USPAVANKA ZA RADMILU M.

"A Lullaby for Radmila M." - as the title reads in English - is the sixth studio album of BIJELO DUGME and the last one featuring Zeljko Bebek as lead vocalist. This album also marked a return to their original line-up, which had not been playing since 1975 - drummer Ivandić was now back from prison for illegal drug possession. Keyboardist Pravdić and bassist Redzić were still around and the bandleader Bregović initially wanted to disband the group after this album, which was to serve as their swan song. Tensions between him and Bebek were only one of the reasons for doing that because Bregović felt as if the band cycle made its full turn and the group had nothing more to offer. Later on, he changed his mind, unfortunately for true music fans!

The album itself is a mixed bag, almost equally divided between two sides. The first, "heavy" side, presents five uninspired, unoriginal, heavy "arena rock" cliché, which sound so lame even if compared with "hair metal" contemporaries such as BON JOVI or VAN HALEN. In that context, the banal citation of "In the beginning..." part taken from the Book of Genesis in "Drugarice i drugovi" (En. "Comrades and Comradesses") as well as a laughable intake of THE CLASH contemporary hit "Should I Stay Or Should I Go" guitar riff in "Zasto me ne podnosi tvoj tata" (En. "Why Doesn't Your Father Like Me") are really very bad. The latter also features a horrible singing by Bebek, imitating the ridiculous style of legions of heavy metal vocalists - a strained nasal voice that was a foundation of disastrous vocal styles of Mladen Vojičić and especially Alen Islamović on later albums.

"Kosovska" (En. "The Kosovo Song") is interesting solely because it was probably the first rock'n'roll sung in Albanian language, while it continues the trend of political manipulation by Bregović. One should remember that mass demonstrations of ethnic Albanians took part in Kosovo province in 1981, so anything "Albanian" already started to have "suspicious" connotation. Although Bregović defended himself saying he did not want to manipulate and use it for marketing purposes but to write a sincere song in Albanian ("after so many years living together with them, why not try to learn a few Albanian words"), the result was rather poor and negligible in its musical merit (while the lyrical one was just plain silly). The best song on side one was oddly a strong dance hit "U vrijeme otkazanih letova" (En. "In Time Of The Flights Delayed") done in a trendy "new romantic" style.

The side two is much better containing four laid-back ballads, out of which two are excellent. "Ako mozes zaboravi" (En. "Forget, If You Can") with leading lines ("where could you go at this terrible moments, you cannot go anywhere") is one of the best and most popular DUGME ballads. It builds upon an easy and melodic laid back groove, a choir utilising a Russian folk elements and solo guitar picking resembling the better moments of DIRE STRAITS. The closing title track is an instrumental with acoustic guitars duet of Bregović and Vlatko Stefanovski (ex LEB I SOL) as guest. It is surely one of the most beautiful and gentle melodies penned by Bregović, allegedly dedicated to his secret love affair with one Radmila, daughter of a local Communist politician. The most unusual song on the album is perhaps the jazz-coloured lounge ballad "Ovaj ples dame biraju" (En. "The Ladies Choose For This Dance"), with double bass and saxophone, revoking the atmosphere of a smoke-filled nightclub burdened with eroticism and slow dance.

Objectively speaking this album could deserve a "good" mark, having 3-4 good to excellent tracks. Unfortunately, I am sort of picky when it comes to bad moments, and these are rather awful, so overall two stars from me. Even these better moments are nothing you would desperately seek due to their progressive, innovative or original content.

PERSONAL RATING: 2,5/5

P.A. RATING: 2/5