Red - Innocence & Instinct

Producer:  Rob Graves
Record Label:  Essential Records
Website:  http://www.redmusiconline.com

I like to think of Red as “the little band that could.”  I don’t think anyone was expecting for Red to be as massively popular as they became.  The group had all of their singles shoot to #1 on the Christian Rock charts as well as gain a significant amount of mainstream and active rock play.  Songs like “Never Let Go,” “Lost,” “Break Me Down,” “Breathe Into Me,” and “Already Over” (from their debut End of Silence) became staples among youth groups and college functions, and Red quickly became on of Christian music’s premier hard rock bands.  The group is finally releasing their sophomore album - Innocence & Instinct - and basically what you see is what you get from Red.  Innocence & Instince is very much the next step after End of Silence - both musically and lyrically.  The album’s opener “Fight Inside” locks step for step with their hit single “Already Over”, while “Death of Me” is not unlike the Christian rock hit “Lost” from their debut.  “Mystery of Me,” “Shadows,” and “Ordinary” are all fantastic modern rock songs and help maintain that post-grunge sound that made them so popular to begin with.  Musically, there’s not a lot of growth here, but the band does it well enough that there’s not much complaint.  Red’s love for sweeping orchestral arrangements seem to be their calling card - and those are featured quite a bit as well (see “Confession” for the album’s biggest and most complimentary culprit). Lyrically, Red was inspired by Dante’s Inferno for this record - in other words the struggle between flesh and things spiritual.  This is aptly seen in cuts like “Death of Me,” “Never Be the Same,” and “Confession.”  The big difference between Innocence & Instinct and Dante’s Inferno is that Red actually offers the hope of God’s grace in our lives (see “Start Again”).  Producer Rob Graves seems to really push Red to greater heights, and Innocence & Instinct shows that immensely.  The album isn’t perfect, but Red has definitely avoided the sophomore slump with Innocence & Instinct.