Review Summary: A melodic, yet heavy cinematic journey that capitalizes and builds upon everything good from their previous efforts.
“Innocence & Instinct” is RED’s second studio record, and personally, my favorite RED album. It builds upon all of the best elements of “End of SIlence”, but with better production and more complex instrumentation and lyrics that never come across as cheesy and a phenomenal vocal performance from MIke Barnes. This is one of those rare albums that gets better for me with each listen over time rather than growing stale or losing it’s appeal as most records do. The album contains some of RED’s biggest hits, but also some of their heaviest and lightest songs to date, well, depending on what version of the album you have…
Confusingly, there are 5 different track listings and versions of this album depending on where you’re listening from and what platform you’re using. For this review, I will be reviewing the original standard edition of the album, while also making mention of the alternate version with “Forever”.
“Fight Inside” opens up the album with heavy riffs and pounding drums before going into a lo-fi verse and a soaring chorus. It’s a great song that already shows the improvement from the band’s previous effort, with phenomenal production and a great guitar tone and noticeable bass. The song is the perfect song to connect End of Silence to Innocence & Instinct, and the last 30 seconds of the song erupt into a chaotic breakdown before going into the theatrical intro of “Death Of Me”
“Death of Me” brings a fast pace with it’s bouncy riff and a catchy chorus that make it the perfect single off the record. The song continues where “Fight Inside” left off before going into a sudden heavy bridge with Mike Barnes screaming “I WON’T FORGET” over and over with growing intensity. The orchestral elements add a lot to the song as the last chorus of the song hits extremely satisfyingly before going to an cinematic outro that fades out as we get to the glitched electronic intro of “Mystery of You”
“Mystery of You” contains one of the catchiest choruses on the entire record and a high energy riff that keeps the furious pace of the record going. Mike Barnes’ vocal range stands out nicely on the song and is satisfyingly furious but almost calming in a way, a dynamic that helps this album tremendously.
“Start Again” is a slower tempo ballad-esque song with drop tuned guitars and uplifting instrumentation. It fits perfectly on radio and it’s no surprise it was as big of a hit as it is. The song is a cry to fix one’s past mistakes and heal the wounds those mistakes caused with other people and has a very emotional vocal performance, which is clearly the forefront of the song, as the instrumentation takes a backseat and shines a spotlight on the vocals and lyrics of the song.
“Never Be The Same” is an acoustic driven track which sticks out nicely and breaks up the pace from the aggression of the rest of the album. The song is also the most Christian song on the record about coming back to his faith after taking it for granted for a while and is almost a worship song. It was the biggest hit on Christian radio off the album and it’s clear to see why. The song builds over time nicely into electric guitars and harder instrumentation while still sounding like a ballad.
A massive change of pace from the previous track, “Confession (What’s Inside My Head) is one of the heaviest moments on the record with fast, driving guitars that don’t let up for most of the song. “Confession” is possibly one of the most reminiscent tracks to End of Silence on this album and has a very, very strong bridge before going into the heaviest part of the song with brutal guitars and intense orchestration that ends abruptly going into the next song, “Shadows”.
“Shadows” was co-written with Breaking Benjamin with a HEAVY riff that flows perfectly from “Confession” before releasing into an unexpectedly soft verse and mellower chorus. The Breaking Benjamin influence comes through strongly on the breakdown of the song with a groovy, headbangable riff closing the track out.
Next up we have a cover of Duran Duran’s “Ordinary World”, which despite it having a slower pace in the tracklisting than I personally would have liked, it's a great cover, which RED adapts perfectly into their own signature sound. There isn’t much to say about the track other than that it’s a solid cover, but it isn’t the best song on the record by any means.
Here is where the confusion sets in, depending on your version of the album, you have “Out from Under”, which is my favorite RED song of all time and a relentlessly aggressive and heavy song on all fronts with screamed vocals and fast guitars before letting up into a soaring and insanely catchy chorus. The song has a modulation halfway through where it breaks down into an insanely satisfying cinematic build before dropping completely into the heaviest moment on the entire album with aggressive screams and fast guitars. The drumwork also stands out. However sadly, instead of Out From Under, some versions have “Forever”, which is a solid track but it feels like a reprise of many songs that were previous on the record and it’s not nearly as strong of a cut as Out From Under is in my opinion.
Next up we have the closing track of the album, “Take it All Away”; which starts off with menacingly slow burning acoustic guitars and vocal effects that provide a dark atmosphere in the song. The vocals slowly become more aggressive with dissonant layering and effects as drums slowly come into the song with the simple refrain saying “Take It All Away”. Then everything strips back into a slow piano and higher pitched vocals before slowly building into a dark cinematic orchestra and slowly building into a massive crescendo with drums getting faster and faster and electric guitars coming in with feedback and falsetto vocals. The song then ends satisfyingly and is truly an experience and a unique track off the album.
Overall, Innocence & Instinct is a very satisfying album and builds into every good part about End Of SIlence and expands upon it. It is my favorite RED album, as well as one of my favorite albums of all time, with all of the songs having stood the test of time. The production is a massive step up on the album with the emotions in the vocals feeling more real on this album rather than the at times over-the-top deliveries on EOS. While it’s rating definitely changes depending on which version of the album you have, I&I is and will remain my favorite RED album for a long time, and truly capitalizes on the potential EOS had.
Rating: 4.8/5
Favorite tracks: “Out From Under”, “Death Of Me”, “Mystery of You”
Least faves: ”Forever”, “Ordinary World” (No “bad” songs here though)
