In the main, the lyrics traffic in cheap metaphor, like on “Polaroid”: “Love is a Polaroid/ better in picture/but never can fill the void.” (Clearly, not all the metaphors make sense.) Vocally, Mr. Reynolds often sounds as if he’s doing Chris Martin karaoke — Coldplay is never far from this band’s mind. The way he lightens his voice (and the way it is subsequently processed) leaves the impression that he’d rather not leave much of an impression. He has nominal range and sounds alert only when he’s shouting, which he often does, if only to drown out the brutalizing guitars by Mr. Sermon and the aggressive drumming by Mr. Platzman.

The drums, though — they’ve become this band’s true calling card, seen most vividly in the 2014 Grammy performance with Kendrick Lamar, where Mr. Reynolds was banging mercilessly on a set, as was almost everyone else onstage, almost a parody of a drum circle.

But when Mr. Platzman is left to his own devices, he can create real energy, the way he does on “Friction,” by far the best song on this album. It also features Mr. Reynolds sounding nervous and frenzied — it’s his least comfortable singing, and also his most triumphant. But apart from that song, and “I’m So Sorry” — which has slashing rhythmic guitar and Mr. Reynolds singing staccato, for an effect not unlike the Red Hot Chili Peppers — the music here is little more than a set of compromises, completely bereft of formal innovations.

That said, it’s unfair to say that Imagine Dragons is wholly without pleasure, because its sound primarily activates pleasure terrain that’s old and familiar. It can be pleasing in the way Nickelback or Creed once were — so close to the pop mean that it’s almost indistinguishable from it. (For good measure, there is “Trouble,” a blatant Mumford & Sons rip-off, and on “Gold,” a whistle straight from 2011.)

Which brings everything back to that $8 million — that’s a lot of money to spend on photocopies. It’s not excess for the sake of aesthetics. And it’s not excess for the sake of bad behavior. And it’s not excess for the sake of experimentation.

But like most big piles of money, that $8 million is basically a bully. It’s excess for the sake of making this band — blank as a clean sheet of paper — too big to fail.