DALEKO JE SUNCE

Another major GALIJA line-up change occurred in 1988. The new members were flute and keyboards player Bata Zlatković and lyricist/journalist Radoman Kanjevac. The latter one brought the new concept for the band, with a vision to record a trilogy of albums dealing with social reality of the "country in transition". Inspiration was drawn from the art and literature works of many well-known Yugoslav writers and poets. The notorious Dobrica Ćosić, the intellectual ideologue behind the totalitarian regime of Slobodan Milosević, was also cited while the album title "Faraway Is The Sun" (the Part 1 of the Trilogy) was borrowed from one of his famous novels.

As it usually happens when the musicians try to be politically or socially aware, the art and the music quality is sacrificed. It is not only that they abandoned all prog rock musical elements, but when pursuing a mainstream pop rock career they did not developed at least a healthy pop production, but were lost in banality, cheap lyrical and sub-standard musical ideas. Their ballads on this album are rather poor and boring, heavy use of synthesized instruments spoils the arrangements, occasional brass and harmonica are uninspired and reaching even for reggae or calypso sounds does not make much sense unless you make them chart-topping hits.

The opening ballad "Da li si spavala" (Have You Slept) after promising acoustic guitar chords turns into a cheesy pop, still making it capable for radio play. Guitarist Jean-Jacques Roscam tries hard to sing in Serbo-Croatian in "Zebre i bizoni", but this disastrous reggae tune makes his vocal even uglier. Mentioning of Brioni (former Marshal Tito's favourite summer resort islands nearby Istria peninsula) was supposed to make this track a kind of "protest" or "socially critical" song, and even the lyrics of that one were not printed on the sleeve, but the song is really a worthless piece of junk. As if the previous 35 minutes were not painful enough for a listener, the closing track "Kao i obično" (As Usual) shamelessly copies the main chords from Bob Dylan's "Knocking on Heaven's Door".bah!

PERSONAL RATING: 0/5

P.A. RATING: 1/5