Album of the Week 17-2024: Navarone – Coda
While I don’t want to make a habit out of reviewing live albums here, sometimes a release pops up that is notable enough to warrant it. ‘Coda’, after all, is the registration of the final concert Navarone, arguably my favorite Dutch rock band, ever played. And a mammoth set it was: 31 song spread out over two cd’s crammed to their 80-minute maximums. The video portion, which can be streamed or downloaded via an included code, even passes the three-hour mark. This is how you bid farewell to your fans as a band, especially given how well Navarone performs these songs.
Readers who have followed me for a while may have noticed that Navarone’s fifth album ‘V’ was never reviewed on this site. And there’s a reason for that. That album’s leap towards pop overproduction was quite disappointing to me. It worked for some of the ballads and the fairly fragmented ‘Stakes’, but I felt it neutered the rock band power Navarone had. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one disappointed with the album, as disagreements over the musical direction of the band were cited as the main reason for the break-up. ‘Coda’ once again proves what the Dutch rock scene is going to miss.
The setlist does a great job of covering all the bases. Each of the band’s five albums is represented more or less evenly. With releases like these, there are always songs you’d wish would have been on there – ‘On My Knees’, ‘Chrome’ and ‘Waste’, in my case – but they did as great a job as possible here. Personally, I am pleased to see nearly all songs of their sophomore album ‘Vim and Vigor’ featured. It might not be the most accessible Navarone album, but it was when the band felt like its most creatively uninhibited. My personal favorite Navarone song ‘Time’ is featured in a glorious version and ‘Indigo Blue’ remains a masterpiece.
Given that the show was recorded on January 5th of this year and there already is a final product, it is remarkable how well singer Merijn van Haren mixed the album. Every instrument is more or less exactly as present as it should be, with the guitars of Kees Lewiszong and Roman Huijbreghs being panned enough to create a fairly spacious sound, and the little left-right tricks like in ‘Black and Blue’ work very well. The master could have used a slightly boomier bottom-end, but the fact that Lewiszong’s guitar sound is fairly bottom-heavy to begin with only truly makes that noticeable when he plays a solo.
As for the music: Navarone is as good as they always were. About equal parts seventies hard rock – Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith being the closest references, though Van Haren’s mighty voice contributes to that significantly – and nineties rock, Navarone has always been great at creating a timeless rock sound that could evolve in different directions. Unpredictably epic on ‘Vim and Vigor’, fearlessly experimental on ‘Oscillation’, rocking unpretentiously on ‘Salvo’, which I kind of underestimated when it was first released… And it all works well alongside each other on this set. Van Haren appears to avoid the highest peaks of his chest voice in the beginning, but that is probably just to preserve himself for the end of the three-hour set. He sounds incredible regardless.
So there it is: the farewell album of – in my opinion – one of the greatest bands the Netherlands ever has known. To be fair, not every rock band gets to even make one fantastic album, let alone four. While it is a shame it had to end the way it did, ‘Coda’ certainly is a far better final curtain call than ‘V’. Nothing about the recording feels like a band forcing out one last hurrah. Instead, everyone gives their all. For those unfamiliar with Navarone’s work, ‘Coda’ ironically serves as a fairly good introduction to their music. The world needs more live albums this good.
Recommended tracks: ‘Time’, ‘December’, ‘Indigo Blue’, ‘Days of Yore’, ‘The Red Queen Effect’, ‘Wander’
Kevy Metal 
No trackbacks yet.