Archive Review: Dave Navarro's Trust No One (2001)

As guitarist for two of the seminal alt-rock bands to break out of the crowded eighties music scene in Los Angeles, Dave Navarro’s reputation precedes him. Along with Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell, Navarro helped to shape and define the look and sound of Lollapalooza-styled alternative rock. His blistering six-string style and exotic flourishes earned Navarro a following of his own as well as status as a guitar hero for the new millennia.

What Navarro’s legion of fans may not be prepared for is the guitarist’s solo debut, Trust No One, which sounds little like his efforts with those two well-known bands. Sure, you’ll find a soupcon of Jane in songs like “Sunny Day” or the stunningly muscular “Everything.” For the most part, however, Navarro blazes his own trail with Trust No One. “Not For Nothing” is a rampaging beast with a scalding recurring riff that teeters on the edge of madness while “Venus In Furs” draws a veil of sound around Navarro’s ethereal vocals.

The album-closing “Slow Motion Sickness” is an epic composition with looping guitars and a haunting ambience. The lyrics on Trust No One range from introspective to the surreal and Navarro’s vocals are surprisingly supple and effective. It’s the artist’s astonishing six-string work that listeners should tune in for, though, Navarro following lightning-fast riffs with delicate acoustic melodies, mixing standard hard rock style with disparate influences drawn from the blues, acoustic folk, and Middle Eastern raga.

Fans of Navarro’s earlier work owe it to themselves to check out his solo vision. Trust No One is a guitar lover’s dream come true, a solid solo effort from one of rock’s finest six-string wizards. (Capitol Records, released 2001)

Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™ zine