The cover art is genuinely striking, but the album itself doesn’t quite live up to it. I’ll admit I’m not especially familiar with the band going in, and from what I can tell on Instagram, their single, Put, has been sitting around since as far back as 2023 — so credit to them for finally pulling a full album together. After some research, it’s clear Oxajo is a ‘supergroup’ of sorts featuring some familiar names — Dušan “Dukat” Strajnić (Stray Dogg), Dario Vuksanović (Savanah), and drummer Marko Ajković (Artan Lili).
The record moves between indie rock, art pop, synthpop and indietronica, though it leans more toward the pop end of that spectrum than the experimental or ambitious side. That’s not inherently a problem as pop-leaning work in this space can be genuinely excellent, but it does mean the album lives or dies on execution, and execution is where it’s uneven.
Ružno jutro opens things decently enough. Solid, unremarkable indie rock. Put follows with a mix of indie and pop rock that sounds a touch over-produced and too polished for my taste; it’s undeniably catchy, and not a bad song by any means, but it’s missing the edge that some of the album’s stronger tracks manage to find. Sećam se brings in some welcome synthpop and indietronica texture, feeling distinctly of-the-2010s-and-2020s, with a nice touch of neo-psychedelia running through the guitar work. It’s genuinely more alive than the opener. Zauvek follows as a cover of the same-name track from Balkan pop artist Senidah, giving the trap/R&B track an indie pop remix.
Moje vreme is an easy early highlight on first listen with nice production, a simple but addictive drum hook — it’s immediately catchy. But it doesn’t hold up especially well over repeat plays. It’s catchy in the purely instant sense, with little in the way of lyrical substance to give it staying power, and where some of the album’s better tracks reward patience and grow on you, this one front-loads its appeal and then fades away over time.
Čekam ih is the album’s low point for me — leaning into generic, overused pop-punk-adjacent vocal delivery, the kind of teen-pop vocal style that just isn’t very enjoyable to sit with. The arrangement underneath isn’t really the problem; the vocal choices are what sink it.
U sobi, by contrast, is a great track and by far my favourite track here, even though it’s currently only the third-most-streamed song on the album on Spotify — an interesting mismatch between what’s resonating with listeners and what I think is actually the strongest material. It’s got a genuinely nice build, real neo-psychedelic flavour, guitar lines that cut in and out in a way that keeps the track interesting, and vocals miles ahead of anything on Čekam ih. This is the direction I’d want Oxajo to explore more — heavier riffs, more experimental synth work, less polish and more edge.
Sijam is the penultimate track, and it’s fine — catchy, competently made, a similar indie rock/synthpop blend to the rest of the record, but beyond the Serbian lyrics it doesn’t really distinguish itself from plenty of other music in this lane. It feels a little undercooked.
Taken as a whole, Još 9 sati do kao nekog mira is a frustrating listen precisely because the band’s actual vision is clearly better than a lot of what ends up on the record. U sobi, Moje vreme, and parts of Sećam se show real ambition and a distinct voice; too much of the rest settles for style over substance, reaching for instant catchiness at the expense of the edge and experimentation that make their best moments genuinely exciting. There’s a much better album hiding inside this one.
Where to Find Them
- Follow them on Instagram
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