout Band of 2013." To further promote the already-successful ''Night Visions'', the band set out on a year-long concert tour beginning in early 2013 and ending in mid-2014, dubbed the " Night Visions Tour." The tour spanned for over 170 dates, and visited North America, South America, Europe and Oceania. An additional tour of North America, dubbed the "Into the Night Tour," was also executed. The conclusion of the Into the Night Tour signaled the end of the ''Night Visions'' album cycle, with '' Night Visions Live'', a
live album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track or cassette), or digital. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th centur ...
, serving as the last release in the cycle. Lead singer Dan Reynolds joked about the end of the ''Night Visions'' cycle, saying that "We're always writing on the road, othat second album will come, unless we die at the age of 27 next year. Hopefully we don't die and there will be a second album. I don't know when it will be, but it may come." The band were also inspired greatly by their experiences on the Night Visions Tour. Dan Reynolds told
New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
–based
newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...
'' The Times-Picayune'' that the world tour had "a lot of inspiration to be drawn," and further stating, "You kind of realize that you're a lot smaller than you think." The idea behind the second studio album, dubbed as their " new year's resolution," was to create music and finish it when the band feels that their work is done. Reynolds told
MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...
in 2014 that the band wanted to "put out an album that hey'rereally happy with". He further said that "we tend to be perfectionists, too hard on ourselves at times, and we don't want to rush anything because we know how we are with things. We don't want to put a record out until we really feel good about it, you know, and who knows how long that will take."


Composition

Reynolds stated to music magazine ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...
'' that the album would be "different" from ''Night Visions'', and that the band intended it to be "stripped back quite a bit." He added that "we embraced a lot of hip-hop influences with 'Night Visions', but I think the next record will be more rock-driven. It's too early to say, but there is some weird stuff going on in these songs."


Recording

The creative process for the album began long before the conclusion of the ''
Night Visions ''Night Visions'' is the debut studio album by American pop rock band Imagine Dragons. It was released on September 4, 2012, through Kidinakorner and Interscope Records. The album was primarily produced by the band themselves, as well as Engli ...
'' cycle. Since the beginning of the Night Visions Tour in 2012, the band had been writing new material for an upcoming album, and, even as early as the start of the tour, had been recording
demos Demos may refer to: Computing * DEMOS, a Soviet Unix-like operating system * DEMOS (ISP), the first internet service provider in the USSR * Demos Commander, an Orthodox File Manager for Unix-like systems * Plural for Demo (computer programming ...
for the album, before entering the studio. By the time that they entered the studio to work on the album, they had amassed 50 demos to work from. The demos had been described by Reynolds as "definitely different," but added that "it's still Imagine Dragons, but we've got a lot of growth and maturing to do as a band. I think
he new material He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...
is going to hopefully be a step in the right direction. We're just trying to create and do what comes out and what feels right." The band also were self-critical throughout the sessions, with Drummer Daniel Platzman stating that there was "no room for external pressure" during the recording of the album. The band announced a rest at the end of the Night Visions Tour at
Lollapalooza Lollapalooza () is an annual American four-day music festival held in Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park in Chicago. It originally started as a touring event in 1991, with Chicago becoming its permanent location beginning in 2005. Music genres i ...
in
São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...
, Brazil.


Promotion

The ''Smoke + Mirrors'' album cycle featured three singles and two promotional singles. Regional releases from the album feature different track listings. Target has made available an exclusive deluxe version of the album featuring four bonus tracks, available online internationally. Target teamed with the band to air the first ever live commercial performance during the
Grammy Awards The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...
. On February 8, 2015, the band performed "Shots" from Las Vegas' Freemont Street under the direction of
Jonas Åkerlund Hans Uno Jonas Åkerlund (; born 10 November 1965) is a Swedish filmmaker and musician who is best known for his work in music videos. Åkerlund was a member of the Swedish black metal band Bathory. He has directed well-known videos for artists ...
. ''
Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
'' estimated the commercial cost $8 million in airtime. Hard Rock Cafe teamed with the band, granting them the first ever full access to take control of Hard Rock Cafe's internal video system (more than 20,000 screens at all 151 locations worldwide) on February 17, 2014. Also, autographed T-shirts will be hidden throughout the Hard Rock Cafe shops supporting the Tyler Robinson Foundation, benefiting the families of children with cancer. On December 12, 2014, Imagine Dragons posted on social media a request that fans look around
Las Vegas Valley The Las Vegas Valley is a major metropolitan area in the Southern Nevada, southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada, and the second largest in the Southwestern United States. The state's largest urban agglomeration, the Las Vegas Metropolitan St ...
for hidden clues to upcoming songs. The band gave 13 fans puzzle pieces of the artwork for the album. When combined, the puzzle pieces revealed the cover art and album title. On December 15, 2014, "
Gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...
" was released as a single with a video being released later. On the cover art for the album were a set of numbers that provided specific coordinates to prizes hidden in the Nevada desert, including an autographed guitar, drumsticks, Polaroid pictures, and a master pass for free concert tickets for the entire tour. On January 24, 2015, the band flew in 200 prize winning fans from around the world to attend a special listening event at the P3 Studio Art Gallery in the
Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas (commonly referred to simply as The Cosmopolitan or The Cosmo) is a resort casino and hotel on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. It is owned by The Blackstone Group, Stonepeak Partners, and Cherng Family Tru ...
. The event included an art exhibition of Tim Cantor's work for the album and attendees were allowed to listen to the full album through Beats headphones. Then the band arrived for an interview and private performance. February 20 through February 26, 2015, the band, partnering with Southwest Airlines, flew over 30 winners from all over the U.S. from coast to coast on what they called the "Destination Dragons" Tour. The Destination Dragons tour consisted of all the winners being flown from their hometowns, to small clubs in Los Angeles, Provo, Las Vegas, and Atlanta. This tour was a promotion for ''Smoke + Mirrors'', and a chance for the band to road test their new music live, in preparation for their ''Smoke + Mirrors'' World Tour. They paid homage to the clubs they got their start in by playing small, private shows for the Destination Dragons winners, as well as local winners in each city. They played The Troubadour in Los Angeles, Velour in Provo, Utah, Vinyl in Las Vegas, and wrapped up the tour at Terminal West in Atlanta, Georgia. During the Southwest flight from Las Vegas to Atlanta, fans were treated to an acoustic concert in what the airline calls "Live at 35" where artists play for airplane passengers after the airplane reaches 35,000 feet. All winners flew to all 4 cities, were given tickets to all 4 private shows, were able to attend the "Live at 35" event, and were given a meet and greet. The song "Friction" appeared in the '' NBA 2K17'' soundtrack, the trailer for '' Mission: Impossible – Fallout'' and in the third and final season for '' Crossing Lines''.


Singles

" I Bet My Life" was released as the lead single from ''Smoke + Mirrors'' and debuted at number 15 on the
Canadian Hot 100 The Canadian Hot 100 is a music industry record chart in Canada for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' magazine. It was launched on the issue dated March 31, 2007 as the standard record chart in Canada; a new chart ...
, number 27 on the UK Singles Chart, and 28 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. It also topped the Billboard Adult Alternative Songs, a first for the band. The band performed the song live on ''
American Music Awards The American Music Awards (AMAs) is an annual American music awards show produced by Dick Clark Productions since 1974. Nominees are selected on commercial performance such as sales and airplay. Winners are determined by a poll of the public and ...
'' (2014), ''
Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'', often abbreviated as ''GMA'', is an American breakfast television, morning television program that is broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends wit ...
'' (2015), ''
The Ellen DeGeneres Show ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' is an American first-run syndicated talk show that was hosted by Ellen DeGeneres. The show ran for nineteen seasons from September 8, 2003, to May 26, 2022, in which it broadcast 3,339 episodes. It was produced by ...
'' (2015),
VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism for Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network that launched on January 1, 1985, and is currently owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global's networks division based in New Y ...
's '' Big Morning Buzz Live'' (2015). "
Gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...
" was released as the second single from ''Smoke + Mirrors'' on December 16, 2014, and peaked at number 12 on the ''Billboard'' Hot Rock Songs chart. " Shots" was released as the third and final single from ''Smoke + Mirrors'' and charted on the Billboard Hot 100 as well as reaching No. 3 on the Norway Singles chart. The band performed the song live during the ''
Grammy Awards The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...
'' (2015), a first ever live commercial performance, directed by
Jonas Åkerlund Hans Uno Jonas Åkerlund (; born 10 November 1965) is a Swedish filmmaker and musician who is best known for his work in music videos. Åkerlund was a member of the Swedish black metal band Bathory. He has directed well-known videos for artists ...
. They also performed the song live on ''
Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'', often abbreviated as ''GMA'', is an American breakfast television, morning television program that is broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends wit ...
'' (2015), ''
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon ''The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by actor and comedian Jimmy Fallon that airs on NBC. The show premiered on February 17, 2014, and is produced by Broadway Video and Universal Television. It i ...
'' (2015), ''
The Howard Stern Show ''The Howard Stern Show'' is an American radio show hosted by Howard Stern that gained wide recognition when it was radio syndication, nationally syndicated on terrestrial radio from WINS-FM, WXRK in New York City, between 1986 and 2005. The sho ...
'' (2015), ''
Jimmy Kimmel Live! ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', sometimes shortened to ''JKL'', is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, and broadcast on ABC. The nightly hour-long show tapes and is based out of the Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywo ...
'', ''
The Ellen DeGeneres Show ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' is an American first-run syndicated talk show that was hosted by Ellen DeGeneres. The show ran for nineteen seasons from September 8, 2003, to May 26, 2022, in which it broadcast 3,339 episodes. It was produced by ...
'' (2015), and '' Today'' (2015).


Promotional singles

" Smoke and Mirrors" and " I'm So Sorry" were released as promotional singles in 2015.


Tour

On February 5, 2015, the band played a live streaming concert for Live Nation and Yahoo! during which they announced the North American leg of the arena tour. The band embarked on a world tour, Smoke + Mirrors Tour, in promotion of the worldwide release of ''Smoke + Mirrors''. The tour began on began April 12, 2015 and concluded on February 5, 2016.


Critical reception

''Smoke + Mirrors'' received mixed reviews from
music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on ...
. At
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an
average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...
score of 60, based on 12 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews". '' Q'' published a positive review of the album, calling it " modern pop-rock gem" and also noting it as an improvement upon their debut album ''
Night Visions ''Night Visions'' is the debut studio album by American pop rock band Imagine Dragons. It was released on September 4, 2012, through Kidinakorner and Interscope Records. The album was primarily produced by the band themselves, as well as Engli ...
''." ''
Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...
'' published a positive review stating, "the group's sophomore effort scales back on the electronic frippery, revealing the tightly focused rock juggernaut they are on stage." ''Illinois Entertainer'' published an interview with Reynolds on February 2, 2015, saying the album is "an ambitious, rock-solid effort, with potential hits galore." ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...
'' published a highly positive review of the album, calling it "thunderous" and saying its "songs are peppered with bright ideas and odd collisions, world music sounds percolating through R&B grooves, stuttering digital breaks interrupting solid rhythms. Lyrics and delivery suggest Imagine Dragons adhere to old-fashioned rock band idealism, but nothing is allowed to get in the way of a sparkling hook." Allison Stewart of ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' wrote that the band "is very good at what it does, even if what it does isn't very good," having "effortlessly achieved" the album's one purpose, "to cram as many popular styles as possible into a mainstream rock album to appeal to as many people as it can." Dave DiMartino of Yahoo! Music wrote that "it is the band's music, and not their faces, or personalities, that resonates with the mass audiences. And this is good. . . This is a pretty solid, surprisingly diverse sounding rock album—not a tuneless screech-fest by any means—and a record the band should be proud of. . . This could have been a shambles, and it's anything but."
Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and former senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of multiple artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance ...
of
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
described the album as "overblown"
arena rock Arena rock (also known as stadium rock, pomp rock or corporate rock) is a style of rock music that became mainstream in the 1970s. It typically involves radio-friendly rock music that was designed to be played for large audiences. As hard rock ...
, with more style than substance, and an overemphasis on reverberation effects such that "the reverb nearly functions as a fifth instrument in the band". The album's lyrics were nominated for an AML Award.


Commercial performance

''Smoke + Mirrors'' debuted at number one on the US ''Billboard'' 200 chart with 195,000
album-equivalent unit The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, often shortened to just unit, is a sales metric in the music industry that defines the number of streaming media, songs streamed and music download, songs downloaded equal to one Record sales, tradi ...
s (172,000 of which were pure album sales). It more than doubled the group's previous best sales week. The album remained in the chart's top twenty for the next several weeks, as of December 2, 2024, the album has sold over 2,000,000 copies in the United States. In the United Kingdom, it became the final album to reach number one on sales alone as streaming became incorporated into the
UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...
the following week.


Track listing

All songs written and produced by Imagine Dragons ( Dan Reynolds, Wayne Sermon, Ben McKee and Daniel Platzman), except where noted. Note *All bonus tracks on a separate disc on physical versions.


Personnel

Imagine Dragons * Dan Reynolds – lead vocals, percussion, piano, keyboards, songwriting, production * Wayne Sermon – guitar, songwriting, production * Ben McKee – bass guitar, keyboards,
synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...
s, horns, songwriting, production * Daniel Platzman – drums, percussion,
viola The viola ( , () ) is a string instrument of the violin family, and is usually bowed when played. Violas are slightly larger than violins, and have a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the ...
, songwriting, production


''Reflections (from the Vault of Smoke + Mirrors)''

''Reflections (from the Vault of Smoke + Mirrors)'' is a compilation album by American pop rock band Imagine Dragons. Released on February 21, 2025, the album compiles fourteen previously unreleased demos from ''Smoke + Mirrors'' for its tenth anniversary. The album was preceded by one promotional single, "Monica", released on January 27, 2025. It also includes a demo version of the ''Smoke + Mirrors'' single "I Bet My Life". In addition to the band and Alex da Kid who produced ''Smoke + Mirrors'', ''Reflections'' features production from composer Asa Taccone and the band's former drummer Andrew Tolman (credited alongside guitarist Wayne Sermon as Goldwiing).


The Itch

On February 4, 2025, Imagine Dragons posted on Twitter and Instagram "scratch the mirror's surface where the game is played - therein lies the treasure, an early look Dan made." The ARG led to a Unity game titled "Reflections" uploaded by Dan Reynolds. The game's levels each had one brand new demo by Imagine Dragons playing throughout the level, totaling to 23 unheard demos. Of these 23, twelve of them were songs to be released on ''Reflections'' with the exception of "Destroyed" and "I Bet My Life" not being on the soundtrack. The 23 new songs have been unofficially compiled and referred to as "The Itch", with the name stemming from the site name "itch.io" where the songs were first discovered.


Controversies


Timeline of Songs

While the songs on Reflections were advertised as being from the ''Smoke + Mirrors'' sessions, fans noticed some errors in the songs dates - "Strange Ways" is from 2019 and can be seen in the background of Dan's Twitch streams; "The Journey" can be partially seen on a whiteboard in some lyric videos from "Mercury - Act 1" in 2021; while "Mayday" is from as early as 2009 and appears on the elusive Velour sampler. Only a few demos on ''Reflections'' can be proven to be written during the ''Smoke + Mirrors'' sessions, with "Black" and "Destroyed" appearing on whiteboards in the Smoke + Mirrors trailer. "The Ghost Intervention" and "I Get Carried Away" are also known to be Smoke + Mirrors material, being written during 2013 and 2014 respectively.


Promotional Art

In promotional art for ''Reflections'', headshots of each member of Imagine Dragons were posted on the band's social media. Fans were displeased that only headshots of Dan Reynolds, Wayne Sermon, and Ben McKee were posted, with no picture for Daniel Platzman. While the promo art including only three members reflects the band's current lineup as of 2024, Platzman was still in the band during the release of ''Smoke + Mirrors'' and credited on several songs.


Track listing

All tracks were written and produced by Dan Reynolds, Wayne Sermon, Ben McKee, Daniel Platzman, Alexander Grant, Andrew Tolman and Asa Taccone.


Charts


Weekly charts


Monthly charts


Year-end charts


Certifications


Release history


See also

* List of ''Billboard'' 200 number-one albums of 2015 * List of number-one albums of 2015 in Canada * List of UK Albums Chart number ones of the 2010s


References


External links


''Smoke + Mirrors''
(Asia Tour Edition) at
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(streamed copy where licensed)
Imagine Dragons official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smoke and Mirrors (Imagine Dragons album) 2015 albums Albums produced by Alex da Kid Imagine Dragons albums Interscope Records albums Interscope Geffen A&M Records albums Kidinakorner albums