【搬运】【译】叉婊Pitchfork评Rhye 2019年专辑《Spirit》

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：Lynn Liu

校正：WhitneyL

排版：Ryan-Chopin

Playing a baby grand piano, Mike Milosh’s eight-song album reflects a sense of ritualistic quiet; it’s intimate without being heavy-handed.

在Mike Milosh八首歌的专辑中，他弹奏着一架小型三角钢琴，反映出仪式般的宁静;他轻柔的演奏，让人感到非常的亲近。

Rhye, the soft-pop group led by Mike Milosh, refurbished their sound last year on second album Blood to mixed results. Without producer Robin Hannibal, who fleshed out the group’s 2013 debut with minimalist, sumptuous production, Milosh leaned on beefier instrumentation and overstated lyrics that sapped most of the enigmatic, economical appeal from their music. Rhye’s new EP Spirit, recorded after an extensive tour last summer, feels like a loose, low-stakes companion to Blood. Rhye’s usual electronic and guitar stylings are stripped back to meditative piano arrangements and ambient mood-setting, making for an effective if lightweight backdrop for his sighing variety of romance.

由Mike Milosh领导的软流行乐队Rhye去年在第二张专辑《Blood》中注入了新的元素，为我们带来了不一样的声音，结果喜忧参半。没有制作人Robin Hannibal的参与，Milosh就得依靠更强大的乐器和夸张的歌词，从而削弱了他们音乐中神秘简洁的吸引力。Hannibal用极简主义、华丽的作品充实了该乐队2013年的首专。Rhye的新专辑《Spirit》是在去年夏天大量巡演后录制的，这张专辑感觉像是他们18年专辑《Blood》的一个散漫的，低级别的陪衬一般。Rhye经常使用的电子和吉他风格已不复存在，转而回到了沉思的钢琴曲架构及其所营造出的氛围。如果再加上一些彰显浪漫的音符的话，这张专辑将更加精彩。

Milosh put Spirit together after being gifted a baby grand piano by his girlfriend, using daily exercises as a form of meditation following a draining tour schedule. The brief eight-song album reflects that sense of introspection and ritualistic quiet, with most songs resting in minor key and Milosh’s hazy timbre offering up long, wordless hums. Rhye has used chamber music as an indirect influence in the past, whether stacking harmonies over a horn section on “Woman” or adding plucked strings to their cover of Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale.” But here Milosh mostly dresses things down to an intentionally spare, percussive base; his piano is close-mic’d alongside the slightest brushes of synths and strings, signaling intimacy without the heavy-handedness that dragged down Blood.

在女友送给Milosh一架小型三角钢琴后，他打起精神，在疲惫不堪的巡演日程安排之后，他把日常练习当作冥想的一种形式。这张只有八首歌的专辑反映了内省感和仪式般的宁静，大多数歌曲都是小调，而Milosh朦胧的音色发出了长长的、无言的哼哼声。在过去，Rhye都曾将室内乐作为一种间接影响——无论是在“Woman”中的小号部分叠加和声，还是在翻唱Procol Harum的"a Whiter Shade of Pale"的基础上，改变编曲，增加了弦乐元素。但在这里，Milosh主要是想把东西简化成有意备用的打击乐底座;他的钢琴（音色）的主打风格是近麦克风风格的，伴之以灵动的和音以及弦乐，这显示出了其紧密性，并且并没有拖《Blood》后腿的拙劣。

Lyrically, Milosh remains exclusively concerned with a tortured type of desire: He wants to be needed, feel your pain, wage your wars, et cetera. Delivered in a smooth, unified whisper, the words of affection sometimes sound vaguely sinister rather than sexy, as on “Needed,” written and produced with former Semisonic singer Dan Wilson: “Why you look so fragile? Do I seem so bad?/Oh, you look so pretty, there’s no devils here.” The song hinges on even clumsier phrasing during its chorus (“I wanna be needed, that’s what I need”) that undercuts all the feverish desire lurking at its core. Elsewhere, Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds adds his minimalist touch to the simmering, hymn-like standout “Patience,” while Milosh lets his piano do the legwork on muted instrumental trifles “Malibu Nights” and “Green Eyes.” It all feels a little perfunctory for Rhye at this point, but in a characteristically refined way that at least makes for easy casual listening.

在歌词上，Milosh只关心一种受虐的欲望:他想被需要，感受你的痛苦，与你唇枪舌战，等等。在与Semisonic主唱Dan Wilson合作的“Needed”中，表达爱意的话语有时听起来并不性感，反而有些阴险：“Why you look so fragile? Do I seem so bad?/Oh, you look so pretty, there’s no devils here. （为何你看起来如此脆弱？我看起来有这么糟吗？哦，你看着真不错，这里并没有魔鬼。）”这首歌的唱腔听起来更加笨拙(“I wanna be needed, that’s what I need（我想被需要，这就是我所需要的）”)，这削弱了潜藏在歌曲核心的狂热欲望。在其他地方，冰岛作曲家Olafur Arnalds将他极简主义的风格融入到酝酿已久的，赞美诗般的杰作"Patience"中去，而Milosh则让他的钢琴伴奏在"Malibu Nights"和"Green Eyes"等器乐作品中打酱油。针对这一点，这一切似乎看起来对Rhye来说都有点敷衍了事，但他至少以一种独特的优雅方式，让我们轻松随意地倾听他们的音乐。

Spirit boils down the seductive essence of Rhye’s music to core elements. It would do well as an introduction to the group for an unfamiliar listener, but doesn’t feel necessary by any means. If anything, Spirit comes across as more mood music by design, bespoke and undemanding, and it probably already has real estate on every bedroom-themed playlist on Spotify. Rhye is now a reliably polished provider of this style of music, but it’s a position that clearly doesn’t allow for very many risks.

《Spirit 》浓缩了Rhye音乐中诱人本质的核心要素。对于一个不熟悉他们的听众来说，这会是一个关于这个乐队的完美介绍，但无论如何都没有必要这样。如果要说有什么区别的话，那就是《Spirit 》更多的是通过设计、定制以及无要求的方式来表现情绪化的音乐，而且它可能已经在Spotify的每个卧室主题播放列表中都占据一席之地了。Rhye现在是这种风格音乐的可靠而完美的提供者，但这个位置显然不会有太多竞争者。