Label: Menart Records
Release year: 2015
Production: Jernej Zoran
Album length: 43.20 min
Genre: Hard Rock / pop
Jernej Zoran is back with his fourth solo studio album. After its predecessor »Stratosfera«, released three years ago, the new »Romeo, Julija in tatovi sonca« keeps perhaps a touch more earthy, elemental grit, which is surely down to the events of the last three years, living as we do in a brave, crazy new world. The new album once again serves up love-confession songs, tracks with a note of personal confession and socially critical engagement, which is a typical reflection of the unexpectedly fast sinking of the young Slovenian state.
Jernej Zoran is a seriously strong »songwriter«, let’s just call him a composer. His first weapon of expression remains the guitar. The talent of a cunning composer already shows in his earlier work, including the excellent »Stratosfera«, and the current studio album »Romeo, Julija in tatovi sonca« carries on that tradition too. Ten tracks are seasoned with exceptional expressive passion, both in how he approaches playing the guitar and in how he builds the guitar phrases themselves, which Jernej keeps upgrading with plenty of guitar embellishments and shrewdly delivered transitional passages, where it’s easy to pick out the filigree work of putting individual pieces together into a solid, well-shaped whole of compact, juicy, organic-sounding, infectious, classically rock-minded tracks of high musical value.
Jernej split the vocal duties across nine tracks among five vocalists, and for the song To je ljubezen he contributed his own voice. As on the previous album, most of the songs are sung by Lara Poreber, whose vocal charisma carries a real shade of mystic’s call. That’s why the role is hers on the excellent opener, the awakening, solemn Kisik, which, combined with Jernej’s dynamic and fitting guitar playing, quickly lifts the album skyward! There’s only one instrumental this time. The track »Specialno švedsko jeklo« sounds nostalgic and recalls the eighties, when in Slovenia you could buy only one kind of strings, and on the packaging you could read exactly these three words. In this track especially, Jernej shows in a refined way that he’s a musician who grew up on the sounds of sixties and seventies blues and rock. In his playing David Gilmour’s sentiment is strongly noticeable, and his subtle placement of notes and organically alive, stripped-down guitar tone, most likely coming from some kind of »Telecaster«, can also be tied to inspiration from Jeff Beck, then Peter Frampton, or Mr. »Slowhand« Eric Clapton. It’s precisely this sensual placement of notes in the solos and transitional ornaments, and the search for the best possible bond with the guitar phrases and lead melodies, that gives this album its creative edge.
Even though everything is so nicely seasoned along the rails of retro, rustic impulses of seventies rock sound, it’s the extremely compact catchiness of the lead melodies, communing with an excellent build that carries the atmosphere through the verse (and pre-chorus) into the chorus, that guarantees the album’s outstanding listenability. So there are quite a few tracks on the album that could easily get spun on the radio again and again. Kisik is one, right from the album’s opening, then a bit further on the yearningly mystical Zakaj, the especially infectious Nov dan, and further along Moj svet, gifted with a proper rocker’s riff, where the vocal of Matevž Šalehar Hamo works supremely well. The latter has a playfully lucid vibe thanks to Hamo’s interpretation and the very content of the lyrics, and the track’s rock’n’roll format is also marked by an effective build into a proper boogie pulse. An exceptional track. Tatovi sonca is a gloomy song leaning heavily on blues. Tina Gerbec Radakovič of EL Kachon jumps in on vocals here, since this type of song, with riffs also dressed in Hammond sound, calls for a more soul-laden voice, and Tina is right at home in these waters and once again doesn’t fail in her delivery. The tracks Tatovi sonca and, after it, Bruseljski predpražniki are especially socially critical and engaged; the latter carries some »Mi2-style« energy thanks to the lead vocal of Zlatko Petković, who in the chorus especially recalls Tone Kregar, and also thanks to the track’s rock’n’roll format itself.
Just like with »Stratosfera«, the new album »Romeo, Julija in tatovi sonca« is another document in Jernej Zoran’s discography that doesn’t have a single track you could call filler to pad out the running time. The songs stand side by side in terms of quality, with no wavering in expression. Every one of them keeps a solid, tangible focus of content. The album embodies a charming sonic warmth, devoted to the search for organic authenticity. The dedication and commitment to polishing the arrangements are richly rewarded. In its musical compactness and Jernej’s refined guitar playing, Jernej Zoran’s new album is a gorgeous product, devoted to the heritage of rock in the classic, rustic, original sense of the word, which puts the word rock front and center. It’s an album for which we can only hope Jernej gets the recognition he deserves from the local music scene, because for his creativity and inspiration he deserves that and more!
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
rating: 9.0 / 10
Track list:
1. Kisik
2. To je ljubezen
3. Specialno švedsko jeklo
4. Zakaj
5. Nov dan
6. Moj svet
7. Tatovi sonca
8. Bruseljski predpražniki
9. Najine barve
10. Čutim te bolj (kot si upam priznati)
Line-up:
Jernej Zoran – guitar, keyboards, bass guitar, percussion, vocals on track no. 2
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Lara Poreber – vocals on tracks no. 1, 4, 5, 9.
Matevž “Hamo” Šalehar – vocals on track no. 6
Tina Gerbec Radakovič – vocals on track no. 7
Zlatko Petković – vocals on track no. 8
Marijan Novina – vocals on track no. 10
Mojca Saje – backing vocals, on tracks no. 3, 5, 8, 9
Saša Đukić – backing vocals, on tracks no. 3, 5, 8, 9
Jernej Šušteršič – keyboards on tracks no. 1, 3, 4, 5, 7
Sebastjan Podlesnik – bass guitar on track no. 1
Miha Recelj – drums on tracks no. 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Miro Tomšič – drums on track no. 2
Luka Pate – drums on track no. 10
