Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Belan, Neno
Label: Dallas Records
Release: 2012
Running time: 46:16
Rating: 4/5
Can you judge the musical kinship between our own Vlado Kreslin and Neno Belan purely by their shared love of battered hats? Yes. And the answer is that the musical kinship is actually zero. Unlike our Vladek, Croatia’s Neno Belan doesn’t chase Prekmurje turkeys (in his case they’d be Slavonian ones). Instead he’s a thoroughly salt-cured Split rover with a geographic pedigree all his own. He’s one of a kind, and he’s been cashing in on his musical talent wisely for years now on the soil of our southern neighbor. His musical legacy has long since become part of the national folklore in Croatia, and at his shows his hits bring together every generation of Croatian listeners. Neno Belan is a Croatian singer-songwriter, the all-in-one embodiment of pop, rock and Dalmatian melos, carved to the strict Croatian taste that’s universally acceptable to the crowds over there. In that sense Neno Belan is a kind of modern-day Croatian Beatle. Looking for a similar self-made musician and old hand who’d fill the same space on the Slovenian mainstream scene is a pretty small utopia. Maybe today only Adi Smolar with his Mestni postopači could step into such a role here.
What I’m holding in my hands isn’t a new studio album but a compilation of the best-known songs Belan wrote over the last decade of his rich musical career, made for his appearances at the yearly Dalmatinske šansone festival, held in Šibenik since 1998.
To be in Belan’s shoes means walking a razor’s edge, non-stop. The man gets his big authorial punch across with the rich message of his verses and a deeply sensual delivery, leaning mostly on the authentic re-living of his own emotions. For that principle to work at full strength, you can’t write demanding arrangements, let alone experiment and go looking for some new branch of the avant-garde. So you’re “condemned” to live within the confines of forging pop-rock ditties, and that’s where the danger of falling into the trap of banality creeps in. Not every musical talent is born an Elton John or a Phil Collins, performers who hammered out a series of unforgettable evergreen hits, boasting unique melodies no ear had heard before. And Neno Belan is one of those performers. It’s just that his creativity lives within the borders of the Croatian market.
The material on the compilation “Oceani ljubavi” brings together the best moments of Belan’s appearances on the stages of that Šibenik festival, where the festival’s expert jury also handed him numerous awards. It was recorded between 2001 and 2011 at a studio in Rijeka (Belan has lived in Rijeka for many years), and the song, or hit, Olujno more moje got an arrangement makeover for this CD, with the klapa Kampanel leaving a special mark on it. Here you’ll find hits with lead melodies in the choruses that slip straight into your ear, like Rijeka snova, Divojka sa juga (backed by a flirty reggae rhythm, in the vein of I`ve Seen this Face Before by the black antelope Grace Jones), Srce od leda, Galeb, and one that really stands out in this batch is a true wellspring of emotion, the song Zar nema više nas, fueled by Belan’s duet with one of the best vocalists in Croatian mainstream, let’s call him the Croatian Bowie, Massimo Savić. That song also won the Croatian version of the “Grammy”, called the Porin (for 2009). If you’re looking for a salty rock edge on this compilation, first place on the disc goes to the opening title track Oceani ljubavi. It’s one of the makers of the most impressive vocal melodies of our southern neighbor. Combining his vocals with the warm embrace of the klapa More’s accompaniment is far from an easy thing, yet Belan gets the best out of the interplay with feather-light ease.
The market move by the Dallas label, squeezing a little extra coin out of the cash cow, is expected and hit the market at just the right time. At the same time it’s the type of compilation that forms a coherent whole (also in the historical sense of the artist’s career) of Belan’s Šibenik concert activity, and as a stopgap it links up effectively with Belan’s last studio album “Rijeka snova” (2007) and bridges the wait for his fans until his next proper solo studio album.
Production
Frano Valentić, Igor Ivanović, Žarko Opačić, Neno Belan
Track list
1. Oceani ljubavi
2. Kiša
3. Lipi moj grade
4. Zar više nema nas
5. Rijeka snova
6. Kad plima se diže
7. Galeb
8. Divojka sa juga
9. Srce od leda
10. Olujno more moje
