A lot of interesting things happened in 1984. Winter Olympic Games in Sarajevo, The International Garden Festival opened in Liverpool, but none of those events are on par with the release of this album. This Synthpop masterpiece released by at that time an unknown Croatian group called Denis & Denis. This album and song Program Tvog Kompjutera catapulted them to stardom of ex-Yugoslavia's popular music. Where they will stay until lead singer Marina Perazić leaves the group in 1986 to pursue a solo career.
Now, let's talk about actual music. This album is full of fantastic pop songs which can be described in two ways:
1.Very bouncy and playful
2.Mellow, downbeat atmospheric synthpop/electropop
The album opens up with a fantastic title track which is easily one of the best songs of the album. Fantastic synth work is paired with gorgeous Marina's vocals. The chorus of this song is absolutely amazing. The melody of it is very catchy and memorable. Seriously, this album is full of very catchy and memorable hooks.
This album will appeal to a lot of CHVRCHES fans if you ask me. If CHVRCHES existed during the 80's they would sound like Denis & Denis. Both groups share nack for very playful and bouncy synth work, a contrast between male and female vocals.
It’s exactly that bouncy synth work that makes most of the album sound so snappy and fun to listen to. There is no boring song on this album, not a single note on it is wasted and they play lots of them. Lots of great synth parts can be found on this album, Arpeggios on Telefon, in fact, there are lots of arpeggios all over this album, the intro synth bass riff of Ti i Ja and synth solo on Program Tvog Kompjutera first come to mind.
Marina’s vocals on this album manage to elevate this album to the whole next level. They are very sensual when it's needed but never too much, very soothing and relaxing but never boring, her vocal inflections on songs like Tek Je Sedam Sati and Telefon are absolutely gorgeous, and vocal harmonies all throughout the album but especially in song Sačuvaj Nešto.
Another thing that this album does in a very good way is its flow. Every song flows into the next one in such a fantastic way and all of that is because of those more mellow, downbeat atmospheric songs. They may not be on par with the best songs on this album but they are still very good and have their purpose in making this album sound as fantastic as it is.
The best songs of this album, in my opinion, would be Čuvaj Se, Telefon, Ti i Ja, Dvadeset i Osam Minuta do Pet, Doba Noćnih Kiša. If I had to pick my least favorite song I would have to go with Dio Refrena, don't get me wrong that song is still pretty good, but competition is strong.
This album sounds kinda dated, but let's be honest most of the 80s synth-pop sounds dated and of its time so it's not that kind of a big deal. If you enjoy synth pop you will enjoy this album probably too.
(Side note: Album is not really available on Spotify in its original but all songs are so I’ve compiled the album its original order into a playlist)
Very strange, different and dance provoking music, my parents probably bounced to this in the disco :D