Tuesday, December 14, 2010

The 2010-50 - No.5: Adalet yok ya, canımı yakar bu sessizlik

"Araf" - Mor ve Ötesi.

When you think of 'holiday songs' then the usual dance hits come to mind....but when I think back to my recent holiday in Turkey, it's not "We No Speak Americano" which comes to mind (although you couldn't escape it anywhere) but something darker and more intense = in other words, "Araf" (Purgatory), which got lots of airplay on Power Turk TV.

When choosing songs for my annual chart, some were very obvious top ten choices. This was absolutely one of them. I must have played this song more times than I can remember in the last 3 months, but I never tire of it. Brilliant vocals by Harun Tekin - what a great singer, just love him! - and the band's mix of accessible guitar music and superb vocal harmonies make this Turkish band one of the best in Europe right now.


By the way, they've also recorded a couple of songs in English - "Loveliest Mistake" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcnQZdNtNWo) and "Dependence Day" - would this suggest an English-language album might be on the way? If anyone knows any more about this, please let me know!

2 comments:

Claire said...

Thanks for reminding me of how good this band are! I'd also forgotten about them after Eurovision, but I ended up downloading 'Masumiyetin Ziyan Olmaz' after you posted about it a few months ago, and it's one of my favourite albums of this year. There's something about the songs' melodies and the passionate way that they're performed that just makes them stick in your head, and I agree with you that Harun is a terrific frontman. I've also invested in one of their earlier albums, 'Dünya Yalan Söylüyor', which is just as good. I've just listened to 'Loveliest mistake'-it feels a bit weird hearing them sing in English, but I suppose it could help them make more of a breakthrough in Europe.

Laura (EuropeCrazy) said...

Glad you love them too! Totally agree with everything you said. I'll need to check out some of their earlier albums and will be keeping a closer eye on their career from now on.