PONOVO SA VAMA

After TESKA INDUSTRIJA split shortly after recording the previous album "Zasviraj i za pojas zadjeni" in 1978, guitarist Vedad Hadziabdic and drummer Munib Zoranic decided to re-unite in 1984, with a new line-up. Zoran Krga was added as keyboardist, Sead Trnka as bassist while Narcis Lalic was recruited as new lead vocalist. The new album titled "Ponovo sa vama" ("With You Again") was released on a small label Sarajevo Disk in 1984.

The old hard rock and progressive style is completely abandoned here in favor of more popular and fashionable synth-pop and syrupy AOR. Unfortunately, this did not help the commercial success and the album was pretty much ignored (deservedly so), due to lack of good hit songs. To be honest, most of the album is quite awful and not very listenable. Songs are bad, performance sub-standard, synth keyboards overused and Lalic's vocal style does not seem capable to cover the obvious shortcomings of the compositions.

Still, the closing track "Bilo je ljudi i vremena" ("There Were Some People and Some Times") sounds quite good in terms of potential hit-making, done in a groovy synth-pop style with nice harmonica played by Muhamed Razenica, while another harmonica-flavoured song, rock ballad "Odrasti vec jednom" ("Grow Up Darling"), where Lalic sings as it should be sung, is perhaps the best track on the album. Also not too bad is "Suncokret" ("Sunflower"), a song mixing acoustic guitars and heavy rock with nice keyboards in a vein of some INDEXI "pop-prog" style, although the vocals mostly spoiled the song. All that remains is better to forget.

PERSONAL RATING: 2.5/5