| Red is dead. While it is admirable for the band to admit mistakes and offer to make amends with long-time fans, Red's "recalibration" of its 2013 album, Release the Panic, is what appears to be an awful attempt to combine a remix album with an acoustic album. The result is actually more insulting to Red's signature sound than the album it is supposed to be fixing. When it's not buried under chugging guitars and drums, the string instrumentation actually works against the music and is completely unimaginative, at times acting as a "backup singer" of sorts to lead vocalist Michael Barnes. The tempo of "So Far Away", "Glass House", and "As You Go" have been considerably slowed, which might throw off listeners who are used to the quicker originals. Barnes's reworked vocals sound detached and underproduced. |
