Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Zgrešeni primeri
Label: Multi Records
Release date: 06.03.2015
Length: 42:43
Rating: 3.5/5
»Račun« is the third studio album from Zgrešeni primeri, who are based in Ivančna Gorica. The Lower Carniola punks recorded it at the tail end of last year with the seasoned Drago Popovič.
The guys keep tirelessly building their musical dossier on the foundations of their previous two albums. Račun shows a crew that’s maturing, serving up thirteen compact songs that don’t beat around the bush and hit you straight in the forehead with their trademark compositional minimalism and energy. Bluntly cut phrases, tunes often dressed in »gang« harmonies, and a restrained sense of liveliness and organic feel that this kind of approach needs. A proper dose of hooliganism, and some socially critical engagement too! Hand in hand.
Lyrically, too, Zgrešeni primeri are once again biting, witty, funny and ironic. Even though the guys deck themselves out with the punk prefix, the songs come dressed in cheerful lead melodies that unfold in major keys. This album also puts Zgrešeni primeri among the typical representatives of modern-day punk born on the sunny side of the Alps. So much closer to Green Day, and very, very little kinship with elementary British destructiveness. The melodies? Close to bands like Zablujena generacija, and now and then individual lines evoke Niet (Podgane). Typically Slovenian, in other words! The guys crank out an exemplary racket that also flirts with a rock’n’ roll rowdiness (Mi smo tisti). Party music? Absolutely.
One more fact matters for the step up in expression the band achieves with the new album: lineup changes. The two new guitarists bring more dynamics to the playing and the arrangements, which makes for a radical positive shift (in terms of artistic evolution) compared to the predecessor “Razlike”. Misliš na vse surprises with its use of a disco rhythm. In this song the band builds an effective gradation of atmosphere between the verse (where you can’t miss the flirtation with funk) and the energetic chorus. A track that even “smells” like British “indie”. It hints at possible directions for the band in the future.
For all the simplicity, the band delivers plenty of melodic variety, compact arrangements and high musicality crossed with rock energy, and the result is an album that goes down smoothly From head to toe. »Račun« is thus an album that shows the band leveling up. They now pay even more attention to a defined song format. The link between verse and chorus is highly compatible, and the band convinces in the compositional sense. For the genre this band belongs to, a song like Pralni stroj, with its dynamics, already reaches the level of a »mini epic ballad punk suite«. The closing lament Nov svet, where the band clings to piano arrangements, also adds to the album’s variety and delivers one more point you could call a welcome departure from punk molds, searching for its own authorial voice. So the band keeps growing and evolving, and with the new album it carves out a musical trace of tangible authorial character.
Line-up
Janko Rošelj – vocals, bass guitar, backing vocals
Robi Glač – guitar, backing vocals
Luka Mavrič – guitar, backing vocals
Pavel Uršič – drums, percussion
Production
Drago Popovič Popi
Track list
1. Račun
2. Podgane
3. Mi smo tisti
4. Misliš na vse
5. Vljudno vabljeni
6. Gora
7. Novodobni vojak
8. Šef
9. Sprehod
10. Nekaj se v zraku dogaja
11. V najlepše dni
12. Pralni stroj
13. Nov svet
