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Navar: Self-Titled
Navar is a western New York State based group, consisting of four members. Pat Barry is the lead vocalist, who also plays guitar. His brother, Ben Barry, plays the bass and contributes vocally as well. Brian Copenhagen and Jamie Briggs round out the group, playing guitar and drums respectively. Their CD, self-titled Navar, is a full-length, 12-track surprise mainly because the CD was created and released within six months of the bands formation. The musicians produced a thoughtfully blended mix of songs despite how quickly they released their first CD; though I dare say that the next release should be better, if more time is dedicated to the creative process. The album is solid musically, with adequate vocal arrangements, featuring a good mix of hard-rocking tracks and sweet ballads, my favorite of which is track two, Virgin Life. Track five, Heroin, breaks through with some wicked guitar playing, far better than I had hoped for after hearing the first four tracks, which had softer edges. Track eight, Twisted, includes more of the bands superb guitar abilities, as well as biting drums, leading me to conclude that a Navar live show is probably quite rowdy. The entire disc is chock full of intelligent, well-played material, and each track is distinctive in its own right. Navar is not a musical clone of any particular group or genre, though a few tracks reminded me of Third Eye Blind and similar alternative bands of the late nineties. Being a fan of this genre doesnt hurt, though Navar cant quite be put into one category or another permanently. Fortunately, musical genres have blurred boundaries today, allowing for the easy transition from one style to another on one CD. Navar does just that, though there is no mistaking that Navar is a modern rock band. Overall, the CD is rather good, though perhaps a tad too cautious for my tastes. I feel confident that as Navar spends more time together, and matures musically, their creative abilities will begin to merge, and their sophomore release will be even better than this one, which is still better than average, by any means.
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