NAVIGATOR

Call to Conscience is a very fine opener indeed, energetic and melodic, accessible without being too poppy. Navigator is certainly not a downright example of prog but in the end they are justifiably included in the Archives I feel. Next ones Feeding Ground and The Path are suddenly much more spacey and give the release a more progressive status. The album goes on roughly in the same style as second and third track. What volume two has in common with no.1 is the equal standard and it makes Navigator a dependable band which means if you like first track (style and sound) you can easily go for the album because there is nothing that will disappoint you later on. Maybe there are no extremely pleasant surprises either but you can't have it all, can you.

Again the overall verdict is quite positive. Navigator is simply a good, at times very good neoband and the ReEvolution releases are worthwhile to go for if you are a neo devotee. If you're more of a die hard progger you'd better pass on with Navigator. All in all I like what I hear with both Volumes and it's hard to pick a winner so also with Volume two I will go for the three stars as Navigator is not indispensable prog. But it's always worthy to be checked out. 3,2 also for ReEvolution Volume two.

This USA neoband was formed in the late nineties and came up with this idea to write a sort of twin album, not as a doubler but in two different releases. Part one appears to be a very acceptable experience all in all. What strikes me is there are no poor fillers and neither superb highlights. Third song Capacities is the only stand out track with very good guitar in fourth minute followed by near excellent keyboard play for over a minute. This is the only song that deserves a score over 3,5* (3,7).

Alas the rest is much less, somewhere between 3 and 3,5 stars for all other 10. Pretty equal in quality, that's for sure. Summarized I would say the execution is good/great and the Gary Brooker-like vocals are very much ok as well. Only downside of Navigator is the songwriting. It's not poor really but it's not great either. If they would improve on this it could be a four star case in the future. Let's see with their successor, Volume two... Three stars for now (3,2).