Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Imperij
Label: Dallas Records
Release: 2017
Running time: 40:26
Rating: 2.5/5
One look at the cover of »2068« and you get the feeling you’re about to hear a band of sudden, unbridled rebellious fury, spewing out all their bile over the injustices swallowed by the little guy, slaving away for a handful of provided-for henchmen, who in 2017 are, to put it mildly, destroyers of everything good. Okay, it’s another black-and-white-and-grey cover of the kind that are a dime a dozen in Slovenia, with a fresh 3D trick, but the tattered flag still fleetingly recalls the cover of the last Thin Lizzy album, »Renegade« (1981). What’s more, the album title smells post-apocalyptic, just like the title of Orwell’s novel »1984«, which has inspired plenty of musicians.
Nothing of the sort. We won’t be musing about the A&R people at Dallas and their internal policy for picking the Slovenian acts that come under their wing (though lately one of the few bright spots has been Prismojeni profesorji bluesa, »one swallow, then, that doesn’t make a summer yet«), but Imperij is a band that plays easygoing, archaic pop rock. Predictable little songs built on a simple three, four or five chords, with lead melodies whose development you can see coming a mile off, the kind we’ve heard countless times throughout the history of the Slovenian popevka. Instantly memorable tunes, meant to crawl under your skin right away and catch on at first listen.
There’s no point wasting words on the quality of the individual players in the quartet. It’s there. Even the basic arranging of the compositions holds up just fine. It’s just predictable and chewed over and tried out countless times already. At the same time, the band should draft in someone with a more penetrating, colorful vocal character for the lead male vocals, which is what they’re chronically missing. Not just more talented, but technically more polished too.
The production, on the other hand, is very solid. It’s warm, organic, alive, with just the right mix of the building blocks that make up the sonic landscape of the songs. The guitar solos also show the expressive courage and daring you want, which you can hear, for instance, in the closing solo of the title track.
»2068« is first and foremost a very cautious album. It types the favor of the middle-of-the-road music scene in Slovenia and its acceptance of it. It tries to be pleasing to radio frequencies. Fair enough. But stylistically, Imperij won’t catch on with the audience and listeners with »2068«. Simple as that. The style they play has been run over by time. It was current in the eighties. Going forward, I’d like to coax more tangible musical charisma out of the band, or rather expressive boldness, from which some musical originality would burst forth too!
Imperij – Ne vem (official video):
Lineup
Jure Salobir – vocals, guitar
Pewter Horvat – guitar
Katarina Kurtjak – keyboards, backing vocals
Julij Klemenc – drums
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Cveto Polak – bass guitar
Jernej Kirbiš – keyboards on track no. 8
Production
Drago Popovič & Toni Jurij
Tracklist
1. Odmislim vse
2. Ona
3. 2068
4. Pomladni dan
5. Milena
6. Ona daje
7. Odvzen
8. Ne vem
9. Drevored
10. Odhajam
