"Meri" by Meri Cetinić (1979)

Alone in her quiet corner, Meri Cetinić grew into quite original and unusual presence on Croatian pop scene, a female singer/songwriter with a distinctive sound and quite formidable talent that makes her our own version of Carole King. Curiously, she is one of the many refugees from the immensely important band "More" that served as a hotbed for the future pop stars, but unlike the rest of them, Cetinić was actually capable of writing her own, first-class material - it comes as a surprise that she didn't write more for other artists and even more so to realise that with all that catalogue, her biggest hits were actually written by other people. While her albums were mostly self-penned, it was left to Zdenko Runjić and Đorđe Novković to actually create genuine smash hits like "Samo Simpatija", "Lastavica" or "Četiri stađuna". 

Cetinić was the main vocal on the famous 1974 album "More" and it was just a matter of time before she will try to spread her wings as a solo artist - those first few singles were interesting but frankly nothing special, however the 1979. album was genuine surprise and it signalled the arrival of fully formed solo artist. Like majority of her work, it was recorded in the private studio of her brother Ante Cetinić (in the Netherlands) and this is perhaps explanation why music sounds far more current and modern than most of our releases at the time - while Meri herself leans towards weeping piano ballads, there are enough genuine joyful, disco moments here to lift the whole collection on the different level. It also points at interesting gulf between artist's true inclinations: left to her own devices, Meri might be too sentimental and downhearted, but every now and than its as someone pointed her at other direction and than she delivers gems. Upbeat part of her debut is classic now, however perhaps the most interesting song here is her own "Živim S Tobom" that was already previously recorded by redoubtable Gabi Novak and as a obvious commercial hook, album also have previous year's superhit "Samo Simpatija" recorded when singer was still part of "More" - it is a credit to producer that he managed to make it a perfect fit with the rest of the album.