【搬运译】滚石Rolling Stone评Paul McCartney 2020年专辑《McCartney III》

翻译：出自微信公众号【RollingStone大水花】（若有侵权自删）https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/RCj9sNRNJRc8fsfBQ01vxQ

Every decade should kick off with a Paul McCartney one-man-band album — and this one needs it more than most. McCartney III carries on his tradition of homemade solo records, in the mode of his acoustic 1970 debut and his 1980 synth-pop oddity McCartney II. Like its two predecessors, it’s Macca at his most playful. He’s not sweating about being a legend, a genius, or a Beatle — just a family man kicking back in quarantine, writing a few songs to keep his juices flowing. Like the rest of us, he’s been in lockdown, hanging out on his daughter’s farm, grandchildren on his knee, strumming his acoustic guitar in the English summer sun. It’s the warmest and friendliest of quarantine albums — it’s basically Ram meets Folklore.

保罗·麦卡特尼一个人当一支乐队的专辑，应该成为每个十年的开端——这个十年尤其需要。《McCartney III》延续了他在家录制个人专辑的传统，他70年代原声乐器伴奏的首张专辑和80年代合成器流行的《McCartney II》同样是在家完成了录制。一如前两张专辑，这是“麦卡”最轻松活泼的模样。他不再想着当一个传奇，一个天才，一个披头士——他只想当一个居家男人，在隔离期放放松，写写歌，迸发一点灵感。和我们一样，他也经历了封锁，在他女儿的农场，在英格兰的夏日阳光下，抱着孙子弹吉他。这是隔离期间发行的最温暖，最亲切的专辑——是《Ram》遇上《Folklore》。

Macca wrote, played and produced McCartney III himself, with plenty of his folksy finger-picking. Back in the Seventies, one of his Wings bandmates called him “just a farmer who plays guitar,” and that’s the vibe he’s going for here. Paul hasn’t sounded so rustic since his earliest solo days, from “Mary’s Got a Little Lamb” to “Junior’s Farm” to “Mull of Kintyre.” When he sings about sheep and chickens, you know he means actual sheep and chickens, not metaphors. 

麦卡自写自弹，还自己制作了这张指弹随性的《McCartney III》。70年代，有位Wings团员说他“不过是个弹吉他的农民”，很好地描述了这张专辑想走的风格。除了单飞后最早的歌曲，包括“Mary’s Got a Little Lamb”，“Junior’s Farm”，“Mull of Kintyre”，保罗的音乐从未如此乡村。当他唱到羊和鸡，你知道他说的是真实的羊和鸡，不是比喻。

McCartney III works best when he leans all the way into the solo acoustic concept. He starts off strong with the marvelous “Long Tailed Winter Bird,” which has a couple minutes of frenzied folk guitar before he even begins to sing. There’s also witty moments like the London Town-style yacht-rock ballad “Women and Wives” or the Abbey Road-style goof “Lavatory Lil.” 

《McCartney III》最出彩的部分是他用原声乐器伴奏的独唱。专辑以“Long Tailed Winter Bird”高开，他在开口唱前先来了段激情的民谣吉他。专辑里也有一些谐趣时刻，例如《London Town》风格的游艇摇滚情歌“Women and Wives” 或《Abbey Road》风格的搞怪单曲 “Lavatory Lil”。

McCartney’s been on a songwriting roll in recent years. It’s just been two years since the excellent Egypt Station, one of his finest solo records ever, with the Alex Chilton-style guitar meditation “Dominoes,” definitely an all-time top ten Paul solo classic. Egypt Station was also a Number One hit, and never think for a moment Macca doesn’t take that to heart. It was his first chart-topper since Tug of War in 1982, setting a new record for the longest stretch between Number One albums. 

麦卡特尼近年来创作不断。两年前，他才发行了他的史上最佳个人专辑之一《Egypt Station》，其中，Alex Chilton风格的吉他悠思“Dominoes”无疑是保罗个人单曲排名前十的作品。以及，永远不要以为麦卡已经不在乎排名了，《Egypt Station》登上了专辑排行榜第一，那是1982年的专辑《Tug of War》后他的首次登顶，创下了两次登顶的间隔记录。

His current hot streak began with Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, his 2005 Nigel Godrich collabo, which slipped between the cracks at the time but now stands as a major turning point in his story. He’s never wanted to settle for being a nostalgia artist — that’s always set him apart from his generational peers. He takes pride in moving forward. Until the pandemic slowed his roll touring-wise, he was slaying live crowds every night with his best band since the Fab Four. And ever since Chaos and Creation, he’s been writing brilliant songs to match.

他的创作迸发，始于2005年和Nigel Godrich合作的《Chaos and Creation in the Backyard》，当时未受关注，但如今再看，是他重要的转折点。他从来不想成为一个怀旧艺人——这也让他区别于同时代的其他艺人。他骄傲于自己的进步。在疫情叫停他的巡演前，他每晚都和他的乐队一起现场表演，那是披头士生涯后他最好的搭档。《Chaos and Creation in the Backyard》后，他也一直创作出堪比披头士时期的佳作。

McCartney III isn’t ambitious like Egypt Station — like his first two self-titled solo statements, it’s a spontaneous palate-cleanser after a labored studio project. McCartney came right after Abbey Road, as he shrugged off the Beatles with acoustic ditties like “Every Night” and “The Lovely Linda,” recorded at home on his spiffy new tape machine. McCartney II came right after the final Wings album, the underrated Back to the Egg; it had a genuinely nutty Number One hit with “Coming Up” and the lost gem “Temporary Secretary,” which sat unnoticed for decades until the world suddenly decided it was brilliant.

《McCartney III 》不像《Egypt Station》具有野心——就像他最初两张自命名的单飞宣言一样，这张专辑是精工打磨的录音室专辑后随意的清口小菜。在《Abby Road》后不久发行的《McCartney》里，他在家里用自己簇新的录音机录制了 “Every Night” 和 “The Lovely Linda”等原声乐器伴奏的小曲，卸下了披头士的光环。

McCartney III has that same stripped-down touch — the only duds come when he turns up the synths and tries to rock out. It peaks high with “The Kiss of Venus,” a pastoral romance that floats like an updated “Mother Nature’s Son,” as he hits poignant high notes in his superbly weathered voice. He ends with “When Winter Comes,” a hard-bitten tale of farm life. At first, it sounds like a farmer’s almanac of chores, like “Must dig a drain by the carrot patch.” But it’s also a portrait of late-life domestic bliss, with two elderly lovers warming their toes by the fire, forced by winter to stay indoors and delight in each other. The song has a surprising emotional power—like a flip side to “When I’m 64,” with Paul looking back from the edge of 78. 

《McCartney III》有着同样洗去铅华的质感——仅有的几首稍逊之作是他开了合成，试图摇滚的结果。专辑的高潮“The Kiss of Venus”是宛如“Mother Nature’s Son”更新版的田园恋曲，他沧桑的嗓音悲怆高歌。他以“When Winter Comes”结尾，讲述一段农场艰辛生活。乍听之下，这首歌听来像是农活的流水账，“要在萝卜地边上挖一个排水沟。”但其实述说的是晚年幸福，两个老伴烤火取暖，寒冷冬季相伴家中。这首歌带来意想不到的情感冲击——仿佛是“When I’m 64”的反面，是保罗在78岁时的回首。

When Paul was making his 1970s farm-core statements like Ram and Red Rose Speedway, the albums got attacked. But he’s lived long enough to see a new generation rightly prize these albums as cult classics — much to his amusement. As he told Rolling Stone in 2016, “One of my nephews, Jay, said, “Ram’s my all-time favorite album.’ I thought it was dead and gone, stinking over there in the dung pit. So I listened to it. ‘Wow, I get what I was doing.’ ” The vindication has to be sweet. That’s part of the charm of McCartney III. He’s not raging against the winter — it’s just a chance for the master to kick back and smile away.

当保罗在70年代发出他的田园宣言时，包括《Ram》《Red Rose Speedway》等专辑都不受好评。但他终于等到了懂得欣赏那些专辑的新一代，这让他欣喜不已。就像他2016年对Rolling Stone说的那样，“我的侄子Jay说，’《Ram》是他最喜欢的专辑。’我本来以为这张专辑已经盖棺定论，遗臭万年了，但当我重听之后，我居然能够欣赏我当时的作品。’“ 保罗终于被肯定的心情一定很好，他的好心情也让《McCartney III》更添魅力。他没有怒叱冬季——有的只是音乐大师一笑而过的轻松时刻。