It's strange to think that because pop festival in Split had such particular image & sound, performers often followed cemented cliché (mediterranean guitars, mandolines, even lyrics had to be about ships,sailing,sea and vine - going so far to adopt local dialect) and very rarely someone would try things little different.
Sarajevo born Kemal Monteno performs summer hit of '77 but although he does things nicely as they were supposed to be done - he could probably sing in Korean pop festival and still sounds recognizable - this time he follows mentioned cliché so close that its literally undistinguishable from any other singer arriving in Split. First, song is not his own but written by old pro Stipica Kalogjera which means music (pretty and mellow as it is) has a certain uniformed Split clothes and honestly absolutely anybody could sing this. Second, the arrangements are tailored to appeal to Split audience so again we are talking about cliché - anonymous studio musicians and cooing backing vocals. Put anybody here and it would still sound the same, so why wasting such a fabulous voice on something so ordinary?
Perhaps this single should be taken only as a experiment in genre. Monteno was already famous not only as a first rate singer but also as a composer and on B side he has his own "Split ballad" that follows everything mentioned to a T. It's another melodic relative of A side with almost identical sound & lyrics, as to show "look,I can do this as well myself". The voice is excellent as usual but material is corny, no matter how you look at it.
No comments:
Post a Comment