Denis & Denis - Čuvaj Se! Album

It is truly sad most (ex) Yugoslavian synth-pop bands never really learned anything from their creative strengths and songwriting talent. Denis & Denis are no exception in this matter - everything they provided with on their debut album with such naive charm and sensuality, they also happen to have thrown away very quickly as their pop-career progressed.

"Čuvaj se!" (meaning: "Take Care!") is a deserved masterpiece of early 80s Yugoslavian electro-pop, these days its voice extending far beyond the borders of the former federative republic. While many continue pointing out to their mega-hit (ironically, the only official single from the LP) "Program tvog kompjutera" (meaning: "Your Computer Programme"), the album itself is one true 'Greatest Hits" beatfest.

Also the duo were continually compared to a certain Eurythmics (eventually Yazoo), but with this particular album Denis & Denis were much closer to the likes of The Human League (singer Marina Perazić pretty much resembles Susanne Sulley's look on the front cover), cleverly taking over the latter's blueprint, transforming it into something just as uniquely modern. In the year 1984, Philip Oakey and Co. released "Hysteria", a rather half-baked electro-pop album shying away from "Dare!" but still as desperate to catch up with it - and then somewhere in the Eastern part of Europe, a strange folie-a-deux took the perfect formula, creating something of a "Dare"-esque twin brother of an album, smart at displaying the source and avoiding risk of plagiarism.

These songs throw obscurity, optimism, sex-appeal, desire and melancholy into the mix to great effect; the opening track 'Čuvaj se!', echoing loneliness, tells a story about a woman in endless search for comfort, 'Tek je sedam sati' ('It's just about 7'[o'clock]) adds sense of irony to the context of relationships, "Dvadeset i osam minuta do pet" ("Twenty-eight Minutes to Five") is a revue of daily routines, "Telefon" ("Telephone") sings of desire to re-establish physical contact, "Ti i ja" ("You and Me") and "Program tvog kompjutera" being about cause and effect between two people in love, "Doba noćnih kiša" ("Rainy Nights") is a moody uptempo track with darker overtones wrapped in autumn's shades of grey, a beautiful ballad "Sačuvaj nešto" ("Keep Something") about a relationship ending and the album's jewel - the closer "Dio refrena" ("Part of the Refrain"), a magnificent electro-monologue of utter paranoia.

The most amazing feeling about the album, "Čuvaj se!" is conceived well ahead of its time and while it captures the essence of the early 80s' music perfectly, it still sounds as fresh - the song "Ti i ja" for example, is a rather accidental reflection of House music, way before House actually officially reached the ears of the general public. It's latin-induced intro in strange collision with a drum machine quite reminiscent of New Order's "Blue Monday" is worth alone to explore this album.

Of course, there are nine masterpieces in total to explore.

For those unable to find a suitable LP copy of this album (which I personally recommend more), a CD-remaster (although it feels like a very clumsy remaster), collecting "Čuvaj se!" with the duo's later mini-LP "Ja sam lažljiva" (meaning: "I Feel Mendacious") from 1985, is once again available to purchase from Croatia Records (ex-Jugoton). However, this CD is a rather shallow cash-in compilation, as it rids both albums of their individual audio-visual appeal, clumsily squeezed onto once compact disc.