PJESME S PLANINE

"Pjesme s planine" (Eng. "Songs From The Mountain") was the second album of Drago Mlinarec, recorded and released in 1972, after he spent some time in the mountainous countryside where he wrote most of these songs. The backing band was titled PRIJATELJI (The Friends), while instead of departed Brane Zivkovic and Husein Hasanefendic, who had taken part in the previous album "A ti se ne daj", new members were keyboard player Srecko Zubak and lead guitarist Jadranko Budic. The remaining musicians from the debut, drummer Stancic and a fine bassist Nenad Zubak, were present here.

It is another strong effort of Mlinarec's songwriting, which contained two extended progressive masterpieces. First is a wonderful folk-rock epic of the title song with some hints of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young guitar sound, while the second is a slightly psychedelic and jazz-oriented "Dijete zvijezda" ("The Starchild") with FLOYD-like passages of bass and electric piano/organ. "Pjesma o njenim snovima" ("Song About Her Dreams") and "Trebao sam ali nisam" ("I Should But I Did Not") are nice folksy acoustic ballads, the latter having percussion and tambourine in the vein of early VELVET UNDERGROUND. "Nocna ptica" ("The Night Bird") is extremely catchy pop-rock track with Mlinarec taking a female role when singing the lyrics about a lonely and abandoned woman, while heavy boogie rock of "Otac i sin" ("Father And Son") resembles the biblical theme of Prodigal Son. The album is overall very good, although Mlinarec's voice is not at his best performance and the songs seem a bit unharmonized. "Skladiste tisine" ("The Silence Depot") is a sort of DYLAN- esque "protest song" with harmonica, singing about "the protesters being afraid to speak up and keeping their truth to themselves", as Mlinarec explained during its live and slightly better version recorded on the live album of "BOOM Pop Festival Ljubljana '72".

"Pjesme s planine" is an excellent album that should be recommended, if nothing then for the sake of two progressive gems, the title track and "Dijete zvijezda". However, my feeling is that, in spite of enjoying the fame as the most accomplished Mlinarec's work, it cannot be judged as true "masterpiece".