User:Xia/Metamorfoz

A Metamorfoz (jelentése törökül ’metamorfózis’) Tarkan hetedik stúdiólemeze, amely 2007. december 25-én jelent meg Törökországban.

Az album dalai közül hetet Tarkan írt, három másikat Ozan Çolakoğluval közösen szereztek. Az albumot 2008-ban világszerte terjeszteni szeretnék. Az album stílusáról és koncepciójáról a hivatalos honlap úgy fogalmaz, hogy teljesen új, a keletet a nyugattal egyesítő hangzásvilágra kell számítani, amely „mind a rajongók, mind a kritikusok számára óriási meglepetés lesz.” A lemez vegyes fogadtatást kapott a török sajtóban, ahogy Tarkan korábbi munkái is; egyes újságírók szerint ez az évek óta folytatott lejárató kampány része. A média támadásai ellenére az album 300 000 példányban fogyott a megjelenése utáni első héten.

A bemutatkozó kislemez címe Vay Anam Vay („A mindenit!”). A Metamorfoz 2008. február 1-jén jelent meg Európában, a Universal Music/Urban kiadásában, egyelőre csak néhány országban.

Background
Tarkan's last Turkish language album was Dudu, in 2003. His first English language work, Come Closer did not bring satisfactory results when compared to the sales of his previous albums. It did not even reach gold sales, according to the list published by MÜYAP (Turkish Phonographic Institute). After the failure of Come Closer Tarkan decided to release a new, Turkish album and in the beginning of 2007 he declared that he was working on new songs. However, release dates were continuously being postponed. Hürriyet reported that the album would be released around şeker bayramı, the three-day celebration after the Muslim fasting month of ramadan. It was rumoured that the first single would be called Biraz Nezaket (A Little Courtesy), written by Sezen Aksu. Tarkan denied all previous news in an interview given at the Atatürk International Airport in Istanbul, declaring that release was delayed and the Sezen Aksu song was taken off the tracklist. .

The Album
Metamorfoz was finally released in Turkey on 25th December, 2007, one day after its announced release date, while it came out on the 1st February, 2008 in Europe. Seven of the songs were written by Tarkan, three are collaborations with producer-composer Ozan Çolakoğlu. Metamorfoz means metamorphosis, transformation, change in English. The title indicates that musically Metamorfoz is different from Tarkan's previous works. The cover pictures Tarkan with unusually short hair, in a shiny grey suit and this image has not yet been familiar for fans, which also justifies the title. The cover features the title in Braille dots for the visually impaired. In the first edition of the cover the Braille title was printed wrong and read Tarkaf instead of Tarkan. It was soon corrected and the cover reprinted.

The style of the album is a mix of dance pop with rock, electric guitar, synthesizer, piano and strings sounds are given major role. Some journalists compared the style to that of Justin Timberlake, "mixed with some oriental sauce to make it slide easier".

The Songs
From the songs Vay Anam Vay, Dilli Düdük, Arada Bir, Hop Hop, Çat Kapı and Dedikodu are faster dance songs, Bam Teli and Gün gibi are somewhat slower, while İstanbul Ağriyor and Pare Pare are slow ballads.

The story of the songs were told by Tarkan himself in an interview for the magazine Yeni Aktüel. As told by Tarkan, Vay Anam Vay was born when he was working in the studio on another song. He wrote it in two hours and together with Çolakoğlu they found it so good that they decided to adjust the other songs to its style, removing unconforming songs from the tracklist. Thus the album's "metamorphic" style was determined by Vay Anam Vay.

Dilli Düdük was written one and a half years ago, when Tarkan went through a difficult period in his life. "I wrote it when again the fruits of my work were unjustly stoned and muddied. In the same period one of my colleagues became a victim of such unfair attacks, as well. This time I really got angry. I wrote this song for those who break people's heart without thinking first, who make a mountain out of a molehill with their words.

Çat Kapı explains the singer's helplessness towards love, a feeling he has experienced multiple times. He makes a decision not to fall in love again, but then he cannot resist the feeling.

The song Hop Hop has political tones. It describes how the states exploit the citizens for their own purposes, how today's political systems are good for nothing, since the world is full of violence, war, human rights are many times oppressed, we are a subject to global warming and governments do little to save us. Tarkan explained in the interview that the song examines these problems and encourages people to unite, no matter what colour our skin is or what religion we follow.

Tarkan made the following comment on Pare Pare in Yeni Aktüel: In this song I wanted to open my heart in its deepest and purest form. I wanted to share the self of me that looks so different when watched from outside but in reality is torn by storms. Of course, everyone has their own story. There should not be any prejudice towards anyone. What you project to the world and what you really are is different, I just wanted to put a reminder of that.

Gün Gibi is the confession of a man in love, thanking love. It is "the happy song of the nightingale that found his rose".

İstanbul Ağliyor was written for those who have already experienced the pain of separation and loneliness, so that they know they are not alone.

Arada Bir is a self-evaluating song, a confession that shows how Tarkan had experienced so-called "double relationships", which - according to him - are part of mankind's nature: at first everyone only cares for their own self, searches their own truth, but in the end if we are able to understand we were wrong, we can restore balance in the relationship.

Bam Teli is about the psychological games involved in human relationships, when people often hurt each other, sometimes leaving unhealable wounds behind. In this song Tarkan advises not to get involved in such games, sometimes we should just keep silent, show understanding and acceptance of the other and leave things to time.

Dedikodu is a song protesting against gossips. The singer asks his audience to believe in his art rather than listen to fame and money-hunting gossips and false news projected mainly by the media.

Európai kiadás
A Metamorfoz 2008. február 1-én az Urban (a Universal Music német alvállalata) kiadásában jelent meg Németországban. Itt az album módosított változatát terjesztik, melyen a Vay Anam Vay videója is szerepel. Az Urban által kiküldött hírlevél szerint az első koncertsorozat májusra várható. >

Reception
First week after its release Metamorfoz sold 300 000 copies, and is still in hihg position on charts (as of January 2008). Besides, he was awarded with a special appreciation from the Turkish Language Institute (Türk Dil Kurumu), the president of the institute sent him a congratulation on his lyrics, appreciating how it cultivates the customs of the Turkish language, using several unique idioms and sayings, showing a great example to young people in preserving their mother tongue. Ecevit Kılıç, the columinst of Sabah newspaper called Tarkan the "Orhan Pamuk of music", who follows his own ways no matter what, just like the Nobel laurate writer. In the meantime, according to Vatan, Metamorfoz "exploded like a bomb" on the music market, having sold 300 000 hard copies, while there were 49 000 Tarkan-related downloads from TTNetMüzik within a week, which site is the only one where Tarkan's songs can legally be downloaded in MP3 format for free (for TTNet internet subscribers).

The album has received mixed reviews from the Turkish media. Some journalists defended Tarkan saying that critics should be engaged in discussing his music rather than his dressing style, which characterised most of the publicism that appeared in connection with the release. Tuna Serim columnist pointed out in one of her articles that there was a definite hunt for Tarkan news in the Turkish media, channels were ready to change their original schedules to feature Tarkan-related news, which are considered to be of primary importance. She also pointed out that the release of a music video is not given primary coverage in television news programmes in any country, while the release of "Vay Anam vay" was featured and discussed in the news programmes in Turkey. Cengiz Semercioğlu of Hürriyet thinks that there is an "anti-Tarkan lobby" in the domestic press, which might have resulted from the fact that the singer keeps a certain distance from the yellow press, so whatever he does the press is going to tear into pieces with criticism. In other journalists and critics' opinion this is the worst album he has ever made, repeats himself and there is nothing original in it. There was one critic who refused to comment on the album or even to listen to it. Others don't otherstand what other critics find unacceptable in the album.

Tolga Akyıldız, a popular columnist for Hürriyet made a comment on Metamorfoz only two months after the release, saying that he wanted to wait until such daily slanders fade away like the claim that Tarkan "stole" his image from an artist of the Erol Köse label. Akyıldız declared that he "can't stomach it any more". According to him the album is good, the songs are good but it would be high time that Tarkan were braver:

To be frank, at first Metamorfoz reminded me how good Tarkan is at songwriting. A large section of the songs that make up the album are good songs. The album's music producer, Ozan Çolakoğlu, is to world standards in my opinion. Can Şengül on guitar, he is a maestro. So where's the problem? The problem is in the sound. Possibly in the fact that he didn't give complete control of the arena of sound to Çolakoğlu, that Tarkan wasn't brave enough. When I first listened to "Vay Anam Vay", I thought the electronic, dance baseline was a step in the right direction. However, I realised after listening to the album as a whole that tarkan simply can't risk breaking away from himself. I don't see a need to mention the songs. Ultimately it's a Tarkan album, it has good songs, it will hold, sell, that's a different issue. [...] the real issue is that tarkan needs to overtake himself now. There's no need to be his own best impersonation, there's a lot of those impersonators about. Now it's time to break new ground, to risk losing his dominance and take a brave new step. We see the first seeds of this in Metamorfoz but Tarkan needs to be more resolved. If only to give the album's name its proper due...>

According to Hürriyet, the third most searched for words in the online dictionary of the Turkish Language Institute in January 2008 was "metamorfoz".

The first of foreign radios to air Metamorfoz was the Persian Javan Radio in Washington, USA; because of demand from the audience.

Vay Anam Vay
The video was shot in 2007 in the studios of İstanbul Film Sokağı, the director was Kıvanç Baruönü, who is known as the special effects master for the top hit Turkish sci-fi movie, G.O.R.A. starring Cem Yılmaz. The shooting lasted one day, the video was mainly made with bluebox techniques. Tarkan's partner in the video is the Israeli model Liraz Dror. Vay Anam Vay went on air on January 15th in Turkey.

Just like the cover art, the music video of Vay Anam Vay is dominated by grey colours, which is only broken by the dark red colour of the stage curtains. The video is without a storyline, Tarkan can be seen in several spots singing, with Liraz Dror in the background on a screen. First he is seen in the middle of a virtual corridor in the same exact shiny grey suit he wears on the album cover. The second location is an attic where he is sitting on a white sofa. Then he is dancing in an empty room, wearing black trousers, a black vest, sports shoes and a hat; as well as jeans, a leather coat and a yellow T-shirt with a Bruce Lee motive on it. The fourth location is a virtual stage with dark red curtains, with a screen behind that features Liraz Dror.

Concerts
Tarkan's first concert abroad to promote Metamorfoz will be held in the Wembley Arena in London on April 13th 2008, where his special guest will be the Turkish nu metal band maNga. Then, according to the official website, he is about to perform in Baku on May 10th and 11th 2008.

Critics, journalists and industry representatives

 * Michael Show:

The tone of the album is a bit of rock, its characteristics were not lost during postproduction; basically we get the usual tarkan sound. Electronics was not exaggerated, we cannot talk about any cheap sound either. Middle tempo, up-to-date, and what's more important, it won't lose its musical actuality after 10 years, either. The album has the same rhythm and sound all along, and of this maybe we can say that "ok, it's consistent", but a star like him should make a more colourful album. There could be, for example, a dance song, a ballad, or a pop-rock one, or a hard rock song, it could have been made more colourful. Finally, this album is not exaggerated, and it's not that bad so that we could keep on spatting on it, but it's not as perfect to take the place of Tarkan's great old hits, either. Tarkan made a pure album without any rustic or loutness in it; Vay Anam Vay – Dilli Düdük – İstanbul Ağlıyor – Arada Bir – Dedikodu - these are the songs that make the album pass, if only the other songs would be like them, too.


 * Yasemin Kağa (Product manager for Sony BMG Turkey):

It is very important who is the critic that comments on the album. I think that we are going to listen to these songs a lot. Tarkan brought novelty in terms of musical style. The songs are different, the effects are different. I know they worked on it for a long time.


 * Ahmet San (producer, Tarkan's previous manager):

I think [the album] is not bad. As Tarkan said, "My songs are like [Turkish] tea, if you let it brew longer, it will become better." This is true. Tarkan knows his own standard well, and he knows what strategy to apply. When he does something, he does it right. Whatever he does, it will always be marketable. And it is. In such a short period of time he sold 300 000 copies of the album. Some might like it, some might not, but Tarkan has always been and will always be. His image can be criticised, but Tarkan will always remain Tarkan.


 * Ercan Saatçi (owner of the record label Rec by Saatchi):

I liked the songs. I want this album to sell, from the market point of view. If even Tarkan couldn't sell, then the other Turkish albums would get into a very desperate situation. Tarkan changed styles completely. I found the sound very surprising.


 *  Sina Koloğlu (journalist):

As always, the album is on strong bases. Not my style, but if we take the album as it is, then it is on the right bases.

The album is not good enough for Tarkan's musical standards. Tarkan is a star that could outdo his previous works so far. This is the exact reason why we always expect more of him. He made us get used to good quality, so now we expected an album that would outdo Dudu [his last Turkish language album before Metamorfoz]. He did not succeed. He keeps repeating himself, this album is like his previous ones.
 * Naim Dilmener (music critic)

Zenészek, énekesek véleménye
İbrahim Tatlıses singer-showman, who is considered to be the "emperor" of arabesque music thinks that Metamorfoz is a "really fine album" and that critics are being unjust to Tarkan. He added that in Turkey "trees with fruits are stoned, and Tarkan's fruit yield is far too rich". Nil Karaibrahimgil singer, in her article for Hürriyet condemned the criticism saying that in Turkey apparently the only important thing is to criticise an artist's appearance and sentences, to find mistakes and point fingers at someone they used to put on a pedestal.

The popular pop singer, Kayahan, in an interview for Bugün newspaper said that these so-called critics usually don't know anything baout music, and what's more they try to move Tarkan out of his place in the music market: "Takan sings well. I wonder those who are working on discrediting Tarkan, with what they want to replace him. They are being unfair to him. They should leave Tarkan alone!"

Számlista
Fordítás: Ali Yildirim, Baksa Tímea

Közreműködők

 * Producer: Ozan Çolakoğlu, Tarkan
 * Hangszerelés: Ozan Çolakoğlu
 * Mix: Ozan Çolakoğlu
 * Hangfelvétel, edit és mix: Murat Matthew Erdem
 * Stúdió: Sarı Ev, Imaj
 * Mastering: Miles Showell / Metropolis Group Ltd.
 * Fénykép: Tamer Yılmaz
 * Haj: Yıldırım Özdemir
 * Smink: Neriman Eröz
 * Grafikai tervezés: İsmail Aylakcı, Onur Güngör
 * Szerkesztés: Hande Menekşe
 * Nyomás: GD Ofset

Zenészek

 * Elektromos gitár: Can Şengün
 * Akusztikus gitár: Can Şengün, Michael Annas Allaf
 * Basszusgitár: Alp Ersönmez
 * Hegedű: Gündem Yaylı Grubu
 * Ütősök: Mehmet Akatay

Külső hivatkozások

 * Hivatalos honlap

Metamorfoz Metamorfoz (albüm)