It's Time for Regina!

Eurovision always leads to fab new musical discoveries- Dima K, Anžej, Írafár... And this year was no different. My band du jour are of course Regina, who did really well with Bistra Voda and 9th place in Moscow. Not only was it a lovely, moving song, but the guys themselves seem really nice from all the interviews I’ve seen. Davor particularly is very charming, and very funny too. And he speaks fluent German, which is always a plus as far as I’m concerned :)

Vrijeme Je (It’s Time) is Regina’s 10th album since the originally titled debut “Regina” in 1990. And actually, one of the songs on VJ (called Spavaj) is an updated version of the original which appeared on the debut album. I haven’t heard the new (and improved?) version yet, but the original is rather good. It does sound as old as it is, but I find it quite haunting, and the lyrics are very moving too. This is the one thing that bugs me a bit- I’m used to knowing what songs mean, whatever language they’re in. But in the case of Serbian/Bosnian/Croatian songs, there aren’t many translation resources around, which makes it a bit difficult. I did learn Serbian for a while, but that was 5 years ago and I’ve forgotten everything now, so have to go by the (rare) translations people put on youtube. But anyway, the songs on Vrijeme Je are still powerful enough to have an impact without knowing what all the words mean, which I don’t think can be said for all pop albums.

As you’d expect from a band who seem proud of their Yugoslavian roots (despite spending several years in various other countries during the civil war in the 90s), there’s a strong Eastern European feel to the album. There are all kinds of instruments going on- with a big emphasis on the strings that you tend to hear a lot in Balkan ESC entries- especially in Bježi dok sam Mlad (Run While I’m Young), one of my favourites (it’s also this song that made me realise how pretty the Bosnian language sounds), and also in Pazi gdje spavaš , a rather sexy affair that also contains copious 80s style guitars and a big shouty chorus. Pianos are also used a lot, especially in the beautiful, seemingly chillout song (until the big surprise intstrumental free-for-all at around 2.30) Snijeg (Snow). The good old accordion also features prominently in Bijele Zore (White Dawn)- which is a whole 5 minutes long and ends with an extended outing for the 80s power ballad guitars. I felt that BZ would have been a really good song to end the album with, but then I suppose that was always the natural place on the tracklist for the English and Russian versions of Bistra Voda.

Then of course, there’s Davor’s vocals, which always add an extra layer of loveliness :) Despite not knowing what many of the lyrics are talking about, you get the impression that it’s all very deep and that Davor means every word. He sounds passionate about everything- which I think you could also see from the performances at Eurovision. The title track Vrijeme Je is a break-up song from what I can gather- the choruses are angry sounding, yet when he sings the line “my heart still hopes, and searches for happiness... but always in vain,” it all sounds rather tragic. It’s a bit like a Bosnian version of Freunde Bleiben. Sort of.

Possibly my favourite of all the 13 songs is Sve Sto Imam (All We Have). I guess it should be quite forgettable really- it’s not really single material, and there’s nothing in particular about it that stands out enough to be remembered like the chorus of Zvaću te pile moje or the radio-friendliness of Koji ti je Sad. But it has a good, almost RnB like beat to it, and has all the range of instruments to make it sound exotic and eastern at the same time. Actually now I think about it, it’s a bit Prohor Shalyapin.

The album ends on the sad and moody ballad Ruzo Moja, followed by (as mentioned) the English and Russian versions of Bistra Voda- both of which are pleasant, but obviously not as good as the original (which, by the way, is track 3).
The first single from Vrijeme Je though, is track 1- (Zvaću te) Pile Moje, which makes a great opener to a great album. It’s fast, catchy, and sounds super on a proper sound system. Like all the others, it’s rather long at just under 4 minutes, but when you’re watching the video and are distracted by Davor who looks very yummy indeed, it seems over in no time. It’s a wonderful fusion of “typical” Eastern European and “typical” Western European pop, which I hope will win over some of the many Balkan music skeptics who are all over Europopworld these days.