Customer Reviews

Come Closer (Turk)

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

To the negative reviews that can't go past two sentences, I wonder why? It is so easy to write so little without giving justification, and pioneers are often misunderstood in their own time.

Tarkan truly is a pioneer and often misunderstood. But to be honest when I read such nonsense that "you can hardly hear his voice", even though I read it assuming good intention on behalf of the people that bothered to write two sentences to say that, I can't help but think they either bought a different album, or their intentions are not wholly pure.

I fell in love with Tarkan singing in Turkish, I didn't truly appreciate world music until his Karma album.

So, I too had my doubts when I bought this album. Tarkan's 'Come Closer' - his debut English album - I thought was going to be a commercial sell-out for US audiences.

But it wasn't - it was filled with new sounds and different instruments, playing melodies and harmonies that they do not normally play, as though Tarkan bought different cultures and different sounds together and helped them to see that they can play well together and in harmony.

With this album Tarkan has not only brought people together, he has brought different ranges of music closer together.

Plus, it is highly addictive. I heartily agree with the reviewer that said she listens to it repeatedly. I do, too. It gets that you feel you need to listen to it.

Tracks to watch out for:

DANCE TRACKS

Track 3: Why Don't We (feat Wyclef Jean) - Tarkan definitely does not whisper in this track! It is so sexy and vibrant, it'll keep you dancing long after the tune ends - it just reverberates in your head. And Jean's rapping over Turkish melodies is just unforgettable.

Track 4: Mine - I just can't get over this song. The darbuka beats in excellent - and Tarkan's vocals are sexy and husky - but he also hits the high range as he sings: "Do you want it all or not at all?" Watch out for the middle section of the song where he asks "Don't you want to misbehave me?" It's a crazy song and Tarkan truly makes you his with the urban vibes married perfectly to oriental sexuality of darbuka shaking hips - this is one to listen to over and over again!

Track 6: Start The Fire! This song is wild - another dancy tune, with 80s beats that are back in fashion in songs again - and is perfect to sing-a-long too!

Track 12: I'm gonna make you feel good - the sexy lyrics do it for me for this song. "Come on bring your dirty mind upstairs" he sings and you feel yourself just shaking to the pacy beat.

SLOW MOJOS

Track 5: Over - Tarkan's voice is amazing here - so mourningful accompanied by sufi like chants and spanish guitars. It is an amazing slow tune of love gone and bitter regret. Not for the easily upset.

Track 9: Come Closer - The song that lends it's name to the album. The song begins with the sound of children playing happily that flows into another Latin smoothed ballad with Trakan's silky smooth voice - calling for all of humanity to "Come Closer".

Track 15: If Only you Knew - On Tarkan's Karma album I had a favourite slow track - Verme. These two songs not share the fact of being the last tracks on their albums - but they are also the most spritual songs I've heard. "If only I could take the sun and moon and make tomorrow wait..." This is unmistakable Tarkan.

So what are you waiting for - buy this life-changing album today.

Tarkan delivers a quality set of slick Turkish music vibes fused in RnB, hip hop and pop.

When I first heard that Tarkan was going to jump into the urban genre with his first English language album I went "OH NO!" There's only so much sex implied/foreplay lyrics that one album can handle, and the lack of variety can ultimately prove fatal.

Yet, this album shows how much Tarkan knows his stuff, because he hasn't fallen into the same trap that many urban artists do.

This makes "Come Closer" a solid enough collection of slow jams, and modern beats, with just the right amount of sex added in as spice.

Filled with sexy tales of flirtation "I'm Gonna Make You feel Good" and "Mine", and fatal attractions "Just Like That" and "Shikidim", you might, at first glance, expect Come Closer to be devoid of serious messages. Not a chance; songs like "Come Closer" (calling out "for a thread of peace and a seed of hope"), and "Mass Confusion" (Tarkan sings "I'm overanalyzed, digitized, terrorized, Over merchandised, paralyzed") gives us a deeper insight to how this singer's mind clicks.

His serious points - particularly on songs such as "Over" (a Spanish flavoured ballad about lost love), "Come Closer", "Mass Confusion" and "If Only You Knew" give out deeper messages of the world today and how we should try harder to unify with each other and ourselves.

A surprise bonus is the addition of Fugee's Wyclef Jean lending his rap to Tarkan's vocals on track three: Why Don't We.

Tarkan is quality. He seems to get better and better with every new album. Though I have to say that I don't EVER want him to stop singing in Turkish, but this album is a best buy.

It goes without saying that the album is a masterpiece. If you feel unsure about the album's victorious not too distant future, try it yourself and you'll see what I mean!

In case you are familiar with Turkish pop culture and admire it, you will be pleasantly surprised. The album succeeds in combining different musical traditions to an outstanding unity. The West meets East and backwards! Tarkan and his team break down barriers.

If you are unfamiliar with Tarkan's music (or Turkish music in general), I am sure this album will capture your attention by the haunting oriental groove. You cannot escape once you're into it! And believe me you won't have a single impulse to skip a song while listening to the album.

Tastes differ of course... One can hardly enjoy each and every song of an album, but I am sure there is something for everybody on this one! Personally I liked `Why Don't We (Aman Aman)' best.

`Music should have no borders and we should all try to come closer' (Tarkan).

The album asks the world to come closer, to unite as one, with humanity as much in harmony as Tarkan's songs are diverse.

I have the album on loop. I think I've listened to each song over hundred times, and to my favourites at least thirty forty times a day. And with each listening, the songs work deeper into you. The album has 15 tracks, but they go so quickly - you just end up wanting more. The day after I brought this album, I woke up suffering from withdrawal symptoms. I was addicted to the sound. The first thing I did was put the CD on...and now I go to sleep with the tracks playing on my iPod.

It is a must have for everyone, because this is a new genre. For never before have I heard the East meet the West in such perfect synergy. This is what world music should be.

Will anyone of Middle-Eastern or of Western descent have ever imagined that the musical instrument oud could fit perfectly with urban beats as it does in his opening track - "Just Like That"? You wonder why no one had thought of it before...but you can imagine that most black artists in the USA will be searching collections of oriental and Turkish musical instruments to start using in THEIR tracks. And rightly so if music sounds like this. This is the fresh injection that RnB and hiphop needs in America right now.

His fourth track "Mine" melds the darbuka with a catchy pop beat that is amazing - WHAT A SONG FOR BELLYDANCERS - and his voice raw and passionate just eats away at your hearing. You won't even realise it IS a darbuka pounding away - it has found a home so well in the arrangements of Ozan ?olakoglu - the much sought after musician that orchestrated Sertab Erener's 2003 hit win "Everyway That I Can" for the Eurovision song contest.

But most importantly, the finale track just raises you to the highest high, soft and slow, and the ending with the dreamy violins and Tarkan singing, "love is the sweetest pain inside/the answer to it all is right there in your eyes", makes you feel the loss of an album coming to an end as his sad soulful voice dies away - and you just can't wait to begin the whole journey again from track 1.

Tarkan in his 5th track 'Over' sings, "If you're heart's not open/you can't see what you've got'. I ask you to open your heart and give this album a chance. You'll be blown away.

i been tarkans fun since 1999 too like other people and i was waitig for this album for so long, if you are planning to buy it , buy it dont mis the chance to learn a/b turkish music and culture and dont miss those sounds that transport you to turkey...my song is ORORUM SANNA i love it, come closer its just a masterpiece , HE IS AMAZING.....KARLLA

This is the first English album of Turkish super popstar Tarkan who has already made so many fans all over the world with his Turkish albums.
Yes,this is an album made for presenting Tarkan to a wider audience in America, aiming especially American market but there is nothing wrong with that.In fact, weren't all his fans complaining about this issue, that he must be known and appreciated by more people in the USA?
This is an excellent dance album. If you like to dance, i can't think of a better album these days. You can do classical disco dance, rap, hiphop, belly dance at the same time. Eastern flavor is very well infused into the western style pop songs using Turkish instruments like oud, saz etc. Each song is penetrating in your blood and you can't stop dancing !
It's an album much much better than many America Top 10 Pop albums which are full of cliches, which are repeating themselves all the time. You easily feel that this album is different, has an identity, offers something new and we have a potential superstar for American market.
So give this man a chance if you don't know him and most importantly WATCH THIS MAN LIVE IN CONCERT because it's his strongest side. If you are not so impressed with the album(which would be a pity)you will be hooked seeing his dancing and stage charisma and if you have already liked the album your positive impressions will triple.

I wonder why these so called reviewers who state they like Tarkan so much but not this ground-breaking album COME TO REVIEW HIM NOW simply to give him a bad pess? Surely these reviewers should have reviewed Tarkan's music (if as they profess they have all his CDs) long before now - and not just come here to blatantly lie about this excellent work of art.

Why do I say lie and not opinion? Because you can't say this album is great but give it two stars, or give it four and then try and ridicule Tarkan simply because of his accent - which is completely understandable.

That is what it is. When you compare it to the pop trash out there (a.k.a anything by Usher/Britney Spears) you can see this album has one thing the others lack SOUL! And Tarkan couldn't portray this if he had a muffled voice. I think ears and hearts might be muffled however!

I understand all of Tarkan's lyrics and they are not muffled at all. Let me give you saome examples - and I wish I could give you sound examples - to totally blow away some of those lies - I promise you, listen to previews of "Over", "If Only You knew and Touch" and you'll know that his voice, thick with emotion just rings out - - loud and clear.

When he sings:

"Slide over here
Skin against skin
Melt into me
Forget where you begin"

in the song Touch - I sure know what he's saying. I get goosebumps everytime.

But maybe the best thing we can say to those reviewers who cannot listen past the first note with prejudice is Tarkan when he sayings in his Come Closer song:

I will raise my eyes to see more
Speak a truth and we shall know

Listen to this album and you shall know that these "people" don't know what they are talking about.

I have also had problems with Amazon.com about delivery. I am still waiting for my CD - as have many others. But of course those that accept Amazon's lacklustre policies when it comes to imports are bound to side with Amazon.

I give Tarkan try at English language pop hip hop 5 stars, but most write about the music, I want to write about the lyrics.

I've always been a content over style man. I like meaning in my lyrics whether it is a love song or a socio-political song. This is because meaningful lyrics must communicate some of the human experience.

One problem with many hip hop urban songs is the lack of this meaning. It is true that often the songs that have less meaning that people like to attach their own meaning to, but when you think about it - what messages are those songs giving? There is too much emphasis on hook and melody and "let's make babies" lyrics.

With Tarkan, although he has covered himself in urban beats, he has not forgotten the power of lyrics and many of his songs retain lyrical power.

I'm a musical student and I am thinking of writing a paper on this CD.

It is true that sometimes you can't quite make out what he says in English - one word or two here and there - but the whole flows so well that you know what he is saying without having to look in the booklet.

He does clever things by giving clues of other songs in different songs by using "chain words", and by using repeating motifs in the language to make the concept feel strong all the way through. For example imagery of "no need for words" (don't speak), touching skin on skin, and fire motifs are very powerful in the whole of the songs and often repeated. And in the song "I'm Going To Make You Feel Good" he whisper "Come Closer" indicating that if we follow the message of his "Come Closer" song to unify we can have so much more fun!!!

Some of the songs namely the first three "Just Like That" "In your eyes" and "Why Don't we" conform to usual lyrics, and you think Track 4 "Mine" will be more of the same and then halfway he sings in a sexy pitch and you take notice:

"Don't want you to hate me
I just want you to love me
I don't need you to save me
Don't you wanna misbehave me"

It is after this that the lyrics become to come into their own. The highest praise that can be heaped on a lyric is to compare it to poetry. And beginning with Track 5 the slow "Over", Pete "Boxta" Martin and Tarkan's writing is like poetry, with such home truths as:

"When you know you're wrong
She's heard it all before
And with every word unspoken
Each moment comes undone"

We've all been there right? There is no pretentious school-book rhyming here - just emotional words.

Then in Track 9 to the metaphorical call for human unity in his "Come Closer" song penned by the famous producer David Werner:

"A wind is blowing and a fire's loose
I couldn't find the words to call a truce
And tore the temple down to let the spirit rise..."

You can feel how caged we are by prejudice and now's the time to break free of our fears and come together. A lyric that chimes with the listener can have a unique impact. It shapes how you see the world. This had that impact on me. I love this song.

Towards the end, the album becomes lyrically much stronger, with tracks 12 to 15 all hitting out emotional lyrics.

Track 12 and clever sexy lyrics of "I'm Gonna Make You feel Good" just makes you smile written by Tina Harris, Steve Lee and Pete ''Boxta'' Martin:

"I just wanna see
What you're writing with your sweat on my skin
Come on, bring your dirty mind upstairs
I'm gonna make you feel good
Spinning around inside your brain
Like a sexy kind of hurricane"

It's fun, free and sexy - the lyrics just jump out at you.

While the final track 15, "If Only You Knew" being the most sweetest love song I've heard in a long time, with Billy Mann lyrics helping Tarkan to claim:

"Love is the sweetest pain inside
The answer to it all is right there in your eyes
I think I could die tonight
And know that I don't have to live again
And make love for hours 'til our bodies join
And your skin is my skin
If I could take the sun and take the moon
And make tomorrow wait
If only I, if only I knew the way"

What more is there to say with a finale like that? Except listen to it all over again.

It looks like this will be one of my most favourie CDs for a long, long time.

I still can't believe that a Turkish person made such an amazing English album.many people can't understand this. because of the prejudices about Turkey,many great Turkish stars can't reach to the worldwide music industry.I have been waiting for Tarkan's english album for a long long time and at last i have it and i'm listening to this album everyday that i loved it very very much.
I think all the songs are hits on their own and wonderful.The album has an up tempo sound but there are beautiful songs like over,if only u knew,come closer and touch which are amazing ballads with great lyrics.
i loved "why don't we" with wycleaf jean,it is such a great song and i felt emotional when i heard wycleaf saying "tarkan" or "tabi tabi tabi" and many Turkish words,it is amazing.
"Shikidim" has also an incredible power in the album.actually its original is Turkish and it has Turkish parts but its new version is also really good.
one of the songs i felt really excited is "touch" which has electronic and western sounds but also has orient ryhtms so it is very unique and different.
Actually i can't pick any song for the best, EVERY SONG IS GORGEOUS and all of them are really precious for me.
i think this album is great,excellent and wonderful because IT IS UNIQUE AND DIFFERENT.
YOU SHOULD BUY IT BECAUSE YOU CAN'T FIND ANY ALBUM LIKE TARKAN'S IN THE WORLD WHICH IS A GREAT INTEGRATION OF EAST AND WEST.THERE IS A GREAT HARMONY BETWEEN HIP HOP AND R&B SOUNDS OF WEST AND ORIENTAL AND EASTERN DANCE RHYTMS OF EAST.
ALSO the way Tarkan sings is amazing with his great voice,ORIGINAL STYLE and its great lyrics that captures the listener easily.At the same time he is really handsome and gorgeous,dont cha think:))
THERE IS NO REASON FOR THIS ALBUM NOT TO BE A CLASSIC IN THE WORLD,THIS ALBUM IS ONE OF A KIND.I think this album has a power that Tarkan can be an international popstar.
GIVE TARKAN A CHANCE AND AND BUY HIS ALBUM.YOU WILL SEE THAT THIS ALBUM IS A REALLY REALLY GREAT JOB.
DANCE AND DISCOVER DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF MUSIC WITH THIS ALBUM THAT YOU'VE NEVER HEARD BEFORE!!!
you will never forget Tarkan again once you listened to him,i'm really proud of him:))

After going to his website and listeing to parts of all the songs i cant wait to get it in, i am angry in somepart that everyone else is critizing his work by just haveing a sneak peak at all the tracks on his website thats more than enought to know that this mans efforts are to be shown in this lastest cd, I cant wait to listen to it till it's scratched, but pleasee you all know that everything that TARKAN makes is more than well done, there are no boundaries for him, love you TARKANN !!!! keep up the good work !!!!

sing to it, dance to it, do all it takes to fall in love with it who wouldent ???