Like much of Night Visions, “Amsterdam” was recorded and released on a prior EP, 2011’s It’s Time, when the band still clung more tightly to its alt-rock roots than to the electro-claps that would come to define it. What we’d give for a heavier band like Disturbed or Godsmack to swoop in and cover this one. “Friction” is as heavy as ID have gone thus far, and - at least across these forceful three minutes - it certainly suits them. Reynolds reins his voice into a villainous quiver before the full band blasts through the incendiary chorus.

The band’s most sonically sinister track extended its lifespan earlier this year with a feature in the new Mission Impossible: Fallout trailer, though “Friction” had been a standout hard-rock jam all along.

As an album, Evolve was criticized by some as catering too handily to the sound of 2017 (and 2018), but when songs like “Whatever It Takes” and “Thunder” are requested constantly and streamed hundreds of millions of times, who can really argue? The former is on display in the group’s latest radio darling, “Whatever It Takes,” where a rapped verse and beat sets up its widescreen chorus, which will now blare from sporting event speakers until the end of time. Imagine Dragons have vaulted so high largely due to the band’s embrace of its era’s dominant genres: namely, hip-hop and electronic music.

If you’ve checked out Imagine Dragons’ electrifying new Evolve World Tour, then you know the most poignant section of the show comes during the mid-performance acoustic set, featuring live cello, an auxiliary stage, and a moving revamp of the Night Visions album cut “Bleeding Out.” In the new, half-time rendition, passion and romantic stakes are finally realized in a song that was always nearly there, and should become a set staple, played just like the above video.

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