I have always found amusing when I hear people talking about great and exciting 1980s - this is nostalgia talking and it has nothing to do with reality, because I was there and let me tell you, we had our share of troubles, fears and phobias just like at any time. Visually it was time of clowning and statement making, when everyone tried to upstage each other (big hair, big jewelry) and as for music, well there were some catchy numbers to be sure but also a lot of crap, awful synthesisers, drum machines and occasionally some pretty bleak stuff that desperately wanted to prove the point of "being different" when in retrospect it was mostly waggon-jumping.
Slađana Milošević bravely attempted to be cutting edge in 1983 - even the album cover screams 1980s - assembling help from foreign musicians (this was a big deal back than, to show off names and studios on a cover) and rolling in the bed sheets as true star should. Unfortunately Bebi Doll did exactly the same in her album debut very same year (with even similar photo cover) and sorry, Slađana, but Bebi was far more interesting - even though both albums hardly raised any dust, since all this new wave stuff appealed only to handful of trendy kids. Not that Milošević lost her knack for hit songs - as her own Toni Basil tribute "Miki,Miki" nicely shows, she could write hit in her sleep, but too much of this stuff is purely derivative - say what you want, I hear "Flashdance" and Meat Loaf everywhere.
Released 12 years after her last studio album, "Animal tested" finds veteran signer doing completely left turn and instead of following any predictable option Slađana Milošević goes head-on hard rock - its all screaming guitars, snarling vocals and goth darkness (several songs are recorded in English) which is all quite admirable statement coming from artist who could have played safe. Sure, it is a shock if one is familiar with her peppy singles recorded two decades previously - and I dearly love those - however I do admire her guts to go so far and even if it's not a pleasant listening (apparently inspired by political revolt back in her homeland) it is a path that hardly anyone from her generation would have taken. Talking about old singles, one of them "Sexy dama" gets a new treatment here and its mind-boggling. If in some parallel universe 22 year old Slađana Milošević could possibly hear herself in two decades time, I bet she would have been impressed. A rare instance of artist actually getting more interesting with time.
Highlights:
"Uniform", "Detonatori", "Sexy dama II"
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