Yugoslavian/East European progressive

AERODROM’s debut (En. “When My Mind Flies By”), apart from recalling the similar RARE BIRD’s title, has seemingly one serious flaw – disposition in time! Had it been released around 1974-75 it would probably have been a groundbreaking effort in prog rock scene in former Yugoslavia. In this way, showing up during the outburst of New Wave music scene looks like an unbelievable musical time machine.

That said, it is still a good album. Musical performance is strong even if lacking the technical virtuosity of musicians, a tenet so akin to prog genre as a whole. The strongest points have to be the excellent Jon Anderson-like tenor of Zlatan Živković (whose first job was actually a drummer!), and overall songwriting and production. Jura Pađen as a leading composer and competent guitarist did not want to engage too much in the soloing territory and perhaps he was right, but what he does in certain moments, like in Hackett-styled sustained solo in “Pusti neka traje” (En. “Let It Be”) or “Šareni kolači” (En. “Coloured Cakes”), is very good.

Amazingly, this album contained a huge hit single, the title track, which did not help the album sales, paradoxically. The single was a smash hit – the album much less so. Obvious explanation is that it differs from the rest of the songs on the album – the title track is a concise, strong melody and chorus- laden rock song with radio play potentials, which cannot be said for other compositions.

On one side one cannot help but brag about a “half-cooked” product, not sufficiently devised compositions, not very original ideas and restrained development of epic song structures, even if we neglect a poor PR and audience targeting. “Vrati se Ivane” (En. “Come Back, Ivan”) with its honky- tonks leaning is outright poor and totally out of place. On the other, “Kad misli mi vrludaju” is one of very few Yugoslavian albums that follow a “genre-orthodoxy” and can easily, without hesitation, be qualified under the tag of “symphonic prog rock”, as defined by prog giants YES and GENESIS. Other albums that came close to this definition were KORNI GRUPA’s “Not an Ordinary Life” and INDEXI’s “Modra rijeka” but they were released earlier. In the best moments - “Nestala dobrota” (En. “The Kindness Lost”), “Pusti neka traje” and “Kraj tebe u tami” (En. “Beside You In The Darkness”) - AERODROM shows decent prog capabilities that would unfortunately be largely dismissed in their later career.

Jura Pađen continued to pursue a commercial, new wave/pop rock and mainstream path after this album, so this all makes “Kad misli mi vrludaju” even more interesting piece of work to check out.

As a personal note, I should mention that my first rock concert attendance was actually AERODROM around 1980, after this album has been released, so I have pleasant memories for this period.

PERSONAL RATING: 3,5/5

P.A. RATING: 4/5

Posted Thursday, January 17, 2008, 12:07 EST
Review Permanent link | Submit a review for this album