Author: Urban Bolta
Artist: Hladno pivo
Label: Menart Records
Release: 2011
Running time: 42:56
Rating: 3/5
The story of Hladno pivo is the success story of a little punk band that grafted its way up to the very Olympus, not just of Croatia but of the wider “Yugoslav” rock scene. Just when it seemed they’d already achieved everything there was to achieve, along came the hugely successful album “Knjiga žalbe” (2007) and the concert at Zagreb’s Jarun. In September 2008, Siddharta-style, they filled one of the biggest concert venues in Croatia and proved that a somewhat more radical sound, even on the radio, doesn’t necessarily mean forever begging for gigs in tiny, stinking dives. I remember how they played cramped clubs at Metelkova at the start of the millennium, and riding the wave of that success, three years ago they promoted their then-current record in the incomparably bigger Križanke. Hladno pivo became giants of the music scene in our part of the world, and that meant facing perhaps the toughest task of their more than twenty-year career: making an album that would justify their newfound reputation and satisfy the colorful bunch of people who listen to them.
Let’s pause for a moment on the symbols that get to us even before we slide the disc into the player. The album title “Svijet glamura” neatly captures the recent period, when the band members started popping up as rock stars in all sorts of tabloids, rubbing shoulders with Petar Graš and the rest of the “cream” of the Croatian pop establishment. The new promo photos, with the guys dressed up as clowns, and the circus-style cover sarcastically hit the nail right on the head and tell you what Hladno pivo think of the self-proclaimed upper crust of Croatian society.
But that’s where the sarcasm ends. The lyrics, Mile’s words, used to be one of the strongest elements of Hladno pivo’s music, but this time they’ll leave the band’s loyal fans cold. At a time when life for the average person is getting harder and harder on every front thanks to the tough state of society, there’s no shortage of topics where Hladno pivo should have provoked head-on, in their own style, or at least sarcastically pointed at the everyday rot and injustice of the system. Both in lyrics and in sound, “Svijet glamura” went hand in hand toward cozying up to the radio waves and wanted at all costs to avoid offending the general audience, used to MTV-style fare of questionable substance. Provocation and bite have given way to considered maturity, so in this respect Hladno pivo could be compared to our own, similarly mellowed Nieta.
“Svijet glamura” is the third and final part of a trilogy completed by the previous albums “Šamar” (2003) and “Knjiga žalbe”. The trilogy covers the period in which the guys from Gajnica became part of everyday Croatian life. Musically, the album follows the legacy of the trilogy and takes in a whole range of influences from different winds, all counting on appealing to the widest possible circle of music lovers. Producer Edi Cukerić, who did a superb job, also had his own calculations in crafting a radio-friendly album. Strong bass lines, sharply drawn separation between the instruments and a glossy sound follow the modern guidelines of popular music. Punk attacks like Cirkus (Šamar) are a thing of the past; a mild punk-rock sound lands cautiously from the very first track, the title song. Clearly, once again there was no getting by without ballads like Fotoaparat or Može, where Hladno pivo bet on acoustic passages and the charming catchiness of their verses. The louder opposition comes from Evo mene na ručku, the only really spiced-up bouncer, which truly shakes the listener’s eardrums. Besides the basic rock instruments, the Croatians reach for Stipe’s trumpet to round out the sonic picture and, in songs like Lift and Slobodni pad, also Deda’s synthesizers, which already proved to be an excellent atmospheric tool on the predecessor “Knjiga žalbe”. It’s with a motif from that very album that the dreamy song Kirbaj i kotlovina begins, in which Hladno pivo, with the line “večeras Hladno pivo, sutra Severina”, point out that they’ve become a prime target of the pop crowd, which started turning up at their gigs too and flaunting its imagined superiority. Unfortunately, though, the record doesn’t offer intense musical moments: all the tracks are cast from the same mold, some even come across as typical “fillers” and ended up on the album merely to pad out the standard running time.
Hladno pivo’s seventh studio album is a professionally polished product, but sadly far too predictable and clearly bent to the will of commercial success and radio airplay. There’s no doubt it will sell well and spawn a few hits, but moving away from the recognizable elements of their music is not a step that longtime fans of the band will welcome with open arms. And no, I’m not yet another conservative who’d love nothing more than for nothing to have changed since the “Džinovski” days, but we have to look the truth in the eye and admit that it was precisely the scent of greenbacks that steered Hladno pivo away from the path they walked for so many years.
Line-up
Milan Kekin – Mile – vocals
Zoran Subošić – Zoki – guitar
Stipe Mađor-Božinović – trumpet
Milko Kiš – Deda – keyboards, synthesizer
Krešimir Šokec – Šoki – bass
Mladen Subošić – Suba- drums
Production
Edi Cukerić
Track list
01. Svijet glamura
02. Ima da te lajkam
03. Fotoaparat
04. Premali grad
05. Evo mene na ručku
06. Pravo ja
07. Kirbaj i kotlovina
08. Može
09. Lift
10. Bilo koji broj – SURF (bitch boys)
11. Slobodni pad
12. Ezoterija
