"Amsterdam" is a song written and recorded by American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

band

Imagine Dragons Imagine Dragons are an American pop rock band formed in 2008, based in Las Vegas, Nevada. The band currently consists of lead singer Dan Reynolds, guitarist Wayne Sermon, and bassist Ben McKee. They first gained exposure with the release of ...

, for their third self-released

extended play An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...

, '' It's Time''. It appears as the second track on the EP. The song was later reproduced and remastered for inclusion on their debut album ''

Night Visions ''Night Visions'' is the debut studio album by American pop rock band Imagine Dragons. It was released on September 4, 2012, through Kidinakorner and Interscope Records. The album was primarily produced by the band themselves, as well as Engli ...

'' and appears as the sixth track on the album.

Composition

The song, originally featured on the band's '' It's Time'' EP released in March 2011, was one of the earliest Imagine Dragons songs to incorporate

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

into their traditional

rock band ''Rock Band'' is a series of rhythm games first released in 2007 and developed by Harmonix. Based on their previous development work from the Guitar Hero, ''Guitar Hero'' series, the main ''Rock Band'' games have players use game controllers mod ...

set-up evident in their earlier works. The song, along with most of the ''It's Time'' EP, used electronic music to create the

timbre In music, timbre (), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes sounds according to their source, such as choir voices and musical instrument ...

and

texture Texture may refer to: Science and technology * Image texture, the spatial arrangement of color or intensities in an image * Surface texture, the smoothness, roughness, or bumpiness of the surface of an object * Texture (roads), road surface c ...

of the song rather than forming the melodies and riffs of the song. A similar concept was first used by the band for " Hear Me", a song off their 2010 extended play ''

Hell and Silence ''Hell and Silence'' is the third extended play (EP) by American pop rock band Imagine Dragons, released on March 12, 2010. It was recorded at Battle Born Studios. All songs were written and produced by Imagine Dragons. " Hear Me" was remastere ...

''.

Release

"Amsterdam" was first released officially on December 31, 2010, through a music video posted on their YouTube channel. It was exclusively released as a free

download In computer networks, download means to ''receive'' data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar systems. This contrasts with uploading, where data is ''sent to'' a remote ...

via

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

for a limited time. The song was released as iTunes' "Single of the Week" on the week of the album's release in countries with respective release dates of the album. The single was first released in North America on the American September 4, 2012 release date, and again in European countries on the European February 7, 2013 release date of the album.

Live performances

"Amsterdam" is one of the band's most played songs, being played at an excess of over 300 concerts since its first play on August 6, 2010. The song was also a regular on the setlist of the band's ''Night Visions'' tour, on which they embarked in 2013. The song was usually played after the setlist opener " Round and Round".

Track listing

Personnel

Adapted from ''Night Visions'' liner notes. Imagine Dragons *

Ben McKee Benjamin Arthur McKee (born April 7, 1985) is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He is the bassist for the pop rock band Imagine Dragons. Early life McKee was raised in Forestville, California, and graduated from El Molino ...

bass *

Dan Reynolds Daniel Coulter Reynolds (born July 14, 1987) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He is the lead vocalist and a founding member of the pop rock band Imagine Dragons, which formed in 2008. He is a recipient of the Songwriters Hall o ...

lead vocals *

Wayne Sermon Daniel Wayne Sermon (born June 15, 1984) is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He is the lead guitarist for the pop rock band Imagine Dragons. Early life Sermon was born on June 15, 1984, in American Fork, Utah, to parents ...

guitar *

Andrew Tolman Andrew Tolman (born January 9, 1986) is an American studio musician and songwriter. He is a member of the cult club band the Moth & The Flame. He was also a founding member of the pop rock band Imagine Dragons, leaving the group before the releas ...

drums *Brittany Tolmanbacking vocals, keyboard Additional personnel *

Brandon Darner Brandon Darner is an American record producer, songwriter and musician. He has produced albums for a number of artists, including Imagine Dragons, To My Surprise, and his alternative rock band, the Envy Corps among others. Darner is a founding ...

– co-producer * Mark Everton Gray – recording * Mark Needham – mixing * Will Brierre – engineer * Joe LaPorta – mastering

Charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{authority control Imagine Dragons songs Songs written by Wayne Sermon Songs written by Dan Reynolds (musician) Songs written by Ben McKee 2012 singles 2010 songs Kidinakorner singles Interscope Records singles Songs written by Daniel Platzman Songs about Amsterdam