搬运译Pitchfork评Charli XCX 2016年单曲“After the Afterparty” [ft. Lil

搬运自：网易云音乐专栏【Music Online Zine Courier】（在原文基础上添加了英语原文与排版调整）

翻译：豆目豆科

Charli XCX never quits. She’s pivoted before, abandoning the hip aspirations of True Romance to embrace her snotty pop heart on 2014’s Sucker. There*,* she spent a significant amount of time flipping off not haters, but fair weather ass-kissers who only showed up once “the right people” said she was cool. Charli’s embrace of success’ trashier Trappings bucked against anyone determined to portray her agency as so-called respectability (the antithesis to “evil pop,” as Taylor Swift might have it), a reputation she shucks off like yesterday’s false eyelashes here.

Charli XCX从未放弃追求进步。她之前就有过革新，在2014年的《Sucker》中放弃了《True Romance》中对时尚的追求，反去拥抱了她那颗“低贱”的流行心。如今，她花了相当多的时间来抨击的并非是她的那些黑粉，而是那些逢场作戏、人前一套人后插刀的马屁精。Charli一改对成功的抱负，对那些一意把她的机构描绘成所谓的“体面”“可敬”（“evil pop”的对立面，这点可能与Taylor Swift不谋而合了）的人进行了强烈反击，她视声名如粪土就像摘取昨夜的假睫毛一样轻而易举。

On the first single from Charli’s forthcoming fourth album, there’s no sneering at rule-makers. The bi-continental 24-year-old is no longer bound by authority—she exudes it. “Cos after the after party/We’re gonna stay ’til morning/Then when the time is up/We do it all again,” she sings with hiccupy determination, her voice sounding, as it often does, like a gang of rowdy girls fighting over one mic. Like this year’s Vroom Vroom, her theme is unapologetically shallow: “I got glitter in my underwear like it’s Studio 54,” is the sharpest line in a song that concludes, “We do it ice cream for dinner/Bucket of liquor/We’re getting sicker.”

在Charli即将发行的第四张专辑的第一支单曲中，并没有对掌权者的讥讽。24岁的她早已脱离权威的约束——她自己就散发着权威的气息。“Cos after the afterparty/We're gonna stay 'til morning/Then when the time is up/We do it all again”，她像是打着嗝却又十分坚定地唱道，具体来说她的声音听起来，就像她常常做的那样，像一帮女孩儿在争抢同一个麦克风发言。就像今年的《Vroom Vroom》一样，她的主题也是毫不掩饰的浅薄。“I got glitter in my underwear like it's Studio 54,”这是歌曲中最尖刻的一句话，从所得的结论中也可见一斑：“We do it ice cream for dinner/Bucket of liquor/We're getting sicker.”

For all the sloppy behavior on show, “After the Afterparty” runs on extreme precision: the way Charli’s voice cascades like a cocktail fountain, how the opening piano tinkles like the sun coming up before bursting into a saccharine confetti bomb. It’s guileless but fiercely sculptured, produced by relative unknown FRED with assistance from a novel pairing: mainstream duo Stargate and PC Music’s SOPHIE, whose 3D zippiness guides the second verse. Lil Yachty’s feature is asinine, but his “bubblegum Trap” vibe and reputation as an irritant fit Charli’s defiant reclamation of a forsaken manufacturing industry.

尽管“After the Afterparty”中有很多马马虎虎的演绎，但仍是极其精准到位的：Charli的声音像鸡尾酒喷泉一样倾泻而出，开场的钢琴像太阳升起一样渐强、叮咚作响，最后再爆出一个糖纸炸弹。这首曲子非常朴实直白，但仍被雕琢得十分精细，由相对不知名的FRED制作、并有一对新奇的组合协助——热门二人组合Stargate和PC Music的SOPHIE，后者全方位烘托出的轻快感引导着第二段主歌的内容。要说Lil Yachty的特色可谓是无稽之谈，但他 “Bubblegum Trap”氛围和能作出刺激听感音乐的噱头，非常适于Charli选择对被遗弃领域挑衅似的再开辟。

Back in 2013, some critics reached to reframe Miley Cyrus’ “We Can't Stop” as a tragic cry for help about losing control. Towards the end of “Afterparty,” Charli’s vocals start to slip and stutter, the vocoder as malfunctioning time machine, but the track resists being turned into a morality tale. Its neon nihilism and aggressive self-possession are the drivers of Charli’s career rather than its destructors. Nobody can go harder, faster, or give fewer fucks. Charli XCX never quits.

早在2013年，一些评论家就将Miley Cyrus的“We Can't Stop”重新定义为一个关于失去控制的悲剧性呼救。而在“Afterparty”的尾声，Charli的声音愈加断断续续，声码器就像故障了的时间机器，但这首曲子并没有“沦”为一个前面提到的警示寓言。霓虹灯下的虚无主义和咄咄逼人的自持仍是Charli职业生涯的驱动力，而非Charli事业前程的拦路虎。没有人这一辈子一路狂飙、从不减速，更不可能没有“抛锚”过，但至少Charli XCX从未放弃过。