Yes,I remember Pro Arte from my childhood - they were hugely successful with some decidedly nonsense,bubble gum hit singles hat brought them record sales but completely ruined any reputation they might have in the musician circles. True,even Beatles recorded "Ob la di,ob la da" and "Yellow Submarine" but Pro Arte really played on that card for all that's worth. That is why I never even thought about listening to them,expecting some annoying catchy jingles that perhaps worked back than but would probably just sound plain silly now.
Than I realized Pro Arte played behind some other musicians of the time and as a backing band they were not so bad,so I decided to give them a chance. Curiosity killed the cat.
Guess what - their first LP album is actually not as horrible as I expected - guys are playing some serious soul-rock quite well,everything sparks and it's not even so far removed from what another pop band from Sarajevo "Indexi" did around the same time.The only thing that really stands out is main vocals by Vladimir Savčić-Čobi who clearly emulated Tom Jones - to hear Tom Jones singing with backing by energetic rock band is a somewhat surreal experience, because the match is strange fitting - while Čobi was by all accounts very sweet and much liked man,I am not completely convinced that this was the right place for him and perhaps he really belonged elsewhere (no wonder band later moved to corny material).
I was so unsure about this album that I had to listen it several times during a week - band is on fire but vocals are so melodramatic and pompous that it spoils the picture. Than I listened other albums and realized this is actually the best one,perhaps at the very beginning they really showed off in the best light until later they turned to pop jingles. The album actually regularly showed on several "best of Ex Yu Rock" lists as a respected historical document from 1970. so I won't be too harsh on them - from what I heard by Pro Arte this is by far their most serious recording.
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