"Svijet Tvoje Čarolije" by Giuliano (2000)

Another powerful vocalist from Split and one more rocker-turned-mainstream-pop, Giuliano Đanić is gifted with naturally strong and beautiful voice that was previously heard in rock music (he was member of several rock bands before he went solo) but here he does something else completely - just like Goran Karan (same town, same rock background) in order to reach audiences, Giuliano is musician tempted to leave music close to his heart for something with more commercial appeal. Where Karan eventually impressed and inspired legendary composer Zdenko Runjić who tailored the whole album for him, young Giuliano got himself composer Tomislav Mrduljaš and kind of dance pop.

Now, at the very first listening, the sheer combination of singer's attractive voice and this fluffy dance pop is almost sacrilegious: I understand this is something appealing to young audiences in clubs & bars around Split, but this guy surely deserves something more substantial. He was born with really good, strong voice that sounds expressive in ballads but this album decidedly leans towards upbeat dance pop (calculated marketing) and at first I cringed with embarrassment for him, thinking how bravely he embraced something that must have been far removed from music that initially attracted him into business. Or could it be that it sounded different as demo and was later re-modeled  as dance pop during post production? I decided that it was production: singer actually sounds very good and committed (specially on slower numbers) and he is joy to listen, so all this dance pop candy must have been added later. That everything actually works in spite my initial reservations (I still can't warm up to this generic, anonymous dance pop and its forced giddiness) just shows what a good singer Giuliano is - I believe he is one of the best voices currently around and wish him better luck with repertoire and collaborators. The only good music is the music coming from the heart, everything else is calculation destined to be eclipsed with new trends.