The World and All That It Holds

There are some critics out there – and I am not one – who maintain that Damir Imamović is heir apparent to the great Bosnian sevdalinke tradition, of which his grandfather Zaim was one of the leading lights. The logic is thus: just as the old sevdah songs were laments to love foiled by conservative (Islamic) mores, so Imamović – by composing songs to same-sex love, as he does here – honours the tradition while updating it at the same time.

Unfortunately, Imamović does not live up to the billing, as his style is introverted, his vocals more demure than expressive, belonging to the so-called ‘closed throat’ – as opposed to the more emotive ‘open throat’ – style of most sevdah singing.

The album was inspired by the Aleksander Hemon novel of the same name (a First World War Bosnian epic with a same-sex love story at its centre) and it does have one stand-out track, the catchy ‘Bejturan’ (Wormwood) which juxtaposes deftly picked Persian tar with soaring vocals. Sadly, this sing-along tune is the only number that really takes flight on an album that fails to provide a convincing argument that Damir Imamović is the successor of sevdah's traditions, at least for now.