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| Review: Harmony Park - Noteworthy demo |
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 After weeks of listening and hours of gut-wrenching critique, Mitch finally delivers his review of Harmony Park's "Noteworthy" CD - a thirteen-song demo that references past sounds as diverse as Styx, Kansas, Dream Theatre, Yes and the band that put art-deco into art-rock, The Miami Sound Machine. Huh? The Miami Sound Machine? Yup. Read on. . .
Band: Harmony Park
Release: "Noteworthy" demo
Self-Produced
The Praise
Harmony Park is a six member (now five, singer Pat Curry has left the band) rock ensemble based in Brownstown, MI whose music is mostly reminiscent of prog-rockers Styx, Kansas and Dream Theater, but is peppered with guitar tones of Yes (e.g track 2, "Passing Time") and Van Halen (track 8 "Crying"). The dual guitar and song writing team of Dominic Margitan and Joseph Czentnar have created a protracted musical adventure for the AOR (album oriented rock) fan who still yearns for the days when world-class guitar playing was taken seriously - before punk, grunge and garage rock emasculated the genre and chased it from the radio.
The performances on the aptly named "Noteworthy" are technically proficient, musically sophisticated and rock solid. Each member of Harmony Park (Czentnar & Margitan on guitars, Pat Curry on lead vocals and guitar, Ken Morse on drums, Dietrich Bonawitz on bass, Jeff Overholt on keyboards and Jami Avedisian on additional lead vocals) contribute to the arrangements without error - quite an accomplishment considering the involved nature of the music.
The first two tracks of this lengthy demo, "New Skies" and "Passing Time" capture the very essence of the progressive rock of the late seventies to early eighties.
Special mention should also be made of the band's adept vocal harmonies that sound so eerily close to Styx on some tracks (e.g. track 7, "I Believe") you'd think you were listening to out-takes from Styx's twenty-five year old "Pieces of Eight" LP.
The production quality of "Noteworthy" is equally meticulous; every track seems to have just enough punch and articulation. Even the stereo panning and sweeps, that would seem gratuitous or even pretentious in contemporary genres, seem appropriate for this release.
Make no mistake, an enormous amount of good work went into "Noteworthy" - which makes it particularly painful for me to get to the "Punch."
The Punch
Problem #1: Though the music is sophisticated, filled with truly great arrangements and chord progressions to support the exceptional guitar work of Czentnar & Margitan, the lyrics are not. After all the care and attention to minute detail that went in to the music and the recording, the songs suffer from vague ideas and trite considerations.
Most of the lyrics are rife with immature cliche's, forced rhymes, saccharine imagery and enough believe-in-yourself's to fill a pre-teen diary with daily affirmations. If lyricist Dominic Margitan had spent as much time crafting his words as his guitar arrangements, perhaps I wouldn't have to suffer through lines like these:
'Lookin for a way to a brand new start / feel the warmth of change, yet it chills my heart / and when I find my way to this different world / overlooking oysters to find my pearl' (from track 1 "New Skies")
Rainbows fade / losing color every day / my eyes afraid / to be colorless as shades of gray / from all that I've seen / my eyes looked away / my life as it seems is trampled in pain' (from track 12 "Shades of Gray")
'Lost in the sky / the sun fills my eyes / clouds cover me / yet reveal all I see' (from track 4, "Rescue Me")
Once I had a dream / that an angel took my hand / she took me for a ride / and made me understand / but the dream is over now / and the night's still here / when I went to find the answers / to the questions in my ear..'. (from track 9, "No Question Why")
Now, you could remind me, as my friend Naploeon K did, that bands like Yes had lyrics that were even more obscure and seemingly pointless than these. That's true, but Yes' lyrics were so esoteric and open to metaphoric interpretation it gave them a mystical quality that added to their allure. I never got the impression that Yes' early lyrics were supposed to make sense or simply fell short due to neglect. It seemed an intentional challenge to the lyrical paradigm; free-word-jazz, if you will.
Harmony Park's lyrics, on the other hand, touch on concepts such as becoming an individual, dealing with changes in your life and, of course, believing in yourself - yet never approach those concepts in a compelling way. This might be fine if the intended audience is first year junior high school students who are only beginning to question their existence (provided Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park and Eminem haven't gotten to them first). But I'm more apt to believe it's aging prog-rock fans like me will be interested in what Harmony Park is trying to do; reinvigorate the good 'ole days of guitar-oriented prog-rock. But they'll have to do a better job with the word-play to hook those of us who think we've seen it all, done it all, and heard it all.
If their goal was to recreate new material in the style of Kansas, Styx or Dream Theatre, they've come closer to accomplishing it than any act I've heard, locally or otherwise. If, however, they believe what a Strutter'zine reviewer claimed as stated in their bio, that, "they have created a style all their own," they're fooling themselves. This is not contemporary progressive music, as their is nothing new here to add to rock & roll's evolution. Harmony Park, as fronted by former siniger Pat Curry, is the retrogressive (and maybe nostalgic) mimicry of another era - though done exceptionally well.
However, if Jami Avedisian is on leading the band with vocals.....this leads me to problem #2.
Problem #2: On the four tracks fronted by singer Jami Avedisian, Harmony Park sound more like The Miami Sound Machine (especially on Track 5 - "Don't Follow Me") than Kansas or Styx, creating what sounds like a separate act altogether. Avedisian has that same pleasant yet un-remarkable voice that propelled Gloria Estephan from southern Florida bungalo-band singer to world-wide hit-maker. But she doesn't appear on this release until track 3, making her inclusion seem like a crossover afterthought. Her contributions would better serve another project that doesn't rely so heavily on what has traditionally been a very masculine venture.
The Conclusion
I have to confess, I had a very difficult time with this review. For weeks I've been trying to warm up to this CD, but to no avail. I've written countless notes and at least three drafts to get to the crux of my own opinion - second-guessing myself on every point until I threw my hands up. Technically, the music on "Noteworthy" is very well done - I just can't get it to stick to my ears.
Maybe it's me; I never was once to sit through a whole album's worth of Dream Theatre, Kansas, Styx or even Rush - though I've enjoyed much of their music. I'm more a fan of English progressive bands such as King Crimson, Yes, Emerson Lake & Palmer, early Genesis and Pink Floyd. Those bands delivered a mystique that stimulated my imagination the way the others couldn't (Note: you may have noticed recently that bands like System of a Down and Tool are beginning to experiment with similar retrogressive English sound).
As for the Harmony Park's lyrics, well, "Noteworthy" isn't really about the words, as the name implies. Rather, it's more a plush vehicle driven by Morse, Bonawitz and Overholt to support Margitan and Czentnar's impressive guitar work.
So, "Noteworthy" (when released) is a buy for anyone pining for the good old days, when Kansas and Styx topped the charts and lead guitarists reigned o'er the kingdom of rock.
- Mitch
Late News: 8/23/02 According to the Harmony Park Website Drummer Ken Morse has left the band. Harmony Park is currently looking for a new drummer. If interested, call Kami Avedisian @ (313) 363-1350 or
e-mail Jami@wwnet.net..
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