A large problem in reviewing mainstream artists and their albums is that sometimes you have to play devil’s advocate; meaning that the reviewer will find himself in a metaphorical minefield as he states his opinion on said album. This is the problem I faced when I first booted up Imagine Dragons’ new album, Smoke + Mirrors.

Simply put, Smoke + Mirrors is at a point of equilibrium where it isn’t bad but is far from being good. Like a sparkling new car that happens to be missing everything under the hood and with a complementary dead animal in the air conditioning system.

The album begins with the otherwise lyrical genius of “Shots” and is immediately followed by the confusing and painful “Gold” with a major leap in quality, akin to a sudden switch from a soft pillow to one made of razor blades. Unfortunately this flip-flop in quality of music is seen and heard between every two to three songs.

Fortunately this constant change in quality is slightly overshadowed by Dan Reynolds’ majestic voice in the various hits of “Shots” released January 26, 2015, “I Bet My Life” released October 27, 2014, and the unfortunate “Gold” released December 16, 2014.

The instrumentals for the album, on the other hand, clearly states that Wayne Sermon (guitar), Ben McKee (bass), and Daniel Platzman (drums) did not care for this album. Each song, excluding the glorious ear-candy of “I Bet My Life”, fluctuates in quality between being reasonably good to taking a nose dive off the ugly tree and hitting every branch on the way down.

Above everything else, the album suffers from a severe case of over-promotion. A deluxe edition of Smoke + Mirrors was made available for pre-order internationally on Target’s online store, and the store also bought out an estimated $8 million worth of airtime during this year’s Grammy Awards ceremony to feature a live performance of the song “Shots”. Hard Rock Cafe teamed up with the band and, for the first time ever for the Hard Rock, broadcast the performance on the entire internal video system which includes more than 20,000 screens at all 151 locations worldwide.

Imagine Dragons might still be considered a “rising act” in the mainstream media, but Smoke + Mirrors is definitely a large step back for the band. Perhaps they’ll do better with their next album when they finally remove that dead animal from the air conditioner.