In the months leading up to the album's release, Imagine Dragons used the caption 'ЖЋE' in multiple social media posts. The album's sound has been described as pop rock, electronic, pop and EDM while containing elements of R&B and hip hop. Reynolds had noted that the album, compared to Night Visions and Smoke + Mirrors, is 'an evolution for Imagine Dragons'. On January 24, 2017, the band tweeted 'goodnight +', effectively ending the Smoke + Mirrors album cycle. The band first began preparing their third album on September 13, 2016, with a picture of guitarist Wayne Sermon in the band's recording studio and continued releasing cryptic messages over the next four months. In an interview with Billboard, lead singer Dan Reynolds stated that the group would be on hiatus for the remainder of the year, explaining 'We haven't stopped in, like, six years, so we've forced ourselves to at least take a year off.' Throughout 2016, the band contributed songs to the soundtracks for Me Before You, Suicide Squad and Passengers, as well as playing at several shows. In February 2016, after the success of their second album Smoke + Mirrors and a ten month long world tour, the members of Imagine Dragons vowed to take time off from the band. The album was also nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards. It was promoted with the singles ' Believer', ' Thunder', ' Whatever It Takes', and ' Next to Me', as well as a world tour produced by Live Nation and supported with Grouplove and K.Flay that started in September 2017. In comparison to Smoke + Mirrors and their 2012 debut Night Visions, frontman Dan Reynolds called the album an 'evolution' for the band.Д®volve peaked at number 2 on the US Billboard 200, and received mixed reviews from critics some acknowledged the band's claim of evolution, while others described it as lifeless and commercially oriented.

After the release of their previous album Smoke + Mirrors (2015) and its respective world tour, a self-imposed hiatus for 2016 and cryptic messages from the band through their social media gained anticipation for their third album it was finally announced on May 9, 2017, along with the initiation of its pre-order. Evolve (stylized as ЖЋVOLVE) is the third studio album by American pop rock band Imagine Dragons, released on June 23, 2017, by Kidinakorner and Interscope Records.

Imagine dragons album covers