Metamorfoz

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 MÜ-YAP (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. The Turkish daily Hürriyet reported that the album would be released around Ramadan Fest, the three-day celebration after the Islamic 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 this 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 track list.

Album

Metamorfoz was finally released in Turkey on December 25, 2007, one day after its announced release date, while it came out on February 1, 2008 in Europe. Seven of the songs were written by Tarkan, three are collaborations with producer-composer Ozan Çolakoğlu. Metamorfoz means metamorphosis, transformation or 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, an image unfamiliar to his fans, which also justifies the title of the album. 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 heavy electropop with dance and rock; extensive use of samples, electric guitars thrown here and there, synthesizers and keyboards. Oriental percussion and strings sounds are given a minor role compared to his previous albums. Some journalists compared the style to that of Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears songs Toxic and Piece of Me, "mixed with some oriental sauce to make it slide easier".

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 Ağlıyor and Pare Pare are slow ballads.

The story of the songs were told by Tarkan himself in an interview for the magazine Yeni Aktüel.

Reception

First week after its release, Metamorfoz sold 300.000 copies, and is still in high position on charts (as of January 2008). Besides, he was awarded with a special appreciation from the Turkish Language Association (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 the daily 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, an internet site as the only one, where Tarkan's songs can legally be downloaded free of charge in MP3 format by subscribers of the internet service provider TTNet in Turkey.

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 characterized most of the publicism that appeared in connection with the release. Columnist Tuna Serim 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 do not 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 "cannot 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 Şengün 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, D.C., United States; because of demand from the audience.

European release

Metamorfoz was released by Urban (a Universal Music company) on February 1, 2008 in Germany. The album was published in a special format, which contains the music video of "Vay Anam Vay".

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 bluescreen techniques. Tarkan's partner in the video is Liraz Dror. Vay Anam Vay went on air on January 15, 2008 in Turkey.

Just like the cover art, the music video of Vay Anam Vay is dominated by grey colors, which is only broken by the dark red color 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 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 motif 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 13, 2008, where his special guest will be the Turkish nu metal band maNga. As announced at his own official website, another international concert is scheduled on May 10 and 11, 2008 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Track listing

Metamorfoz remixes

1. Pare Pare (Tiësto mix)
2. Vay Anam Vay (Elektrofied mix)
3. Arada Bir (Be Funkee mix)
4. İstanbul Ağlıyor (Hökenek mix)
5. Dilli Düdük (Suat Ateşdağlı & Yalçın Aşan mix)
6. Vay Anam Vay (Erdem Kınay mix)
7. Dedikodu (Ozan Doğulu mix)
8. Arada Bir (Ozinga mix)
9. Vay Anam Vay (Gürcell mix)
10. Çat Kapı (Hökenek mix)
11. Hop Hop (Kıvanç K Gangsta mix)
12. Vay Anam Vay (Elektherock mix)
13. İstanbul Ağlıyor (Murat Matthew Erdem mix)

Personnel

Musicians