NavaCross
Album: All The Way Home
Label: Hi4Head
Tracks: 10
Website: http://www.navacross.co.uk

Confession time, this one has been out a couple of months, but it got into the wrong box on our recent move and has only just been unpacked. Apologies to the band for the delay and to you, dear reader, for the delay in being able to recommend this to you.

NavaCross are purveyors of good honest, raw, southern rock, with a bluesy edge, one that sounds like it's come out of some Hicksville town in Arkansas, right up until you hear it name checking places like Waltham Abbey, at which point you realise just how well these boys have got the sound off.

"All The Way Home" sounds like it should have formed a significant part of the soundtrack for "True Blood" it's really evocative of those badland towns, the sort of places where the good 'ole boys go off alligator wrestling and frog gigging.

What I really like it is that whilst the band are playing a music style that's been heavily influenced by the U S of A, this is recorded in the style, not trying to pass it's self off and it's a stronger album because of it, it gives NavaCross a sound that is distinctive.

They are not a band to avoid saying things either, "Clowns" is a well considered strike at world leaders, their greed and their deliberate decisions to support their rich and powerful minorities rather than support the working man.

There's also a retrospective touch to "All The Way Home", it's got that homespun feel. There were times I found myself reminded of the old skiffle bands, The Vipers particularly, a feeling that this is a group of mates that have come together for some fun and discovered that they're actually very good at it.

Neil King