搬运译Pitchfork评10年代200张最佳专辑第1名：Frank Ocean: Blonde (2016)

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）

原文链接：https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/the-200-best-albums-of-the-2010s/

翻译：Ryan-Chopin,Nomanlandever

审译：Lynn Liu

推送：Lynn Liu

In 2016, the hinge year of a grotesque age, Frank Ocean’s cars were his confessional booths. They included a white Ferrari and a BMW X6; the Bugatti “left some stretch marks on the freeway,” as he remembers listlessly. To Ocean, the car is an Americana icon of certain ideals: freedom that turns solipsistic and reckless; materialism we worship as artistry; barrel-chested masculinity, queered on backroads. Above all, transience.

2016年，这个荒诞不经的年代中关键性的一年，Frank Ocean的车就是他的忏悔室。它们包括一辆白色的法拉利和一辆BMW X6；据他无精打采地回忆道，那辆布加迪“left some stretch marks on the freeway,” (“在高速公路上留下了几道划痕”)。对于Ocean来说，汽车是某些理想化事物的典型美国标志：变得唯我且鲁莽的自由；我们当作艺术去崇拜的物质主义；在乡间小路上被粉碎的患了气肿胸的男子气概。而最重要的一点是，世事无常。

Frank Ocean is the hinge artist of our time, the true voice of a generation because he takes long silences. With Blonde and its attendant works, his Boys Don’t Cry zine and Endless, he took his time building his staircase to somewhere. Elusive and independent, he weaves from genre to genre, sometimes shifting gears to obliterate category altogether, as he cruises past the conventions the culture still fears to let go. On Blonde, the languid guitar of surf rock coexists with soft doo-wop melodies; Frank the rapper—who is heady and occasionally, knowingly vulgar—coincides with Frank the singer, who is plaintive and longing. Sometimes, he just talks rhythmically, like in “Nights.” “Futura Free,” the triptych anchor of Blonde, moves from midtempo to atmospheric synth to a clanging guitar solo. The impressionistic lyrics mirror the feeling of wanting to disappear, for a spell: “Breathe till I evaporated/My whole body see through.”

Frank Ocean是我们这个时代关键性的艺人，是这一代最真实的声音，因为他总是保持长时间的沉默。利用《Blonde》以及它的附属作品：《Boys Don’t Cry》杂志以及《Endless》，他终于修筑起通往某处的阶梯。他以难以捉摸又独立的姿态从一个流派切换到另一个流派，有时甚至直接换挡彻底抹除流派的概念，游走于那些社会文化仍不愿抛弃的旧俗之中。《Blonde》中，冲浪摇滚里那慵懒的吉他与温柔的doo-wop旋律完美融合；Frank的rapper（说唱歌手）人格——冒冒失失，有时会故意表现得些许粗野——与他哀怨又热切的singer（歌手）人格相互配合。有时他就只是说着富有节奏的念白，就像在“Nights”中一样。“Futura Free”就像是《Blonde》中的三联锚版画，从中速变到合成器氛围乐，最后又变成铿锵的吉他独奏。印象派的歌词映照出想要消失一段时间的感受：“Breathe till I evaporated/My whole body see through.（呼吸直到我蒸发/我的身体变得透明）”

Songs evaporate on Blonde, too: they’re hazed, minimalist, capricious. The sweet, airy strum of “Pink + White” is hardened by its last few seconds, as we hear birds swarm. So, too, in “Ivy,” which starts off a masterpiece of cinematic lovesickness and then warps at its tail-end, ceding to a clang of instruments. The slight touches of distortion on Blonde call attention to impermanence, the trap of artifice, and, distantly, death. But Ocean is never sanctimonious; the whole point of existence is that a dark musing on morality can—and should—be interrupted by soft flesh, a sticky plant, a designer shirt. Live a little. Live too much. Because he is a writer first, he kinks his voice to suit his characters and his stories: On his cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Close to You,” a song about the fear of solitude, he multiplies and increases. On “Seigfried,” as he considers settling down for “two kids and a swimming pool,” his warble is warm, fragile, and resigned; then he almost shrieks, “I’m not brave!” It is an ache, a primal tearing of a social contract each generation learns is a lie.

《Blonde》里的歌曲也在“蒸腾”：烟雾缭绕，极简抽象，变化莫测。“Pink + White”中馥郁又沁人心脾的弹奏在最后几秒逐渐加强，也伴随着鸟叫声。同样，在“Ivy”中，歌曲以电影质感的相思歌词完美开头，在结尾却急转直下，在乐器的哐啷声中结束一切。《Blonde》里的轻微扭曲引起听众对瞬息万变性、诡计陷阱和遥远的死亡的关注。但Frank Ocean绝不是伪善的人，生活的要义在于 温暖的肉体，黏性植物，名牌衬衫能够也应该打断对阴暗面的沉思。人生苦短，及时行乐。因为他首先作为歌曲的谱写者，扭曲了他自己的声音来塑造人格和营造故事。在翻唱自Stevie Wonder的 “Close to You”中，一首讲述恐惧独处的歌曲，他的声音逐渐扭曲。在 “Seigfried”中，当他考虑为 “two kids and a swimming pool”安定下来时，他的颤声温暖，脆弱，与天地融为一体。然后他几乎惊叫道： “I’m not brave!” 这是一种痛苦，对社会契约的原始撕碎，不同年代的人都认识到那是一个谎言。

The year 2016 crystallized the political disaster right under the surface. People theorized that we needed anthems to get us through the dark night. Big choruses, hooks as wide as highway signs, regular percussion that could gird us from chaos. But our mood was languorous; jingoism was the problem in the first place. We wanted the blurred, the softened, the existential. “Inhale, in hell, there’s heaven,” Ocean sings on “Solo,” capturing the whiplash experience of being young in this country in one line. Blonde is one synonym for American. –Doreen St. Félix

2016年是政治灾难开始潜伏的一年（暗讽川普执政）。人们都渴望“颂歌”的出现来助力自己挺过难关，迎接曙光。恢宏大气的合唱，如同高速公路路牌一样宽广的hook，规律的打击乐节奏，足以使我们走出困境。但我们的心境是非常“闲情逸致”的，沙文主义（好战论）是问题的关键，我们只想要“稳稳的幸福”，“Inhale, in hell, there’s heaven,” Frank Ocean在“Solo”中唱道，用一句话描写了这个国度的年轻人被社会鞭笞的经历。Blonde是American的同义词。