POP

This is second solo album of renouned keybordist/organist Tihomir Pop Asanovic, issued in 1976.

Asanovic took some extra time during his engagement with JUGOSLOVENSKA POP SELEKCIJA, a short-lived supergroup that gathered a dozen or so important Yugoslavian musicians, to record his second solo album. He kept his standard collaborators, J. Boncina, P. Ugrin and B. Doblekar in the team. These formed the core around which the band SEPTEMBER was about to release their debut the same year. Drummer R. Divjak (ex-TIME) was also kept in from the previous album "Majko zemljo". Instead of Josipa Lisac, Asanovic invited here another celebrated female jazz and rock vocalist, Zdenka Kovacicek. The vocal tracks were shared among her, Boncina and Asanovic (This time around, Dado Topic was missing).

"Pop" (Asanovic's nickname), as the vinyl was titled, is far less interesting work than its predecessor. It is not that the sound is more "pop", but the style is overall less challenging and set more into the mainstream crossover jazz/R'n'B territory. That would not be a serious problem if the material were better composed and arranged. Thus, it all sounds a bit lame and does not provoke a listener. Some songs like "Plejboj" (Playboy), "Hiljadu zena" (A Thousand Women) and "O ljudima danas, o ljudima juce" (On People Today, On People Yesterday) are outright stupid. On the instrumental side, it is very good record; Asanovic and Ugrin are brilliant especially in keyboards/trumpet duelling tracks, "Skakavac" (Grasshopper) and lengthy improvisation "Ekspres Novi Sad". "Vremena je malo" (There's Little Time) with its almost honky-tonk piano sounds a bit like taken from a scene shot in a drunken Western saloon. Zdenka Kovacicek gave good singing in "Mali crni brat" (Little Black Brother) and "Dodji drugi put" (Come Another Time), but she is surely capable of better things to do.

This album lies somewhere between 2 and 3 stars rating. Because of exceptional instrumental play of Asanovic and due to sincerity in pursuing his own musical style, I opt for a higher mark.