DIGNI RUKU

By the mid-80s GALIJA totally lost direction and musical ideas. Striving to gain commercial success and to get to the mainstream market meant that the progressive elements in their music had to be abolished. Constant changes of personnel did not allow GALIJA to constitute themselves as a firm rock band, but showed instead that it was rather a group of assistants hired to support Milosavljević brothers' ideas. It is not necessarily bad thing (remember JETHRO TULL case for example) but in GALIJA case it is.

On this album - "Raise Your Hand", the second guitar player was hired instead of full-time keyboardist. This means the emphasis was put more on the standard rock and roll arrangements. Unfortunately, the sad story repeats itself again: GALIJA wants to be at the same time on different places having different roles! A little bit of THE ROLLING STONES hard rockin', a bit of quasi-prog keyboard-filled ballads, a bit of synths and drum machines a la neo-prog (it's trendy, isn't it?), a bit of reggae, a little bit of late coming neo-romanticism. and the final result is pretty awful!

Ironically, the most accomplished songs are those farthest away from any prog sounds. "Winter's Komming" is a decent reggae song composed by the newly recruited guitarist, African-Belgian Jean-Jacques Roscam, who previously worked with pop-rock group D'BOYS. English lyrics were contributed by VAYA CON DIOS female vocalist Dani Klein. "Trudim se" ("I'm Trying Hard") starts with guitar chords reminiscent of JOY DIVISION and the song nicely develops in the post-punk/new romantics fashion. "Sok" ("Shock") contains guitar pattern that makes you think GALIJA had invited Robert Fripp as a guest player. Strong rhythm and dark bass lines provide one of the best moments on the album.

Finally, the closing instrumental ballad "Mozda spava" ("Maybe Sleeping") is filled with keyboards, electronic drums and fine, gentle guitar solo that is the only moment on the album resembling any old prog influences. The track is disposable, however, and repeated listening assures that it was recorded only to fill the empty space on the record. The rest of the material is pure junk and this album cannot be of interest to anyone except for the GALIJA fans.

PERSONAL RATING: 1,5/5

P.A. RATING: 2/5