Imagine Dragons Are Already Jumping The Shark With New TWELVE MINUTE Clip

There’s a moment, often obvious, when and artist or band reaches that point somewhere around when they’ve had a degree of broad success, and start taking themselves just that little bit too seriously. And this week’s most apparent candidate, just as that Jesus-Christ-get-that-fucking-song-out-of-my-head “Light-nnnning and the thunnnnder…” thing gets a reprise because it’s an ideal sting for a football highlight package, Imagine Dragons decide to start making more ‘profound’ statements. So below, nigh-on 12 minutes of extended video surrounding their new tune, Next To Me (KidInAKorner/Interscope). “A musing on the realities of fate”, according to lead Imagineer, Dan Reynolds. Yes, of course it is. There’s the usual slightly anthemic football terrace celtic singalong nature to it, but note the guy who directed the visuals: Mark Pellington, who’s done similar work for U2 and Pearl Jam. Basically, if you’re intent on jumping that shark, you may as well learn from some masters of the form.

Then again, you can be almost self-defeatingly low-key as your career unfolds. The grandly-named Lehmann B Smith is actually releasing his seventh album, but is still probably better known as one of the side-guys in Kes Band or in Totally Mild’s bright things you hear on the radio. Thus Must Rust (Bedroom Suck) layers keep incessantly rolling at you, in a manner designed to make this lodge in your head – an aim it is probably achieving even as you watch it now. In the days when journalism was still a thing, we were taught to be careful of the word ‘unique’, but the Smith is certainly an individual – not the least in fashion sense. Beardy men of a certain age will stroke their chins knowingly at the careful construction of this.

Beardy men of a certain age – probably a little older than those above – will similarly get their glints of recognition from Michael Rault’s I’ll Be There (Wick/Daptone). Mr Rault is a Canadian – as often seems the case in guys (and girls) such as himself who happily grab-bag a range of classic and obscure influences from America’s and Britain’s various golden ages of pop. Some Australians manage to take the best of both sides of the Atlantic, too. Feel free to insert names of choice. And a lot of it is in just this song. Guitars cascade down and around Beatles harmonies, throwing a bit nod at some psychedelic racket, and the soul that seems to just seep out of anyone connected to the Daptone organisation. Overall, this be toweringly poppish.

Let us now ponder another perhaps surprising corner of the pop world. Maybe we don’t quite realise how noted Hinds are in their Spanish homeland – they even did the translated version of the theme to Cars 3 for the local market. Consider: if Disney Pixar know who you are, you gotta be somewhere in the mass consciousness. But as that guitar line just springs through those slightly frayed girl-band harmonies through The Club (Lucky Number/Mum+Pop), you know that they know. Ok sure, they may even be singing phonetically - but you know exactly the feelings being expressed.

There’s also some cross-cutting harmonies that build from something a little hazy and opaque through to a climax that then ebbs back down as Love Leaks (Caroline) sets out to affect you. TT is actually Warpaint’s Theresa Wayman in solo mode, the mood maybe just a little more restrained than her group efforts, but retains that dreamy quality that makes them special. Your preference may simply boil down to how important our very own Stella Mozgawa’s quietly joyous drumming in the band guise is to you.

Meantime, Australia’s flirtation with a modern take on old soul is still working. Over distinctly contemporary electronic beds, The Harpoons add a distinctly pleasant tension to Pressure (Caroline) as it bubbles along, heading towards a near funk enthusiasm at times, but never completely letting itself go. The cherry on top is of course Bec Rigby’s vocals, as they bob along on the motion of the waves and ripples that will have you chair dancing if not completely encouraging you from your seat. Probably a good thing if you’re reading and sampling this on the bus.

But if you’re looking for something even more deliberately local in nature, you can just about smell the VB, bongwater, and $7 sauv blanc (wait, what..?) on the breath of Glue (Independent). Bugs are a Brisbane combo – straight outta Indooroopilly, with that odd set of contradictions that go from outsize t-shirt and faded footy shorts slackerness, to a main man in Connor Brooker who is one of those annoyingly gifted shitheads who can write, play, and do everything else – although they are a more legit three-piece combo of some volume these days. Kinda punky, kinda rock, kinda buzzy but with that attitude and slightly jaundiced observation of the #Strayan condition that has served many from yer Grinspoon, to Smith Street, to Dune Rats, to a bunch of others of note with holes in the knees of their jeans.