Nikola Sarcevic

Lock-Sport-Krock (2004)

sniffles the bong

This is Nikola Sarcevic's first ever solo album. You may know him from his band Millencolin. Well, fans of Millencolin picking up this album expecting their sound will be hugely dissapointed. This is a huge change from Millencolins sound, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. In this case, it's a good thing.

Nikola had help from Henrik Wind of the Peepshows and Thomas Falk of Bombshell Rocks. This album is a blend of country, folk rock, and 50's style rock and roll. For the most part, this works. It's a real showcase to the awesome singing voice of Nikola, who's voice sounds absolutely beautiful. The slower songs are the real gems on here. "Lovetrap" and the title track show that Nikola's perfectly capable of making folk rock. Wind's guitar work also sounds great on this, keeping the songs very toned down. Nikola kicks it up a notch (a small, small notch mind you) on "Glue Girl," showing his American roots rock and roll influences.

One major downside to this album is the songwriting. I love Millencolin. They're one of my favorite bands out right now. Nikola co-writes most of thier songs. But I've never heard Millencolin use lyrics such as "you and I, said goodbye, still I will love you, till the day that I die." I think Nikola is capable of better lyrics. These lyrics just suck. Another bad thing about this album are the country influenced tracks. Tracks like "Mirror Man" and "Viola" sound out of place. They're not bad songs, they just dont fit in with the rest of the album.

The lyric writing aside, Nikola serves up some real nice songs on his first solo album. This is hard to recommend to fans of Millencolin, as most of them really wont like it. I recommend giving it a listen, because there are some great things going on here. Just don't expect punk rock. But what do you think this is? Punknews.org?