Artist: Vatra
Label: Dallas Records
Release: 2008
Length: 39:12
Rating: 4.5/5
“Sputnik” is landing! It’s the fifth studio album for the Zagreb quintet, in just nine years. Not bad at all, especially considering they put out their first one as teenagers, at 17. So what does it bring us?
Vatra are known and loved for their energetic live shows, and this time the production has done its best job yet of carrying the energy the band beams out on stage onto the studio recordings too. That’s especially true of the vocals, which sound exposed, raw, genuinely live, packed in garage style, as if the singing were coming out of a phone booth. The approach itself is obviously the prerequisite. Singer/guitarist Ivan Dečko definitely doesn’t lack commitment; the only question is whether anyone has the know-how to capture the charisma of the guy’s feverish singing in a studio too. Well, it’s executed superbly. The other contrasts between the instruments are clear as well, and the sonic picture is used extremely well. The rhythms are solid, rolling and simple, backed by undercurrents of keyboard patterns that add up to a very, very mild hypnotic, trance-like effect on the listener. Even if it’s only in shades, you still feel it. A pinch of effective seasoning for the album!
The journey with Sputnik kicks off with the track Zadnja, which, along with the avalanche-like Bioritam later on, stands out on the record for its adrenaline-fueled rush. As it should be, Vatra immediately burst into a proper blaze on the album “Sputnik”, and nothing puts it out until its very last second.
The quintet keeps its tried-and-true formula of a rock vision all its own, while at the same time chiseling out an artistic upgrade of that identity on the new album. Ivan’s authoritative, commanding, powerful vocal sits front and center. It’s loaded with emotions that feel real when you listen, or in other words, they come alive! The tried-and-true formula combines an alternative sharp rock attitude with a massive wall of sound built on guitar riffs, propped up by a dynamic rhythm line that, thanks to a bit of sampling, can even lean pop-ish and danceable. Over the first three tracks Vatra literally burn way past all limits. If Zadnja is the sharpest, most direct, even arrogant one, then Svijetla i sirene, with one of the most fiery and melodically polished choruses on the album (the chorus that stands out most melodically) and a great story in which your whole life flashes before your eyes in the last second of it, is a real harbinger of what follows: some of the album’s most interesting tracks, like Glava kojom ne razmišljam. A seductively melodic chorus, backed by the tightness of a “dance beat”, which then has its triumphant few minutes (just under four) when we run into the phenomenal first “single” from the album, John Travolta. Everything is capitalized on here when it comes to building the right platform for a real rock hit. Catchy, highly accessible melodies, the wild energy of the rock vibe the band radiates, a good dose of tomfoolery in the verses, and above all the badly needed tight rhythm that practically forces you to bounce. You might even dig up the label “dance punk rock” for it. Most of the album is, after all, devoted to the search for this “punk danceability” (a somewhat clumsily coined and not exactly fortunate term)! The second single from the album comes right after it. That’s the track Eskim, which calms the album down but is just as fascinating with its dark atmosphere, where the band strings together a full sound of melancholic mood. That vibe returns in the track 00:50, where Vatra can also be mystically mysterious, and where they prove that even when they ease off the gas, they resourcefully make up for it by building a rich, voluminous sonic backdrop that follows and embraces Ivan’s heartfelt vocal with great effect.
The rest of the album also follows Vatra’s search for a winning combination of rock arrogance, melodic polish and a firm rhythmic grip. Vatra sound like a very modern take on contemporary alternative rock bands that love to bring pop rhythms into their sound, such as The Killers, Muse, Klaxons and also Franz Ferdinand. The guitar phrases are mostly quite simple, composed with total innocence and steeped in minimalism, but triumphantly combined with the keyboards, as in the track 2 akrobata, where the atmosphere takes a triumphant turn in a furiously disillusioned chorus with a massive, dramatically exposed curtain of sound.
This isn’t an album where all we can expect is sharp, dirty rock burning and charging, arrogant rock n` roll rolling. With it, Vatra show tremendous maturing in how they build their sound, in the artistic sense too. It’s an album that brings together plenty of simple tricks of musical minimalism, where the ideas in the compositions clearly dictate their purpose and experience to the listener. That’s supposed to be the basic purpose of every rock album. But these days only a select few manage to capture it effectively. That’s why the album “Sputnik” is a true rock album that will reward you richly with everything it has to offer.
With the new album “Sputnik”, Vatra present themselves at their most mature, with exceptional tightness, polished songs and, above all, phenomenal production, with which this album can measure up to the competition not only within the borders of the Republic of Croatia, but against the world. Here I’m aiming mainly at the United Kingdom, as the creator of rock. No beating around the bush! With it, Vatra have matured and lifted their expression to a new level of development and energy in their own musical ekspression.
Lineup
Ivan Dečak – vocals, guitar
Robert Kelemen – guitar
Irena Celio-Cega – keyboards, backing vocals
Boris Gudlin – bass guitar
Mario Robert Kasumović – drums
Production
Jura Ferina & Pavle Miholjević
Tracklist
1. Zadnja
2. Svijetla i sirene
3. John Travolta
4. Eskim
5. Glava kojom ne razmišljam
6. 00:50
7. Bioritam
8. Odbrojavanje
9. 2 akrobata
10. Bingo
11. Sputnik
