"Hrabra kao prije" by Vanna (2003)

Vanna apparently has everything - she possesses one of the most beautiful voices in Croatian pop music, modern urban sensibility, sharp wit and a supermodel looks so its small wonder she was always highly regarded from the very first moment we saw her back in early 1990s. She is also cursed with syndrome of incredibly strong start, where her early hits with band Electro Team seems to eclipse all her subsequent solo work and no matter how determinedly she proved her talent again and again, audience seems to consider early years the most memorable (those first hits always get people excited at concerts more than anything else). Perhaps more than anything else, its collective memory that connects that particular music with certain moment in time that people idolize as their youth, because Vanna still sounds and looks exactly the same as always, so its not like she particularly changed since she left the band. 

Croatia is a small country and naturally all these musicians tend to often collaborate, so there is a tendency that same team eventually produces music that sounds just a little bit alike - because Vanna continuously works with people like Ante Pecotić and Bruno Kovačić there are really just a small changes from album to album. This time we get little more of rock guitars but as usual there are lots of anthemic ballads, mid tempo pop and excellent vocals, nothing really drastically different from what we already heard before. Personally I enjoy it more with each repeated listening and it might be kind of music that grows on listener slowly, but I also understand critics who suggest that her work lack in variety. There is also a very important factor in explanation that pop music everywhere around the world has always been influenced by international trends, so unconsciously we might always compare it with something else from foreign charts. This is why after all this carefully produced and acrobatically sung songs, the closing jazzy ballad "Kupi mi"  with its late night, reflective feeling comes as the most memorable. Its a perfect closing song and one of the prettiest things Vanna has ever recorded, however its also a clear change of pace from the rest of the album.