Artist: Emir & Frozen Camels
Label: Dallas Records
Release: 2009
Rating: 1/5
Yet another horrifyingly dull, lifeless album, this time coming from Emir Bukovica. It’s a textbook case of what happens when your ego tells you to do one thing and your soul says the exact opposite.
The lyrics, naturally mostly in Serbo-Croatian, serve up a kind of illusionist continuity of the days of brotherhood and unity, when guitar-driven rock was cranked out by bands like Zabranjeno pušenje, Crvena jabuka and the like. The album radiates a spirit of going back to the time when yu-rock bands ruled the radio (and let none of you dare so much as think of the perfection of the likes of EKV). Guitar pop rock with super-soft production and Emir’s syrupy vocals doesn’t have an ounce of recognizable identity. Or, to put it more precisely, the guy just isn’t a strong enough expressive presence as a solo artist to pull that off, since he lacks expressive charisma and therefore any distinctiveness, any of the recognizability his music demands. The man’s no newcomer to the business, yet he keeps repeating the same mistake and, in his urge to put out an album everyone will like, he loses himself. He tries to cover up this faceless pop rock, with its few louder guitars, with some kind of humorous verse-crafting that touches on the misery of life in the Balkans, the kind only an American can lift you out of (the song Clintorn), or with the pathos of broken hearts in love.
You get the feeling Emir could have made much better use of the arsenal that living in the US and hanging out with some elite musicians handed him. At least on the third try, because “No Pasaran” is his third album. Why does the song Sad sam jak lean so fucking hard on Plavi orkestar on their saddest day?
There’s exactly one track on the album that pushes out something you could call a “dash of rock n’ roll”. Jedina serves up the melos of Balkan ethnic roots nicely blended with the findings of American studio tinkering. Given the commercial bent of this lightweight guitar pop rock album, it’s the one I’d recommend for a “single” release.
This album will please everyone who has to own anything and everything that smells of burek and čevapčiči. The song title Zvijezda sam Rock ‘N’ Rolla Ja (Na usranom Balkanu) says it all. In short, the album offers a level of musical expression that the world found utterly uninteresting ages ago, long since surpassed in quality, and it reflects nothing but the pathos of a man living in the US who’s bursting with Yugo nostalgia. I hope at least the Slovenes get a hard-on listening to “No Pasaran”, since it features that giant of the rock trade, His Most Illustrious Omar Naber himself. Well, at least the ones who like burek. Heh… everybody wants to be the Bosnian Vasco Rossi these days.
Lineup
Emir Bukovica – vocals, guitar, backing vocals
Danny Shepard – guitar, vocals on 09. and 13.
Darell Nutt – drums, programming on 08., cello on 09.
David Johnson – bass guitar on tracks 03. – 05., and 08. – 13.
Jure Baljak – drums, on 02. and 14.
Luka Potica – bass guitar on 02. and 14.
Mike Rogers bass guitar on 06. and 08.
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Dino Šukalo – guitar on 02., 07. and 14., programming on 14.
Mahir Sarihodžić – Hammond on 05. and 12.
Zvonimir đukić – Đule Van Gogh – vocals on 04.
Alberto Ceballos – vocals on 02. and 14.
Omar Naber – vocals on 14.
Muamer Đozo – bass guitar on 07.
Ante Perković – backing vocals on 03., 04., 08., and 11.
Production
Darell Nut & Emir Bukovica
Tracklist
01. Intro (by Dolores Ibarruri „La Pasionaria“, 1937.)
02. Alina (No Pasaran) (feat. Alberto Ceballos)
03. Clinton
04. Sad sam jak
05. Posljednja pjesma
06. Nacrtaj mi ljubav (feat. Đule Van Gogh)
07. Jedina
08. Tebe volim
09. Crack in the Wall (feat. Danny Shepard)
10. Zvijezda sam rock’n’rolla ja (Na usranom Balkanu)
11. Godišnjica (Hotel „Plaža“ Herceg Novi)
12. Ako ne vidiš da volim
13. Santa Claus is Coming to Town (Djed Mraz dolazi u grad) (feat. Danny Shepard)
14. Alina (No Pasaran) (feat. Omar Naber & Alberto Ceballos)
