【搬运】【译】叉婊Pitchfork评 H.E.R. 2018年专辑《I Used To Know Her》

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：Ryan-Chopin

审译：Lynn Liu

推送：Lynn Liu

作者： Jackson Howard

After an auspicious debut in 2016, the young R&B enigma looks for ways outside of the sound that has become her trademark—and gets lost in the process.

在2016年首次亮相之后，这位年轻的R&B 神秘女子一直在开发自己标志性乐声以外的音乐，却在这个过程中迷失了方向。

At the age of 19, Gabi Wilson seemed to arrive fully formed as H.E.R., an emotive but guarded R&B artist with songs that keyed in on supernatural perspective, profound vulnerability, and what felt like decades of experience. Upon arrival in 2016, the songs on H.E.R. Volume 1 were instantly familiar, and not just because they were so indebted to the likes of the Weeknd. They felt lived-in—intimate, personal, infectious, so much so that you began to internalize the words with one spin. During Volume 1’s glittering opener, “Losing,” H.E.R. sings as if she were mid-sentence, and we just happened to overhear: “My ambition is attractive/My aggression isn’t passive/I promise with you/The butterflies in my stomach are active,” she tells a lover with the ease of rare self-assurance.

Gabi Wilson在19岁时，似乎就已完全浸入以H.E.R.为名的身份之中，成为一位感性但谨慎的R&B歌手，她的歌曲基调甚广，有着超自然的视角、引人深思的脆弱性，甚至让人感觉她已历经了数十年。2016年，H.E.R.推出了《Volume 1》，即刻引起大范围共鸣，这不仅仅是因为她的歌曲和the Weeknd的作品风格极为相似，并且这些歌给人饱经风霜之感，非常私密且富有感染力，以至于你会反复地细细品味这些歌词。“Losing”作为《Volume 1》的开场曲就已风光无限，歌中的H.E.R.仿佛只唱到一半，而我们也只是碰巧听到了她的声音:“My ambition is attractive我的想法很完美/My aggression isn't passive我向你保证/I promise with you我都是主动出击的/The butterflies in my stomach are active我脑子里有很多好主意。”（歌词翻译摘自网易云音乐）她以世人不常有的自信心，轻松地对她的一位爱人诉说。

In 2017, both Volume 2 and a handful of assorted tracks confirmed that H.E.R. wasn’t a fluke, but those songs didn’t hint at much growth or many next steps, either. August’s I Used to Know Her: The Prelude offered a serviceable retread of old ideas that likewise failed to produce a grand statement. But if that EP’s lack of urgency suggested H.E.R. was starting to tire of her trademark sound, this month’s I Used to Know Her: Part 2 feels like a complete existential crisis. Uneven and occasionally confounding, this is the work of an artist trying to slip from her pigeonhole style but struggling to find a viable exit. Remember how it took trial and error for the Weeknd to learn how to translate what made his 2011 trilogy of mixtapes into something with broad appeal? H.E.R., it seems, is stuck in a similar moment of creative transition.

H.E.R.于2017年发行的《Volume 2》和几首独立单曲都证实了她并非昙花一现，但这些作品也并没有透露她的作品成长与否，或是发展方向如何。她在8月发行的《I Used to Know Her: The Prelude》中对过去的想法进行了有益的重述，但依旧未能使其变得宏大起来。但是如果那张缺乏紧迫感的EP暗示着H.E.R.已经开始厌倦她标志性的乐声，那么11月发行的《I Used to Know Her: Part 2》就是一场彻彻底底的生存危机。这位艺术家在创作时，定是在试图摆脱自己的那套传统风格，但又很难找到一条可行的出路。还记得the Weeknd是怎么做的吗？他通过反复试验才将2011年的混音带三部曲变成了广受欢迎的作品。H.E.R.似乎也陷入了类似的缺乏创新的转型时期。

Quiet-storm drums, melancholic synths, and magnetic R&B hooks defined Volume 1 and Volume 2, recalling the best of SWV and Toni Braxton. H.E.R. was also convincing over uptempo instrumentals that ferried along bits of nostalgia and melodrama. I Used to Know Her: Part 2 trades much of that for acoustic guitar. Yes, she sounded radiant on last year’s “Best Part,” her breakout acoustic collaboration with Daniel Caesar, but the arrangements here aren’t morning strums of glory. Instead, these guitars conjure Florida Georgia Line and an open-mic night in a college town. They warp the dynamism and depth of H.E.R.’s voice into an adult-contemporary mess.

如宁静风暴般的鼓声，忧郁动人的合成器音，和富有磁性的节奏布鲁斯曲调定义了《Volume 1》和《Volume 2》，能让人回想到组合SWV和Toni Braxton。H.E.R.也很熟悉快节奏的乐器，它们都有怀旧与音乐剧的味道。《I Used to Know Her: Part 2》中更多地换成了原声吉他音。是的，她在与Daniel Caesar的合作歌曲“Best Part”中光芒四射，取得了巨大的突破，但这样的合作并不是迎着光辉在清晨拨动琴弦，相反，这些吉他声让人联想到Florida Georgia Line的曲调和大学城里的那些即兴live现场。这些歌曲将H.E.R.活力和深邃的声音融汇成了成人时代乐，可谓一团乱。

During “Carried Away,” H.E.R. sings blandly about loneliness over perky, hoedown-ready licks and handclaps. It is a beat better suited for Natasha Bedingfield, and it yields the worst H.E.R. song yet. This carries over to “Can’t Help Me,” which at least shows some mercy with the help of 808s and more evocative songwriting. “Sorry that I’ve been yelling at your face/I know you hate when I speak to you this way,” she sings. The guitar comes closest to sounding natural and conducive to H.E.R.’s voice during “Hard Place,” produced by legendary R&B architect Darkchild. It threatens to soundtrack some finding-myself montage in an upcoming rom-com, but there’s at least a measure of tension and an enormous chorus.

H.E.R.在歌曲“Carried Away”里欢快而活泼的乐句片段和鼓掌声之间，温和地唱着“孤独”。这种节奏更适合Natasha Bedingfield，也是迄今为止H.E.R.最糟糕的歌曲。“Can 't Help Me”中也出现了这种情况，歌中有了些许808鼓声，至少表现出了一丝仁慈之情，其歌词也更富有感染力。她唱道：“Sorry that I've been yelling at your face对不起，我对你大吵大闹/I know you hate when I speak to you this way我知道你讨厌这种说话方式。”（歌词翻译摘自网易云音乐）“Hard Place”里面的吉他声听起来最自然，对H.E.R.的歌唱锦上添花，该曲由R&B音乐制作大神Darkchild制作而成。这首歌可能会成为某一部即将上映的浪漫喜剧中蒙太奇（译者注：电影的基本结构手段和叙述方式）桥段的原声背景乐，但至少会搭上一定程度的紧张感和一曲宏大的合唱。

Questionable sequencing otherwise plagues I Used to Know Her. The 15 collected songs of Volume 1 and Volume 2 bled into one another, a collage of intimate snapshots inside the H.E.R. orbit. But these eight tracks have no business being in the same room. When she’s not trying to honor Sheryl Crow, H.E.R. returns to her roots on “I’m Not OK” and “Take You There,” sharing narratives that remind you what a special lyricist she can be: “Feel a little guilty/I feel like it’s written all over me/Tryna find a balance/Trusting you, trusting me,” she sings on “I’m Not OK,” examining the effects of a decaying relationship with audible desperation. Alongside the bland guitar of “Can’t Help Me,” though, such throwbacks are so out of place they grate.

《I Used to Know Her》作为姊妹唱片也备受质疑。《Volume 1》和《Volume 2》共收录了15首歌曲，它们融合在一起便是H.E.R.最贴近生活的快照拼贴。但这里的8首歌曲就不该放一起。H.E.R.并不是想致敬Sheryl Crow, 她终于在歌曲“I’m Not OK”和“Take You There”中归根溯源，分享着她的故事,让我们看到一个抒情诗人H.E.R.：“Feel a little guilty,感到内疚/I feel like it's written all over me被内疚包围/Tryna find a balance, trusting you, trusting me尝试寻找平衡，去相信你，相信自己，”她在“I’m Not OK”中这样唱到，她用声音表达绝望，从而审视着这段腐朽关系带来的影响。不过，“Can’t Help Me”这首歌的吉他伴奏平淡无奇，这样的复古歌曲放这儿实在太不合时宜了。

I Used to Know Her: Part Two ends with the jumbled “Lord Is Coming,” where Wilson, now 21, ponders social ills from war and religious persecution to economic anxiety and inequality in a miserable spoken-word preamble. “It’s a World War III, corruption versus greed/Not you versus me/But do we ever think of the need for inner peace?” she asks before talking about the price of one’s soul. It’s cringeworthy. The growing pains are evident. But at least H.E.R. is venturing into new subject matter. Despite the major-label contract and the devoted fanbase, she isn’t afraid to take some kind of stand or chance, even if the result is her first full flop.

《I Used to Know Her: Part Two》以“Lord Is Coming”结尾，显得莫名其妙，现年21岁的Wilson仿佛在这篇苦不堪言的演讲开场白中，带来对战争、宗教迫害、不平等和经济焦虑等各种社会弊病的思考。“这是第三次世界大战，一场腐败与贪婪的对抗/不是你与我之间的对抗/但我们是否考虑过追寻内心的平静?”她在谈论“人类灵魂的定价”（译者注：歌词中随后便出现了“They can't put a price on your soul/他们没法给你的灵魂定价”）之前如此发问道。这可真就有点尴尬了。关于成长的痛苦谁都有话语权，但至少H.E.R.正在探索一个新的主题。尽管她与著名唱片公司签了合同，并且拥有忠实的粉丝群，但她并不害怕表明自己的立场亦或孤注一掷，即使其结果会是她头一回经历彻头彻尾的滑铁卢。