【搬运】【译】叉婊Pitchfork评Drake 2019年专辑《Care Package》

搬运自：微信公众号【评论搬一堆】（在原文基础上添加了英语原文与排版调整） 

翻译：Jennifer C

审译：Nina Wang

排版：SpencerC

This odds-and-ends compilation features tracks originally released between 2010 and 2016, and presents a more vulnerable version of the pop colossus we know now.

这张专辑整合了Drake从2010年到2016年发行过的零零碎碎的歌曲，为我们展现了这位流行音乐巨头更加脆弱细腻的一面。

During his creative peak, from 2011’s Take Care through 2015’s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, Drake processed his memory through his music. He plumbed the depths of his skyrocketing stardom, processing it all with a weary stream-of-consciousness. It was almost as if he was rapping names, places, and scenes as a way to remember them. (Never forget Courtney, from Hooters, on Peachtree.) Some songs included snippets of voicemails from irritated girlfriends. Others felt like rhyming notes to self, including one where he spent four minutes apologizing to his mother.

在Drake创作的巅峰期，也就是2011年的《Take Care（珍重）》到2015年的专辑《If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late（为时已晚）》期间，他把音乐当作自己回忆的释放口。Drake不知道自己青云直上的明星生涯还能延续多久，因此歌曲都带有一股疲惫的意识流。他在说唱中提到各种名字、地点以及场景，似乎想以此来铭记过去，例如“在桃树街Hooters工作的考特尼”。（译者注：为Drake“From Time”的歌词）。此外，有的歌收录了女友们愤怒的电话留言；有的歌就像是押着韵的自言自语，其中一首歌里他就花了4分钟跟妈妈道歉。

Drake will be 33 in October, and he’s no longer that person. His music has become more of a narrative running alongside his celebrity than the main product. Yes, he still breaks records, but his albums and songs now seem to be in service of the bigger, more lucrative business of being Drake.

今年10月，Drake就33岁了，同时他也将跨入全新的阶段。音乐已经不再是Drake的全部，反而越发成为他名人生涯的附属品与记录者。他的唱片仍旧在刷新销量纪录，不过现在看来，他所有的专辑和歌曲似乎都是为了塑造Drake的个人品牌形象这一宏伟又捞金的愿景而铺路。

But when his breakthrough mixtape So Far Gone turned 10 earlier this year, Drake decided it might be time to relive some formative memories. Or at least, to remember—and reap streaming royalties from—them. His OVO imprint celebrated the occasion with a physical release and digital release, and So Far Gone made its debut on the Billboard albums chart, hitting No. 5. In that same spirit comes Care Package, an odds-and-ends set that collects tracks that were originally released between 2010 and 2016. It’s an accessible time capsule, a concise document of his growth as a musician and a primary source for his OVO imprint’s signature sound, which has since anchored multiple careers. For Drake, who has had a relatively quiet year musically, now’s as good a time as ever to reflect on where he’s been.

但是，就在年初，他的混音专辑《So Far Gone》迎来了十周年生日，Drake觉得是时候重温一下那些对他影响深远的作品了，或者说起码得让它们登上流媒体以被铭记。（译者注：10年前这张专辑并未连接数字平台，10年后的现今才上架流媒体）。于是，Drake的个人品牌OVO推出了《So Far Gone》的实体专辑和数字专辑，其中数字专辑在Billboard专辑排行榜上首次亮相，就拿到了第五的好成绩。同样出于纪念目的，他发行了专辑《Care Package》，收录了他2010-2016年零零碎碎发行的歌曲。这张专辑是一个时间胶囊，是Drake音乐生涯成长的简历，也是OVO音乐厂牌标志声（译者注：signature sound，标志声，是编曲人在歌曲前奏打水印cue自己的一个方式）的主要来源，奠定了他多样的职业生涯（译者注：Drake不仅是一个说唱歌手，还是词曲作者、演员、主持人、商人）。对于Drake来说，他在音乐上沉寂了一年，现在正适合回望过去，重温初心。

While many of the songs on Care Package had logistics-related reasons for never seeing wider release—for instance, “Dreams Money Can Buy,” “Girls Love Beyoncé,” and “Draft Day” all contain expensive samples—they were all easy to find online, and quickly emerged as fan favorites. (Drake, a seasoned product pitchman at this point, described the release as “Some of our most important moments together available in one place.”) Many of these songs find Drake dredging up his rawest emotions while utilizing R&B textures and moods, speaking to a broad audience while still maintaining a singular perspective. There are tracks here that winningly delve into vulnerability, defeat, fear of failure—subjects his music rarely addresses anymore. Several songs once served as warm-ups for eventual full-lengths, musical mile-markers from a guy overflowing with great ideas. Drake could hardly miss during this period, a fact that Care Package definitively underscores.

当然，哪怕其中很多歌曲都花了重金进行采样（译者注：采样就是从一段乐曲中抽取出一部分，进行编曲工作），出于某些后期发行原因，它们之前未能和广大听众见面，比如“Dreams Money Can Buy（梦想可以用钱买）”“Girls Love Beyoncé（女孩儿们喜欢碧昂斯）”以及“Draft Day（选秀之日）”。不过现在我们马上能在网上找到这些歌，它们也很快成为了粉丝们的心头爱。Drake这个推销老手还形容这张专辑是“把我们某些最重要的时刻浓缩在一起”。专辑里的很多歌曲都融汇了R&B音乐的质感和情绪，Drake在音乐中返璞归真，深入内心最质朴原始的情感，虽然专辑面向大众，但仍旧保留了个人的视角。还有些歌曲探讨了脆弱、失败以及对失败的恐惧，十分引人入胜，尽管现在Drake的音乐已很少涉及这些主题。如果说Drake的音乐旅途是一场马拉松，那么专辑中的一些曲目就是他之前的热身跑，是这个才华横溢的创作者的里程碑。《Care Package》这张专辑也在向我们强调，Drake离不开创作这些歌曲的那段时光。

“Paris Morton Music,” the oldest song on the collection, is a throwback to the time immediately before the entire radio started to sound like Drake featuring Drake, with a blurry-streetlight score that would become a rap radio formula for the first half of the decade. It’s a huge sound, by design—in producer Noah “40” Shebib’s production, Drake could easily find pockets to rap, pockets to sing, or both.

“Paris Morton Music”是这张专辑收录的发行最早的歌，它把我们带回到过去，那时所有的电台频道还没有铺天盖地播放Drake的音乐以及他ft.的音乐(ft：指做伴唱或rap）。这首歌的配乐像是朦胧之中透出的路灯光影，是2010-2015年电台说唱频道的风格。配乐的声音很明显，是特意设计过的。只要Noah Shebib(又名“40” )担纲制作人，Drake就能纵情说唱、唱歌，或兼而有之。

Throughout the compilation, from the after-the-afterparty trap of “Days in the East” to the versatile performance and soft-bellied synth twinkle of “The Motion” to the music-blog-friendly “Dreams Money Can Buy,” Drake is also presented not only as a versatile pop vocalist who could impress himself on almost any trending sound, but also as someone who could add a new dimension to that sound. His appeal as a pop musician was growing, and songs like “Club Paradise,” released a few months before Take Care, previewed Drake’s forthcoming leap; candid and funny, the song served as self-indulgent, status-update music way before “mood” was a hashtag.

无论是风格像“After-the-afterparty”(译者注：Charlie XCX的歌曲）的“Days in the East（东部的日子）”还是呈现了多样表现方式、伴有舒缓的合成器闪现配乐的“The Motion（世间规律）”，亦或是音乐博客都喜欢的“Dreams Money Can Buy（梦想可以用钱买）”,Drake告诉我们他不仅仅是一个能够涉猎多种音乐潮流，表达自我想法的全能歌手，还能为某种音乐风格开拓全新维度。作为一个音乐家，他的吸引力日渐增长，“Club Paradise（俱乐部天堂）”等歌曲的发布就已经预示了数月后《Take Care（珍重）》的面世将给Drake带来的飞跃。有趣的是，在#mood（#情绪）成为社交网站热议话题之前，《Take Care》就在音乐层面上实现了情绪上的自我放纵与升级。

Certainly, there’s a few corny or dated moments—listening through Care Package, you’ll hear hashtag rap (“I got that Courtney Love for you/Crazy shit”), epically cloying vocal runs, and overly cutesy wordplay like, “Brunch with Qatar royals all my cups is oil.” However, the best songs here stand up with Drake’s best music. Take “Trust Issues,” perhaps the most meta moment on an extremely meta release, a song where Drake echoes his own hook from the DJ Khaled hit “I’m on One,” casting a shadow on all of its implied excess. Or 2013’s “Girls Love Beyoncé,” featuring a “Say My Name” sample that Drake and 40 reorient as a lonely plea for connection. “You know how this shit goes,” Drake sings, over soft drum claps and sampled vocal snippets. “This isn’t like four years ago.” The version of Drake that Drake is referencing on that song is the Drake of 2009, a guy with humbler ambitions. A guy that was gone, but not totally forgotten.

当然，这张专辑也不乏一些落入俗套的部分：转音油腻；“I got that Courtney Love for you/Crazy shit（我得到了考特尼对你的爱/太疯狂了）”在推特上都被说烂了；“Brunch with Qatar royals all my cups is oil.（与卡塔尔王室共进早午餐，我杯子里装的都是石油）”的文字游戏略显矫情。还有，DJ Khaled有一首成名作“I’m on One（我独自一人）”，而Drake则在“Trust Issues（信任问题）”中不断重复“I’m on One（我要喝一杯）”，直白地把它当成自己的hook（译者注：在音乐上，hook指的是一首歌曲中最能钩人的部分），这就使歌曲原本含蓄的醉酒意境消失殆尽。另外，2013年最初发行的“Girls Love Beyoncé（女孩儿们爱碧昂斯）”，不断重复“Say My Name（呼唤我的名字）”，Drake和40将这句歌词定位为孤独者寻求联系。Drake伴着轻柔的鼓点和和声片段唱道：“You know how this shit goes（你知道是怎么回事儿）”“This isn’t like four years ago（这跟四年前不同了）”。四年前，指的就是2009年那个野心不那么大的Drake。Drake已不复从前，但仍旧追忆往昔。

The Drake of 2019 has moved into the future—he now owns an eSports team. He is likely no longer driving his girlfriend through the snow so she can make the bar exam. He’s far more protected, far wealthier, far more inaccessible. As opportunistic as the release of Care Package is, the reminder of Drake’s work at the margins during his most prolific creative period is a timely one. The compilation layers history upon history, creating a dense nostalgia. We may no longer have the Drake from five or 10 years ago, but we’ll always have the memories.

而2019年的Drake，已然迈入新阶段。他拥有一支电竞战队，他不再会为了开车送女友去律师考试而穿越茫茫雪地，他周围保镖更多，他更富有，却也更难接近。《Care Package》的发行虽是机会使然，但这些诞生于他创作高产期的歌曲也下了场及时雨，让人再次想起Drake。一首首歌，就是一段段的回忆，充满了浓浓的怀旧风。5年前或10年前的Drake或许已经不在了，但那些回忆永驻我们心间。