By the time that they entered the studio to work on the album, they had amassed 50 demos to work from. 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 for the album, before entering the studio. The creative process for the album began long before the conclusion of the Night Visions cycle. It’s too early to say, but there is some weird stuff going on in these songs.' Recording Reynolds stated to music magazine Rolling Stone that the next album will be 'different' from Night Visions, and that the band intends the album 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. 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 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. Reynolds told MTV in 2014 that the band wanted to 'put out an album that really happy with'.
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. Dan Reynolds told New Orleans-based newspaper 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.' 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. Hopefully we don't die and there will be a second album. Lead singer Dan Reynolds joked about the end of the Night Visions cycle, saying that 'We're always writing on the road, that second album will come, unless we die at the age of 27 next year.
The conclusion of the Into the Night Tour signaled the end of the Night Visions album cycle, with Night Visions Live, a live album, serving as the last release in the cycle. An additional tour of North America, dubbed the 'Into the Night Tour,' was also executed. 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. Billboard listed the band as one of '2012's Brightest New Stars' and later 'The Breakout Band of 2013.' 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. 'Radioactive,' a 2013 single, sold more than nine million singles in the United States, spending more than 1 year consecutively on the Billboard Hot 100. The band released six singles during the Night Visions album cycle in 20, five of which charted on the BillboardHot 100. The album was also nominated for the 2014 Juno Award for International Album of the Year. Certified Platinum by seven national music associations, including 2x Platinum in the United States by the RIAA and 3x Platinum in Canada by Music Canada, 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, 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 charts, in addition to charting on eight others. In 2012, Imagine Dragons released their debut studio album Night Visions. The band's experiences on the tour served as an inspiration for their second album. The band embarked on the Night Visions Tour in 2013. As of July 2017 the album has sold over 1,000,000 copies in the US. Three official singles have been released from the album: 'I Bet My Life', 'Gold' and 'Shots'. It has since been certified gold in the United States, United Kingdom, Mexico, and Brazil. However, it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 in the United States, moving more than 172,000 units, and also debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and the Canadian Albums Chart. The album received generally mixed reviews from music critics upon release. Self-produced by members of the band along with English hip-hop producer Alexander Grant, known by his moniker Alex da Kid, the album was released by Interscope Records and Grant's KIDinaKORNER label on February 17, 2015, in the United States. The album was recorded during 2014 at the band's home studio in Las Vegas, Nevada. Smoke + Mirrors is the second studio album by American pop rock band Imagine Dragons.