Vendetta

Background and recording

In 2004, Zemfira worked on the soundtrack for the film by Renata Litvinova titled Goddess: How I Fell in Love. At this time, the singer's collaboration with composer and arranger Igor Vdovin began. The artist herself said that she met Vdovin long before their joint work, during her concerts in Saint Petersburg. The first result of the collaboration was the song "Love as Accidental Death", which was included in the film's soundtrack. Describing how the composition was created, Zemfira noted that she had an ambiguous attitude towards this work: "I became interested in how this is done in principle—when Igor gave the harmony, and I only had to write the melody and lyrics. As a result, I would give him a four plus, and myself—a three. In general, I think Igor works better solo", - Zemfira said. Despite the fact that the first experience of collaboration did not satisfy the singer, Igor was subsequently involved in working on the new album. Zemfira explained that before this, Vdovin gave her to listen to his album Gamma and, impressed by what she heard, she said: "Yes, Igor, as soon as I have a song, I'll bring it to you. Yes, I really want to work with you".

The initial idea was to create an avant-garde electronic record, on which Zemfira would perform more as a guest vocalist, but later this concept was abandoned. In an interview with the newspaper Kommersant, Zemfira spoke about the reasons for changing the concept:All this remained, did not sink into oblivion, those versions of the songs are really not bad, but I do not agree with such an interpretation. From our joint works on the album are those with which both Igor and I agree. We, each separately, are solo performers. And no matter who Igor collaborates with, his own works will be the best. The same I can say about myself.The singer also noted that she was provoked to change the concept by the fact that rock compositions began to appear. One of the catalysts for their appearance was the album A Long Happy Life by the group Grazhdanskaya Oborona, which Zemfira listened to for several weeks. She called Vdovin and explained the situation to him: "I sat down, thought, called Igor and said: here's the story, it pulled me in this direction. It's hard for me to blame myself for this, I didn't do it on purpose. I didn't do it deliberately, it just coincided... Perhaps because we've been working with Igor for a long time, I started to miss it. So I called my rock comrades from Mumiy Troll — and I think we recorded excellently with them". During an online conference on Lenta.ru, Vdovin said that nevertheless he was satisfied with working with Zemfira. "...We worked excellently. Zemfira is extraordinarily talented and musical. As for the arrangements, I don't know, Zemfira just decided it would be that way, after all, it's her creation", - Igor said....I made the master disc four days before the release. Of course, I could have done it even better. But specifically so that I wouldn't have a second or third chance, I set myself a deadline — March 1st. On this record are those first versions of the songs that we managed to make. When I worked on the previous one, it took me two months just to edit individual parts — there, even with a magnifying glass, you won't find a single uneven spot. This time everything was different. Did the musicians play hungover? I leave this take! The task before me was to convey the mood as much as possible. This sloppiness and negligence for me is associated with the word "rock music". I got tired of editing, I wanted to play simply: four people gather in one room, bash it out — and there it is, born out of thin air.The recording of the album continued right up to the last days before the record's release. In addition to Zemfira, Igor Vdovin, Korney, Yuri Tsaler and Oleg Pungin worked on it. Zemfira noted that she allowed herself many experiments and often argued with the publishers about the recording. By her admission, some songs were made specifically in this key so that they would not be taken on the radio. Zemfira also highlighted that on Vendetta her unique melodic style manifested itself. "...I myself have my own melodic style. These are some moves, chemical reactions in the head, personal ideas about melody, they cannot transform. Handwriting, if you will. And one more important point: I left a lot of vocals that I sang at home and refused to re-record in the studio. I want it that way—and I think I have the right to do so. As for the arrangements, everything should be fine with them. On one hand, Igor is a very strong arranger, on the other hand, Mumiy Troll are very proven artists", - she explained.

Negotiations with the label and promotion

Before the release, for a month, Zemfira negotiated with labels about purchasing the rights to issue the record. In the end, the singer chose REAL Records. In an interview with Kommersant, Zemfira was reproached for starting to work with a company that is part of a structure "which is now in Russia, together with the First Channel and Russian Media Group, forming today's state ideology". To this, Zemfira replied that there are no labels in Russia that are not tied to ideology. In her opinion:When it came time to profitably place the album, I spent a month in negotiations. Real Records offered the most normal conditions—that's all I know about this company. As for ideology, in this context, everything can now be considered: business, show business, cinema! We started making propaganda films paid for by the state, Personal Number, for example... As an apolitical person, I only think that I made a good deal. We came to an agreement not so much with Real Records as with Konstantin Ernst... I don't know what public opinion says about him, I just know Kostya for six years, and he never asked me for anything that contradicted my principles.In 2004, the promotion of the release began. On May 20, the song Nebomoreoblaka, recorded in a light electronic arrangement and becoming the first single from the album, was placed on radio stations through the Tophit system. The composition became a radio hit, taking second place in the chart compiled by this company, the Airplay Detection Tophit 100 (also known as the Russian radio chart). In June, Zemfira performed it at the "Maksidrom" festival, where she performed jointly with Korney and musicians from the group Mumiy Troll.

The second single released was the song Progulka. Zemfira recounted that she initially brought the song to "Russian Radio". "I brought the song 'Promenade' to 'Russian Radio'... I think I can't write simpler. And they didn't take it, that is, they took it for some 'non-format' time. With the wording 'too fashionable'. I laughed for three minutes. Explanations like: we don't work for Moscow and St. Petersburg—our audience is in the village, in the outback. This is so absurd," the singer said. Despite being called "non-format", the song became the second radio hit, taking fifth place in the Russian radio chart. The music video for the composition was shot by Renata Litvinova already in August 2004, although the song entered rotation in December. The collaboration between the two artists continued as a kind of exchange. After recording the soundtrack, Renata Muratovna inquired about the size of the fee, and Zemfira suggested: "...I don't know how much this can cost, but won't you shoot a clip for me? I'll give you a song, you give me a clip." The singer admitted that she was satisfied with the result. Litvinova also directed the videos for the songs Blues, Samolet, Itogi. For the promotion of the album, two more singles were released: Itogi in a special radio version and Tak i ostavim (We'd leave it this way). Itogi reached 22nd place in the chart, while "So We'll Leave It" reached only 148th.

Title and release

In an interview on the radio program "Argentum" on the radio station "Echo of Moscow", Zemfira said that the working title of the album for six months was Neft, but literally a few days before the release, the singer heard the word "vendetta" in the film "True Romance" and decided to change the title. According to her, if the title had not "come" to her, she would have kept the previous one, but she likes the word "vendetta" more. She described it as "beautiful and strong" and noted that it fits the record better. The singer also added: "...I wrote 'Zemfira. Vendetta' next to it, and these two words—they work on each other, it seems to me". Maksim Kononenko asked the singer in an interview why she chose such a "bloody" title for the record. Zemfira argued that such an interpretation of the word "vendetta" is related to its polysemous meaning, among which is the concept of "blood feud". The artist herself prefers the translation of the word as "retribution".

Zemfira also said on the program "Argentum" that she wrote the press release for the disc herself, in which she began to refer to herself as a solo performer. "So, this album was released by me for the first time as a solo performer, because there is no group anymore. I made a principled decision that from now on I will refer to myself as a solo performer. The album includes 15 songs, two of which are in the bonus track category, respectively, 13 programmatic ones. The songs were written and recorded by me over the course of a year," the performer explained.

On March 1, the release of Vendetta and its presentation took place in Moscow, at the Art-Play gallery. After holding a press conference, the singer appeared on stage with a megaphone in her hands to the sounds of a weighted version of Nebomoreoblaka. She performed ten new songs from the album. Boris Barabanov from Kommersant wrote that "after Nebo Zemfira sang the composition Dyshi with a fragment of Every Breath You Take by The Police, as well as the hard rock Malysh, the lyrical Drug, the hit 'Promenade', the sad Samolety, the un-Russian rock and roll Dai Mne Ruku, the suicidal post-punk-surf Povesitsa (as on the CD cover), the disco Raznye and the blues Blues". A cover version of the song Creep by Radiohead and a set of past hits (at the public's insistence) were also performed. The performance was accompanied by a video montage featuring Alla Pugacheva singing at the "Song of the Year" festival, and officials shown on Russia's Channel One television.

Themes

Zemfira herself only said that Vendetta is more built on the mood of the songs, which she tried to preserve as much as possible during recording. Critics later called the album very personal and frank. On Music.com.ua, it was noted that "Zemfira remains a master of piercing lyrical revelations, only they have matured a bit, softened, shed the thorns of categoricity, and sprouted with warmer intonations. Newly thoughtful, focused, drinking every state to the bottom, exploring stylistic and emotional extremes—this is how Zemfira appears". Sonya Sokolova wrote that upon analyzing the song lyrics, one can conclude that the leitmotif of the work is the theme of parting. "This entire album is about farewell, departure, parting without regret," the journalist believed. On Km.ru, it was noted that on this disc Zemfira began to write more frankly than ever, "she opened and turned her soul inside out, showed what she lives by, whom she loves, and whom she hates". The publication wrote: "Vendetta is a novel about human life, in which every song is alive, every song breathes and makes one experience someone else's life, someone else's pain anew each time. Her life and her pain". According to Michael Baev from the magazine Fuzz, on Vendetta Zemfira reached "the limits of self-immersion".

Aleksey Vishnya believed that on Vendetta the singer's gift for speaking the same language as her generation was revealed. "Sex, drugs and death, parting drowned in blue ink—wonderful sources of inspiration. The entire album is imbued with hatred, nervous caprice hangs in the air like an axe," Aleksey noted. Anton Martsinkevich on Krasland.ru spoke about the fact that the disc turned out very intimate. In his opinion, "all tracks impress with their intimacy, as if Zemfira recorded the songs on a cassette and gave it to her boyfriend or girlfriend to listen to. She notices nothing around her and at the same time picks up all the details of what is happening here. Essentially, she doesn't care deeply about those who will listen to this record, and especially about the opinions of these very people. An undoubtedly genius feature—to create like this without noticing anything".

The song Nebomoreoblaka was called "pseudo-social". Dmitry Yakushev in "Left.ru" wrote about the song: "Zemfira does not pronounce manifestos, does not denounce, does not call for revolutions, she, as befits a true artist, draws an image that speaks about the world we live in more clearly and convincingly than any slogans." The author also noted that the main message of the song is directed against the existing orders of show business, and the mention of the singer Valeria in the song was a collective image, as Zemfira herself repeatedly stated in interviews: "Simply, when the song was being written, the singer Valeria was being advertised especially widely and intrusively," Yakushev noted. Zemfira said that although these lines would probably be considered a "vendetta" towards Valeria, she herself does not have such feelings towards the singer. In Progulka the singer turns to "defenseless-naturalistic revelations," using the phrase "my knees are frozen." On Km.ru they wrote that "every girl has experienced this sensation, but none has yet thought to clothe this experience in such an unpretentious form".

Music and lyrics

Zemfira herself called the album eclectic in sound. In an interview with Russian Newsweek, the artist said about the musical diversity of the record: "A motley album. Many styles—the guardians of genre purity will scold. Archaic rock, even blues and electronic arrangements. I am a person of broad views—I wanted it that way". Boris Barabanov wrote that the easiest way to call the album rock, since "the sound of guitars has indeed never been so heavy and pompous on her records before." Nevertheless, after listening, the critic noted that only four songs are performed in a rock key ("Nebomoreoblaka", "Give Me Your Hand", "Baby" and "Hangwoman"). On the other hand, he believed that "with the same success, the record can be described as a collection of 'sad lyrical pieces,' occasionally interrupted by rock and rolls". Konstantin Bakanov from Novye Izvestia noted that the album emphasizes music and that it demonstrates musical diversity, unpredictability, and "matured" themes in the lyrics. Aleksey Mazhaev in Muzikalnaya Pravda, in turn, wrote that Vendetta is a kind of puzzle that "everyone can assemble themselves from beautiful motifs, heartfelt poems, electronic sounds alternating with heavy rock". Sergey Stepanov from Rol.ru claimed that "Zemfira scatters allusions and hyperlinks more readily than usual, so it gets to the point of ridiculousness: the album alternately hosts a melody from The Police, a drum loop from Radiohead, and a guitar riff named, God forbid, Foo Fighters".

About the lyrics of the album's songs, Zemfira said in an interview with Toppop.ru that she cannot describe them: "It's hard for me to talk about the lyrics. I can still reflect on the music—there's blues, there's electronics, but with lyrics it's more complicated: you say whatever you want. There's no slang on this album". In an interview with Fuzz, the singer clarified that the lyrics of her songs have become more concise. She noted that there is a tendency towards conciseness, since she does not like excess either in music or in text. Zemfira clarified that she does not like lyrics built on "endless adjectives" and considers it "water." "And it's very difficult sometimes to get to the essence through these adjectives. You push through, come out to some tree—and it's bald, there's nothing there. What is most significant for me in the text? Of course, the mood. And in music too," the artist said.

In an interview with the Zvuki.ru portal, the singer said that one of the songs on the album contains a quote from Led Zeppelin, but did not specify which one (Zemfira had previously used a riff from the band in the song "Traffic"). "Of course, I listen to the album before it goes out into the world, and more than once. Moreover, it features another quote from 'Led Zeppelin'! It's no secret, although it's much more modest and fits very harmoniously into the arrangement. This is the only deliberate quote, and I undoubtedly knew what I meant when I included it. Some reference to that composition, to that song, to that mood, to those words," Zemfira said.

Professional criticism

Andrey Bukharin in the magazine Rolling Stone gave Vendetta four stars and called it "a fairly serious work, for the first time unlike what Zemfira did before." The critic approved of her decision to change the concept, since "Vdovin is not William Orbit, and Zemfira is not Madonna." In his opinion, although the singer worked on an unusual sound, the album is not "particularly experimental". Boris Barabanov in the newspaper Kommersant also gave a positive assessment to the album. According to him, the record sounds incredibly fresh and Zemfira on it "boldly moves across all formats." The journalist considered the work very harmonious: "Zemfira's album is a vivid example of a musical product brought to absolute perfection, a thing in which there is practically nothing random either at the level of ideas or at the level of performance. Complete symmetry. No one to put next to it". Maksim Semelyak from the magazine Afisha wrote that the record sounds perfect. "As soon as she starts singing—the very thought of imprecise arrangements disappears, like a servant caught stealing, not even demoted. Her songs are almost impossible to spoil—so clear and substantively perfect is their message," the author noted. Alexander Gorbachev, summing up the musical year for the online newspaper Grani.ru, called Vendetta "a collection of the most precise songs, polished to the last echo, about the eternal and the most pressing at the same time" and added: "Zemfira has never sounded so true, so smart, so relevant".

Sergey Stepanov from Rol.ru spoke about the album that "now you can stop being shy—and admit to yourself that in a professional sense Zemfira is not just the most gifted of her compatriots, but a figure of the rank of Kate Bush or Björk, a vocalist from God and a poetess from the devil. Secondly, Russian rock (or pop, or folk) last heard something like this—so impeccable, so complete—in the late 80s: mature Nautilus, later Kino". He also commented on Zemfira's statement that critics would hate her for this album: "The record is positively obliged to reconcile the listener with the consumer, the good music critic with the bad one, and her author's fee with the budgets of the releasing company". Aleksey Mazhaev in the publication Muzikalnaya Pravda wrote that the album has no direct effect. "It opens gradually, with different facets and different tracks. If some compositions of the album appealed to you more than others, there are no guarantees that the ones that didn't appeal (seemingly) won't start spinning in your head on their own at some point. Perhaps this is even cooler than Zemfira's debut, which made you fall in love with it immediately and unconditionally," the reviewer noted. He also wrote a review in the magazine Play, in which he called Vendetta "the return of the main singer" and noted the "stylistic diversity" of the work.

Musicians' opinion

Billy Novik, the leader of the group Billy's Band, wrote his own review of the album specifically for the magazine Ogonyok, where he called it a turning point for Russian rock and roll. Novik noted the unique lyrics and called the best line the phrase "even stones roll somewhere." Overall, the musician considered the work from two points of view:First of all, I am very glad that someone has made a truly high-quality and 'uplifting' album. After Vendetta, I immediately had a number of associations with Western cult singers: Suzanne Vega, Tori Amos… If evaluating the music critically, I must note that I liked the rock line in the album less and the lyrical one more. But, on the other hand, I understand that the album was deliberately built on contrasts. If everything was sustained in one style, it would resemble a 'best songs collection.' Zemfira, however, simultaneously launched several lines: after a punchy action track follows a piercing lyrical ballad—and that's why this music throws me from hot to cold.Ilya Chert named the album among his favorite records. The musician described it as: "Sincerity. Not everyone can give away their heart in pieces. And this is real longing". The singer Pelageya also named it among her favorites. Andrey Makarevich was impressed by the energy of Vendetta: "And despite the fact that this energy is depressive, it is real, not sucked out of thin air". Timur Ismagilov shared his impressions after listening in his "Diary of a Young Composer"; he characterized the disc as "adult, sad and genius," and also called it a "hard-won precious alloy." He was among those who regretted that the singer abandoned the title "Neft," which, in the composer's opinion, would have had a hidden subtext.

Commercial success

Vendetta was recognized as the best-selling disc of 2005 among Russian performers and won in the "Domestic Album of the Year" nomination at the 2006 "Rekord" award. During the award ceremony, Zemfira commented on the success of the record by phone: "This is the first award for the album. But this is not an assessment of creative achievements, but an assessment of sympathy. I hope that the Real Records company is finally happy. Thank you to my fans!" The exact circulation was not announced, but there are statements that the disc was sold in quantities from 250 to 500 thousand copies. On Timeout.ru, it was reported that its circulation was about 250 thousand copies. Forbes cites figures of 280 thousand copies. In the newspaper Kommersant, it was stated that every record in the "Domestic Album of the Year" nomination at the "Rekord" award exceeded 500 thousand copies in sales. In turn, Mikhail Margolis in Izvestia wrote that Vendetta became the only record of 2005 whose sales exceeded 500 thousand copies.

Design and artwork

The standard edition of the album includes 13 main compositions and two bonus tracks. The first pressing includes standard packaging and mentions in the credits, in addition to Real Records, also "First Music Publishing". The Ukrainian edition is similar to the first Russian pressing. The second pressing of the album differs slightly from the first: the mention of "First Music Publishing" is removed and the disc matrix design is changed. Later, a limited edition of the disc was released, which included two music videos for the songs Progulka and "Blues". This edition was distributed in cardboard packaging (digipak). A special edition with bonus tracks, music videos, and an expanded booklet containing song lyrics was also released. The cover and booklet feature a dedication: "To Little Star".

The album's design was handled by Matvey Evstigneev (Oboz Design Studio). The photographer was Vlad Opelyants. The front cover features a photograph of Zemfira holding her hand against glass. Overlaid are the inscriptions "Vendetta" (in black font) and "Zemfira" (in white font). The cover is executed in a gray-black-brown color scheme. Zemfira told the magazine Fuzz that the cover was made literally before the album's release:I didn't have time to deal with the design. We did it, I think, in three hours. The previous cover we did in three months. And, looking at these two covers, I understand that the difference, in general, is not great. The design seemed normal to me. What I like most is how the disc itself looks. I wanted it to be black on the other side too—there are CD-Rs that are black on both sides. But, unfortunately, this turned out to be impossible because graphite, or something, eats into the plastic for a week, and we sent the disc to the factory a day before the release. And if it were black on both sides, it would be just a holiday.

Track listing

Nebomoreoblaka ("НебоМореОблака", SkySeaClouds), 3:37

Dyshi ("Дыши", Breathe), 4:10

Itogi ("Итоги", Conslusions), 3:17

Tak y ostavim ("Так и оставим", We'd leave it this way), 4:11

Samolet ("Самолет", Aeroplane), 2:27

Day mne ruku ("Дай мне руку (я пожму ее)", Give me your hand (I will shake it)), 3:32

Blyuz ("Блюз", Blues), 3:28

Progulka ("Прогулка", Walk), 4:14

Drug ("Друг", Friend), 3:21

Zhuzha ("Жужа", Zhuzha), 4:51

Malysh ("Малыш", Baby), 2:50

Povesitsa ("Повесица", Hang myself), 3:48

Krasota ("Красота", Beauty), 3:11

Bonus tracks:

Razniye (all of us) ("Разные (все такие)", Different (all of us)), 2:56

"Jim Beam (Ufa '97)", 2:25

Team

Zemfira – vocals, Moog (track 2), piano (track 5), Hammond E5 (track 6), Rhodes (track 7), acoustic guitar (track 10), programming (tracks 9, 10, 14, 15), Yamaha strings (track 10), keyboards (track 14), guitar (track 15).

Oleg Pungin – drums (tracks 1, 2, 6, 11, 12)

Kornei – bass guitar (tracks 1–4, 6, 7, 11, 12, 14), guitar (tracks 2–7, 9–12, 14), Mellotron (tracks 3 and 10), programming (tracks 3, 5, 9, 10), VST-bass (track 10).

Yuri Tsaler – guitar (tracks 1, 11, 12)

Bolshakov – engineer (tracks 1, 2, 5–7, 10–12, 14), mastering

Denis Yurovsky – assistant engineer (tracks 1, 2, 5–7, 10–12, 14)

Vlad Kreymer – programming (track 3)

Valery Cherkesov – mixing engineer (track 3), mixing (tracks 11 and 13)

Oleg Belov – piano (tracks 4 and 13)

Igor Vdovin – arrangement (tracks 4, 8, 13), programming (tracks 4, 8, 9, 13)

Boris Istomin – sound recording (tracks 4, 8, 13), mixing (tracks 4, 8), technical support (tracks 4, 8)

Alexander Levichkin – technical support (tracks 4 and 8)

Valentina Borisova – harp (track 5)

Han – drums (track 7)

Ivan Farmakovsky – Hammond E5 (track 7)

Alexander Dedkovsky – trumpet (track 12)

Awards and nominations

In 2005, the artist was nominated for several MTV Russia Music Awards, including Best Female Artist (for Blyuz and Progulka), Best Composition (for Progulka), Best Rock Project (for Blyuz and Progulka), and Best Artist. The music video for Blyuz won the award for Best Video.

In 2006, the artist received multiple nominations at the Fuzz Awards, Record Awards, and Muz-TV Awards. At the Fuzz Awards, she was nominated for Best Music Video (for Blyuz and Progulka”), Best Song (for Itogi), and Best Album (for Vendetta). At the Record Awards, Vendetta was named the Domestic Album of the Year, while at the Muz-TV Awards, it was also nominated for Best Album.