“I Bet My Life” by Imagine Dragons

I found a public space where I happen to be on many days where there is what seems to be pretty random music source piped in from unseen speakers. It's a good place to try to identify a random song that I can then delve into. I'm not sure how random, maybe it's some version of the current “Top 40.” Anyway, the other day a song came up called “I Bet My Life,” by a band called “Imagine Dragons.” At first, I thought “Imagine Dragons” was the name of the song—since I couldn't imagine calling a band that name. I suppose it is catchy, but trying to imagine various band members sitting around in a bar going over possibilities for band names—which is how all bands are named—I could not picture this one coming up. “The Terminators? No, there is one. Straight Flush? There is one... plus, no. Imagine Dragons? Hey... yeah!” My research tells me that they are quite popular, very successful. They have a lot of fans. At this point they seem to be four guys in their thirties—so a relatively new band—though, I suppose, as people in their thirties do—they feel like they are as old as the hills. Being “from” Las Vegas, the gambling reference here makes sense—but this song seems to be a heartfelt confessional, a love letter to “you.” It's anchored by a rousing chorus that sounds influenced by gospel music—you could imagine hearing this in one of those new churches that embraces rock music. Hearing only this, I'd guess they are a Christian Rock band, despite the pagan name. But I don't think they are—though at least of a couple of members are, or were, Mormons. I don't think I'll ever come around to this song, so I listen to a few more from the album it's on, called “Smoke + Mirrors”—and I wonder if that's somewhat confessional, as well? A lot of one word song titles. A lot of songs sound quite reflective, about life, and love, and such. Most songs have a really quiet part, and then a really loud part. The sound is very dense—you don't really pick out individual instruments. Even though, on paper, they're a guitar, bass, drums “rock” band—the overall sound is more of an electronic wave of complex noises—I guess this is pretty common for contemporary music. It is very much not my thing, but I can tell there is a pop element in there, so I keep listening until I find a song I like—and it's called, “It Comes Back To You”—a pretty straight-ahead pop song with a nice groove. Maybe this is their “retro” song—I don't know—it's probably fairly revealing to my tastes that I picked out this one. Anyway, one more tiny notch in the infinite impossibility of understanding popular culture—but I'm trying.