Sandwiched somewhere between his art-pop beginnings with the band Dorian Gray and later middle-age renaissance, singer Massimo Savić experienced curious chapter in his career, where for short time in late 1980s he almost became genuine pop star, courtesy of composer Zrinko Tutić who at that time was untouchable as Pygmalion behind many other artists - Tutić, who was previously fine singer himself, somehow saw potential in powerful-voiced young Savić and decided that with some tweaking and re-designing he might even became commercial. It is very curious match, since they apparently come from different worlds but older composer perfectly understood that singer had unique talent that might just need some nurturing and assembled forces to present him in professional setting, presenting him as a first-rate soul singer that Savić always was.
While this collaboration eventually resulted in only handful studio albums, this one is perhaps strongest of them - in spite of heavy synthesizers that place the album squarely in 1980s, it had lots of fresh ideas and not only that Savić thrives in this surroundings but it gave him several really big hits ("Stranac u noći", "Samo jedan dan" and a widely played re-make "Zamisli život u ritmu muzike za ples" with Jura Stublić) that suddenly made him commercially visible without compromising his status. Vocally, I have always considered Savić as some sort of Croatian variation on theatrical baritone of David Bowie and Scott Walker (this obvious similarity bothered me a bit when he first arrived with Croatian cover of "The sun ain't gonna shine anymore" and while everyone flipped about the song, I kind of found it gimmicky) - cover of Walker's "Stay with me" (in itself a cover of US original) points at the past while the rest of the album showcases his strong and tender voice in the most interesting light. Seriously, the more I listen to Savić, the more I am inclined to find him one of the most unusual and original voices around, in fact he might be in the same league with legendary Josipa Lisac as they both share uncompromising and highly recognizable style that is always ready to experiment. Even though this could have been just another Zrinko Tutić-produced album (ubiquitous Marina Tucaković shows up as a lyrics writer) it actually placed Savić prominently on hit charts and hinted at possible longevity in the business - if Dorian Gray was just a short lived youthful experiment, this showed that with the right guidance he might stick around bit longer.
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