【搬运】【译】叉婊Pitchfork评Bon Iver 2019年专辑《i,i》

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：Peter D

审译：Ryan-Chopin

排版：Ryan-Chopin

Bon Iver has always been Justin Vernon’s escape route. After retreating to the woods of Wisconsin to record For Emma, Forever Ago, he drew a surrealist roadmap of the United States on Bon Iver, depicting a fantastical world where the lived, the dreamed, and desired coexisted. When this invented land felt oppressive and the anxiety of facing it too overwhelming, Vernon retreated again and burrowed within himself, pulverizing his voice with machines to create 22, A Million, a record that dramatized the fracturing of the self.

Bon Iver乐队一直是Justin Vernon逃避现实的避风港。在隐居到威斯康星州的丛林中录制完《For Emma, Forever Ago》之后，他又在《Bon Iver》中绘制了一幅美国的超现实主义地图，图中描绘的是一个生命、梦想和欲望共存的幻想世界。这片他创造出的国度曾让人感到压抑，面对它产生的焦虑又让人无法承受，于是Vernon再次隐居起来，深入挖掘了自己，用机器把自己的声音碾碎，创作出了《22, A Million》这样一张戏剧性展现了自身分崩离析的专辑。

There’s no more hiding on i,i. Justin Vernon takes the Bon Iver sound and reassembles it like a cubist collage, with his voice right out front. All the familiar elements are here—impressionist swells of sound, impenetrable-yet-tender lyrics, mesmerizing studio tricks—and they are buoyed by Vernon’s supple baritone, the instrument he knows how to manipulate best. Acoustic guitar, horns, and piano return to prominence alongside the jittery electronics and synths that Vernon has lately favored. But the mood he conjures with these elements feels new. These songs don’t swallow you whole with grandeur; they look outward, leaving some room for the rest of the world.

在《i,i》中他终于不再躲藏。Justin Vernon拾起了Bon Iver之声并像立体派拼贴画一样把它重新组装了起来，还把自己的嗓音摆上台前。所有熟悉的元素都在这儿了——印象派的声音浪涌、高深莫测却不失温柔的歌词、让人着迷的录音室技巧——而这一切又被Vernon灵活柔韧的男中音和他最熟练的乐器共同升华。不插电吉他、小号和钢琴都回归主要角色，加入Vernon最近爱上的跳动的电子乐器和合成器。而他用这些元素创造奇迹时的个人情绪似乎焕然一新了。这些歌并没有用宏伟把你整个人淹没，它们心向远方，为剩下的世界留下了空间。

The lyrics find Vernon locating peace within the ordinary and everyday. “I like you/And that ain’t nothing new,” he sings simply on “iMi.” Later, on “RABi,” he observes, “Well, it’s all just scared of dying.” These things don’t always merit saying out loud, but Vernon seems to be singing them to rediscover their meaning, and the music feels equally straightforward and searching. Songs like “Marion” and “Holyfields,” are uncharacteristically unadorned, even compared to the For Emma and Blood Bank era, when Vernon was at least joined by his own echoes. Here, he sounds completely exposed.

在歌词中我们可以看到，Vernon把平安放在了平凡的每一天里。“I like you/And that ain’t nothing new（我喜欢你/这也不是什么新鲜事），”他在“iMi”中简单唱到。稍后，他在“RABi”中评论到：“Well, it’s all just scared of dying.（好吧，不过都是对死亡的畏惧。）”这些事并不总是值得大声唱出来，但Vernon这么唱似乎是为了重新发现它们的意味，而音乐听上去既直截了当，值得深挖细究。像是“Marion”和“Holyfields”甚至和《For Emma》与《Blood Bank》时期比起来都显得异乎寻常得朴素，那时期Vernon好歹还加入了自己的回声。而在这儿，他的声音完全赤裸裸地呈现了出来。

Still, there are plenty of invited guests to provide cover, or at least offer their company. James Blake, Moses Sumney, and Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner, among others, pop up throughout. Even Young Thug collaborator Wheezy has composing and production credits. Vernon sampled the voices of others on 22, A Million, but in that context they felt more like dolls he’d animated than human beings. The guests on i,i, meanwhile, are allowed to breathe. Bruce Hornsby might sing only one line on the single “U (Man Like),” but his presence is enlivening. It’s less lonely to have friends nearby.

当然还是有很多艺人被邀请来翻唱一些小样，或者至少来做个伴。James Blake, Moses Sumney和Wye Oak乐队的Jenn Wasner以及一些其他人也一直有出现。甚至Young Thug的合作伙伴Wheezy都在作曲和制作名单上。Vernon在《22, A Million》中采样了他人的声音，但放在其中听上去更像是他制作的玩偶而非活生生的人。而在《i,i》中，这些嘉宾终于被允许喘口气了。Bruce Hornsby可能只是在单曲“U (Man Like)”中唱了短短一句，但他的出现显然为歌曲注入不少活力。有几个朋友在一旁作伴显然就没那么孤独了。

Vernon himself sings with more texture and conviction than ever before. He’s shifted fully from vessel to commander, steering the music instead of seeping into it. A song like “Naeem” is filled with production flourishes—a soft backing choir, faint samples, the sort of military drums favored on Bon Iver’s “Perth”—yet it all serves to highlight the booming sound of Vernon’s voice, bellowing in his natural range. The lyrics to “Naeem” are dizzying and, at points, indecipherable (“I fall off a bass boat/And the concrete’s very slow”), but he isn’t hiding behind them. It’s more like Vernon is suggesting that only feeling can offer truth. On “Naeem,” he sings, “Tell them I’ll be passing on/Tell them we’re young mastodons,” dragging his words in the second line until you can almost hear him choking up. Like all the best moments in his catalog, it is inexplicably touching.

Vernon自己的演唱也比以往带上了更多的和谐与信念。他已经彻底从一艘轮船转变成了轮船指挥官，他轻易地驾驭着音乐，而不再是浸润其中。“Naeem”这样一首歌在制作上充满了精彩的修饰——温柔的和声，微弱的采样，还有在《Bon Iver》里的“Perth”中倍受喜爱的军鼓——但这一切都是为了衬托Vernon自己有力的嗓音，他在自己天生的广阔音域中嘶吼。“Naeem”中的歌词可能有点让人困惑，甚至可以说是没法破解（“I fall off a bass boat/And the concrete’s very slow”），但他并不是要躲藏在这些歌词背后。这更像是Vernon在暗示只有去切实感觉才能说出真相。他在“Naeem”中唱到“Tell them I’ll be passing on/Tell them we’re young mastodons（告诉他们我终将离开/告诉他们我们也不过是年轻的乳齿象），”（译者注：乳齿象为已灭绝物种）他艰难地唱着第二句中的词，你几乎能听到他唱到哽咽。就像他的目录中最好的评论那样，这有种让人难以言说的感动。

i,i is often about trying to reconnect with some idea of a true self, even as you move forward. Vernon writes of scars and things lost: “You were young when you were gave it,” he sings on “We,” a line that speaks to his ability to summon powerful elegiac feelings with a few simple words. “Hey, Ma,” immediately one of the best songs in the Bon Iver catalog, is rousing and explicitly sentimental. “Full time you talk your money up/While it’s living in a coal mine,” Vernon belts, but his voice is too earthy to sound hateful. Instead, it’s like he’s offering absolution, promising that something as simple as a call to your mom is enough to make up for avarice or bluster.

《i,i》总是试图重新与真实的自我等想法共鸣，即使你已经向前看了。Vernon写下过往的伤疤，写下遗失的事物：“You were young when you were gave it（你得到时还很年轻），”他在“We”中这样唱到，这句词展现了他那用简简单单的几句词就能唤起强烈哀愁之情的能力。“Hey, Ma”这首立刻成为了Bon Iver目录中最好的歌曲之一，激励人心，直抒胸臆。“Full time you talk your money up/While it’s living in a coal mine（你一直滔滔不绝地讲着金钱/那是住在煤矿里的时候），” Vernon愤愤地抨击，但他的声音实在太接地气，完全不能让人感受到仇恨。相反，这听上去就像是他在散布宽恕，保证像是给母亲打个电话这样简单的行动就能弥补贪婪或是威吓行为。

At first glance, the tracklist for i,i is as bewildering as the symbol-laden 22, A Million. Upon listening, though, you realize that many of these are probably mondegreens and homonyms, cheeky nods to how hard it is to understand Bon Iver’s lyrics. “Jelmore,” for instance, is a fragment of what it sounds like when Vernon sings, “Well angel morning sivanna.” And the title for the closing “RABi” comes from the couplet, “I could prophet/I could rob I, however.” There are plenty of interpretive possibilities available in those words, but none of them are as enticing as their sheer sound. The music is also not as mysterious as the songs’ monikers suggest. There’s an overwhelming calmness and pleasantness to i,i, and “RABi” is one of the most easygoing of the bunch. “Sunlight feels good now don’t it,” Vernon sings. There’s no great symbolism in the track, no yearning, no enveloping echoes. What emerges is a solace that has eluded Vernon on past Bon Iver releases. “I don’t have a leaving plan,” he sings, maybe because there’s nowhere else he needs to go.

第一眼看上去，《i,i》的曲目列表就和是满是符号的《22, A Million》一样让人摸不着头脑。但在聆听过后，你就会发现这其中很大一部分可能其实是误听或是同音词，这时你就会厚着脸皮赞同Bon Iver的歌词实在是难懂。比如“Jelmore”其实是Vernon唱“Well angel morning sivanna”这一句时的一个片段。结尾的“RABi”的标题则来自于该对句“I could prophet/I could rob I, however.”对于歌词，可能的解释有很多种，但没有一种比得上它们本身的声音来得迷人。音乐本身也并不像它们的名字那般神秘。《i,i》中有一股几乎难以承受的平静与愉悦，而“RABi”可能是这一堆歌中最慵懒的了。“Sunlight feels good now don’t it（阳光现在让人感觉棒极了，不是吗），” Vernon唱到。这首歌中没有什么象征手法，没有渴望，没有包藏的寓意。浮现出的是一份Vernon在以往的Bon Iver作品中一直去逃避的慰藉。“I don’t have a leaving plan（我没有离开的计划），”他唱到，这可能也是因为他没必要再逃到哪里去了。