Label: Nika Records
Release date: September 14, 2018
Producer: Dejan Radičevič
Album length: 43:05
Rating: 9.0 / 10
Buy the album!
New Siddharta. “Slovenia’s people’s band.” No two ways about it. This time they go nomad. And the record is good again. Over the years Siddharta have really become true masters of their craft. They know exactly how to command their own musical vocabulary. They keep repackaging their musical recipe and serving it up again so well that the whole thing feels fresh and unbelievably tasty.
Unlike its predecessors “Ultra” and “Infra” (and also “VI”, which is by now quite a few years back), the new album “Nomadi” delivers a string of equally listenable tracks. Given the pomp that proverbially comes with the Siddharta name, this time the guys have come up with a handful of rock anthems, and there are no big swings in how catchy they are. They hit with equal force and keep the band’s songwriting strengths at a high level across the whole record. That makes the album more consistent than all three of its predecessors. Definitely different, even though Siddharta don’t try out any novelties or uncharted musical horizons on it. The opener Halo nomadi, thanks to the dose of sampling woven in that pokes out of the arrangement here and there, smells the most like something you could stick a little “experimental” label on. It’s also the album’s most bristling track, and nowhere else on the record does Tomi “tear into” the vocals this fiercely.
Siddharta once again juggle very skillfully between rock’n’roll and pop. And once again they blend the two together very skillfully. So the band’s personal dossier of musical passions and emotions shines in full once more, with no shortage of bombastic catchiness and theatrical pomp, to which a dash of melancholy and eternal longing has, once again, been deftly added. Exactly what the band’s true fans keep looking for (again) in Siddharta. A.M.L.P. is a song that could have fit on any of the band’s first three albums. It’s chasing chart rotation and is the hit, but compared with the rest of the album’s material it’s actually the least interesting track, because we’ve already seen this type of hit-writing from Siddharta in several variations, just under other titles.
Good production is of course the standard on every Siddharta album. “Nomadi” doesn’t disappoint in the slightest here either. The album’s sonic landscape is again skillfully used and subtly filled out. The keyboards this time lean harder on eighties-style synth curtains of sound, which is noticeable already in the opening Halo nomadi. Laying these layers into the arrangements strengthens the contrasting phrasing of the guitars and so deepens, or lifts, the record’s theatricality, its drama moment. At times the album once again builds some seriously catchy, grabby, highly atmospheric states.
There are quite a few favorites on the album. This time the pick of favorites belongs to each individual listener. Like I said, the songs are equal in quality. “Nomadi” is therefore an extremely coherent, compact and consistent product. Siddharta remain great stylists when it comes to directing their songwriting. In Jaz, the special color of Tomi’s voice comes to the fore, especially in the verse, standing apart from all the other vocal delivery on the album. At first listen it sounds as if Siddharta had brought a special guest vocalist into the verse of this song. But it’s actually just Tomi, whose tone and approach amplify the sense of ego (in harmony with the message of Jaz’s lyrics). The song achieves a special mood duality, precisely thanks to Tomi’s vocal charisma and that vocal catchiness he was born with. Jaz sounds like it slipped out of the sessions for the album “Saga” (2009). In the chorus of Kripto, the vocal production is set up to intensify (emphasize) the feeling that the listener actually finds themselves “live” with the “angels in paradise” (see the song’s lyrics). It only underlines how far Siddharta have brought their musical craft, their maturity, their self-made confessional artistry.
The closer the album gets to the end, the more finely tuned its artistry and the tighter its grip. The closing pair of two exceptionally beautiful tracks, Blizu and Vzhod, is downright triumphant. In Blizu, Tomi’s emotional, passionate vocal performance takes center stage and, especially in the explosive final crescendo, literally gives the listener chills. It’s followed by a contrasting atmospheric “pressure valve” in the awakening Vzhod, parked right at the tail end of the album. The “babbling”, upbeat Vzhod thus wraps up the record. But with an unexpected, bristling jump into a possessed closing guitar riff, which actually brings the end of the album back around to its beginning. Simple as that. It leaves you “hungry” to keep sipping those feelings, so you easily “allow” it another spin in the CD player!
In terms of the band’s musical direction evolving, “Nomadi” brings nothing startlingly special. It keeps up a quality constant. The band keeps cultivating and strengthening, very effectively, what it’s strongest at. Its expressive, self-made alt pop rock artistry, which is a proven “mountain massif” on the Slovenian rock scene. Siddharta remain firmly in the saddle there with “Nomadi” too. They reliably follow art principles that, under the quintet’s direction, reliably ignite. As mature aesthetes, Siddharta keep wisely dwelling with “Nomadi” in the shelter of the musical recipe they master. No experimenting, no departures from the core musical direction. A new collection, this time truly a series of extremely listenable songs, which puts the artistic reach of the album above its predecessors “Ultra” and “Infra”. With “Nomadi”, Siddharta are simply still masters of their craft. The album delivers exactly what only they know and can do. So it’s an album tailor-made for their fans. The new songs will also fit nicely into the band’s iron concert repertoire. Sure, Siddharta are “safe players” (“ziheraši”), but mature ones, and that comes with mileage. And this time all that knowledge, experience and wisdom came together especially successfully into an extremely likable and gorgeous new studio conglomerate. With it, Siddharta keep their primacy as the chief rock and pop flag-bearers of the Slovenian musical mainstream.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist:
1. Halo nomadi
2. A.M.L.P.
3. Lej lej lej
4. Moderne dame
5. Jaz
6. Medrevesa
7. Kripto
8. Matador
9. Blizu
10. Vzhod
Lineup:
Tomi M. – vocals, guitar, backing vocals
Primož B. – guitar
Tomaž O.R. – keyboards, programming
Jani H. – bass guitar, programming
Boštjan M. – drums, percussion
