【搬运】【译】Rolling Stone评Ed Sheeran 2019年专辑No.6 Collaborations Proje
翻译：Tyler Smith
审译：Ryan-Chopin
排版：Ryan-Chopin
黄老板的新EP《No.6 Collaborations Project》声势浩大且巨星云集
唱作型歌手Ed sheeran对孤独、名誉以及婚姻带来的救赎展开了沉思。多名手握前40名热单的歌手前来助阵。
In 2011, a few months before his career exploded and he took the mantle as the world’s most successful busker, Ed Sheeran put out an EP called No.5 Collaborations Project, a series of duets with established artists from the UK’s grime scene. Eight years, three multi-platinum albums (Plus, Multiply, and Divide), and hundreds of sold-out arenas later, he returns to the guest-heavy format with No.6 Collaborations Project, an album guided by the logic of a DJ Khaled album or the Suicide Squad OST, which is to say an all-star event engineered for maximum commercial impact.
2011年，黄老板(Ed Sheeran)推出了一张名为《No.5 Collaborations Project》的EP，里面是他与来自英国脏脏（grime）音乐流派（一种街头freestyle音乐流派）的知名艺术家的一系列合作曲，几个月后他便成为了世界上最成功的街头艺人并且迎来了事业大爆期，八年来，他发行了三张多白金唱片(《+》，《x》，《➗》)，数百场演唱会门票售罄。《No.6 Collaborations Project》与DJ Khaled的专辑和《Suicide Squad OST》有着极大相似之处，这些专辑里都群星璀璨，最大限度地发挥了其商业影响力。
No.6 leverages an almost unprecedentedly batshit list of superstar feature artists, including Travis Scott, Justin Bieber, Cardi B, Eminem, 50 Cent, Chance the Rapper, Camila Cabello, Young Thug, Skrillex, Chris Stapleton, Bruno Mars, Stormzy and others, all gathered to frame Sheeran as not merely a globetrotting acoustic troubadour, but a dynamic pop artist fluent in hip hop, R&B and dancehall. Yet, amid what could be a messily ambitious gamble, Sheeran creates a narrative through line that explores the tension between the incredible social anxiety he’s developed as a result of his international fame and its only antidote — the loving embrace of his wife, Cherry.
《No.6 Collaborations Project》聚齐了前所未有的超级巨星阵容，包括Travis Scott, Justin Bieber, Cardi B, Eminem, 50 Cent, Chance the Rapper, Camila Cabello, Young Thug, Skrillex, Chris Stapleton, Bruno Mars, Stormzy等人，在与他们相得益彰的合作中，黄老板证明了自己不仅是一个游历世界的民谣歌手，也是一个神通广大的流行艺术家，他驾驭嘻哈，R&B和舞曲都得心应手。在各色各样的曲风中，黄老板在歌词中娓娓道来了他因享誉全球所产生的焦虑，当然，他还有唯一的解药，那就是他妻子Cherry慰藉的拥抱。
Sheeran has always presented himself as a Jon Lajoie-style everyday, regular, normal guy at heart. This identity is more pronounced than ever on No.6. He spends a significant portion of the album dwelling on his hatred of parties—he stiff-arms “Lamborghini and rented Hummer” culture on the opener “Beautiful People,” asks people not to touch him in the club on “Antisocial,” and professes the joy of leaving the function to go be with his girl on “I Don’t Care.” The thesis of No.6 is that celebrity (especially when coupled with introversion) is a terrible curse. Sheeran can’t help but repeatedly name-drop the far-flung cities he goes to and brag about the obscene money he’s raking in (“grossed half a bill on the Divide Tour”), but he makes it clear that he’d much rather be home alone with Cherry. “’Cause I don’t care when I’m with my baby, All the bad things disappear.”
黄老板由内而外地把自己塑造为Jon Lajoie一样作息规律，普通得不能再普通的男孩。这种身份在他的新EP中得到了反复强调，他花了很长的篇幅来说明他对派对的厌恶—他排斥“Beautiful People”中的 “Lamborghini and rented Hummer（兰博基尼和租来的悍马）” 在“Antisocial” 里叫别人别碰他，在“I Don’t Care”中讲述他离开聚会，与他的妻子为伴的快乐。《No.6 Collaborations Project》传达了这一观点：名人（尤其是内向的名人）会受到一个可怕的诅咒。黄老板不断提到他去过的远方城市，忍不住吹嘘自己赚了多少钱（“grossed half a bill on the Divide Tour收入了半个Divide世界巡回演唱会的钱），但是他的意思很明了，他更喜欢在家里与Cherry过二人世界。“因为我不在乎，只要与我的宝贝儿在一起，所有的坏事都会走开”（“I Don’t Care”歌词）
Sheeran’s unobtrusively sweet voice easily slips between genres, but he struggles to connect with many of his A-list guest artists, deepening the album’s isolated mood. This is partly due to a litany of mailed-in features; Meek Mill and A Boogie wit da Hoodie both sound like they need a nap on their respective verses on “1000 Nights.” But Sheeran’s creative risks also tend to sour the album’s most promising collaborations, like when he utters the words “te amo mami” opposite Camila Cabello on the “Shape of You” redux “South of the Border,” or when he announces that he and Stormzy are “on grime” on “Take Me Back To London.” No.6 is defined in large part by Sheeran’s earnest attempts to incorporate hip hop styles and signifiers into his music — a Scotch snap here, a Nate Dogg pastiche there, a Migos-inspired ad-lib everywhere—but it’s too big a stretch for him to convincingly pull off.
黄老板不引人注意的甜美嗓音很容易在不同流派间转换，但他很难与许多当红合作者产生化学反应，因此加深了专辑中孤独的气氛。这在一定程度上是由于合作得太多太杂。Meek Mill和A Boogie wit da Hoodie听起来都像是在各自的《一千个夜晚》(1000 Nights)里需要小睡一下。黄老板大胆的创意却有搞砸最棒合作曲目的倾向,例如他在“shape of you”的翻版“south of the border”里对卡妹说出“我爱你”的时候,或当他在“Take Me Back To London”中宣称他和Stormzy“在玩grime音乐”之时。在《No.6 Collaborations Project》中，黄老板认真尝试着想将嘻哈风格和符号融入他的音乐，这在很大程度上决定了这张EP的音乐走向——从苏格兰风格到Nate Dogg的仿作，到处都是Migos风格的即兴表演——但这对他来说风格跳动幅度太大了，因此难以成为令人信服的佳作。
Sheeran communicates his affection for Cherry through impassioned repetition. In the context of his crippling fame, his persistent yearning for her company is surprisingly heartening; it injects No.6 with a gravity not present in his depictions of sex and, especially, drug use (“You don’t know what’s in my brain…”). On “I Don’t Want Your Money,” he describes the stresses his touring schedule places on his relationship with Cherry, and in the process reminds us that he’s as lovesick and needy as the rest of us, despite all his money, fans, and famous friends. In moments like these, Sheeran succeeds in painting himself in sharper focus—the superstar in crisis whose only salvation is marital bliss.
黄老板不厌其烦且充满激情地谈论着他与妻子的感情。在他声名狼藉的时候，每每想到妻子的陪伴便能使他重新振奋，这为《No.6 Collaborations Project》注入了一种严肃感，而这种严肃感不存在于对性的描写中，更不存在于对毒品的描写中(“You don’t know what’s in my brain你不知道我脑子里装的什么…”)。在 “I Don’t Want Your Money”中，他描述了他的巡演日程给他与妻子之间的感情带来的压力，在这过程中他提醒了我们，即使他是亿万富翁，坐拥无数粉丝，结识了许多社会上层的朋友，他仍与我们普通大众一样恋家，渴望被爱。黄老板成功把自己塑造成一个个性更鲜明的人物——对于这位处于危机中的超级巨星，幸福的婚姻是唯一能够拯救他的东西。
