At her last concert, after declaring “no more stages!”, Sezen responded to persistent questions with, “whenever my noble heart desires.” And she kept her word—she never returned to the stage. But she didn’t neglect to write the Noble Heart Songs. The album has now hit the market and stirred up the conversation.
Sezen’s albums—high-selling and much talked about—have triumphed through every era: LPs, cassettes, CDs, and digital. They’re now also under the radar of the younger generation. Though perhaps not as nimble as Ajda in her mature years, she still leads in thought and creativity.
Didn’t Onno Tunç’s musical legacy pass on to her anyway? She has her own manifesto, and her own philosophical concerns about life. Dümenci practically describes her. Linç is full of youth and enthusiasm. She worked on that one with her son, Mithat Can Özer. It opens the album. Sezen is a master of shifting emotions, after all. That’s why she strikes a deep chord with Ey Aşk and Bana Sor, the latter a tribute to Ferdi Tayfur. For her musical proposal and what she wants to converse about, she invites us into Bahçe (the album’s most original track). Years ago, she had described Işık Doğudan Yükselir as “neither pop nor folk.” Now, she leans her success somewhere between Denizyıldızı and Adı Bende Saklı, grounding it either in philosophy or the magic of a Ülkü Tamer poem—at least that’s how I see it. Still, there are also belly-dancing tracks like Rakkas. Şuh Nefes is bound to become the hit of countryside weddings—don’t say you weren’t warned!
It’s an album that might feel unfamiliar at first, but will grow on you with each listen. The diversity in the arrangements and the varying formats of the recordings pose a bit of a problem—that’s a drawback. Since the days of demo culture, we’ve come to expect flawless coherence in albums. But when listened to with good equipment and at high volume, its impact grows. That’s how it used to be. Songs like Şinanay and Hadi Bakalım used to shake the streets. These are not songs for those impatiently wondering “Let’s see what she’s done this time.”
Think of it more like the pleasant counsel of a bard who’s withdrawn from the stage and laid her tools to rest. That young, naive girl from Sen Ağlama is long gone. Her love and her truths have changed.
No need to mourn the old songs. Wasn’t she always one to champion innovation and transformation? Didn’t she always say we need to say new things? That alone makes Noble Heart Songs precious—because it instills not only love and conscience into the codes of society, but change as well.
Mustafa İri
