Despite all the excitement that followed Josipa Lisac's departure for US (during her absence, readers of biggest national pop music magazine "Džuboks" voted her as the female singer of the year three years in a row and she wasn't even there) upon her return the public welcome was decidedly cold-shouldered. While she was away, back home the local music scene changed almost beyond recognition - not only that the new, angry young bands sprouted almost overnight from everywhere but the old, monolithic institutions like heavily orchestrated music festivals slowly started losing the reverence.
Starting all over again, Lisac quickly assembled her songwriting team - Karlo Metikoš (music) and Ivica Krajač (lyrics) attempted to catch up with new music trends and served the über diva with collage of various influences, from reggae ("Ne budi lud") to retro-rock ("Knock down"), blues ("Rendez-vous sa sotonom") and even country ("Magla") with her powerful, strong voice as the main connecting ingredient. For the first (and the last) time we actually hear something as social commentary ("Pazi,oštar pas", "Make up") while the playful title song became defiant, autobiographical ode to idiosyncrasy that with time became inseparable part of her public persona. Not everything is first rate and occasional filler ("Mister gaf" anyone?) suggest that diva might had better prospects if only she allowed other songwriters to the table, but ultimately it was affectionate loyalty to Metikoš that determined the whole direction of her career. As always, Lisac sounds 100% committed and passionate which resulted with this album re-establishing her status as genuine star, while the rest of her contemporaries slowly faded away.
The best track: closing piano-and-voice ballad "U mislima" is her own personal "By the time I get to Phoenix" and stripped of trademark vocal affectations, it is actually surprisingly poetic and poignant piece of music.
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