【搬运】【译】Pitchfork评Louis Tomlinson 2020年专辑《Walls》

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：Tyler Smith

校对：Ryan-Chopin

排版：Ryan-Chopin

The latest One Directioner to go his own way tackles big themes, but the music is filled with the kind of dead-eyed vocal delivery and lazy drumming, strumming, and writing that all pop stars fear.

单向乐队又一成员发布了个人专辑，歌里充满了空洞的声音表现力和懒散的鼓点，流行歌手们都避之不及的东西全展现在了这张专辑里。 

The years following One Direction’s dissolution have reshaped Louis Tomlinson. More than just rich-people problems, his life has tumbled into real tragedies and triumphs, like the death of both his mother and 18-year-old sister, as well as the birth of his son. Of course, now he wants to tear down his barriers and emerge fresh, raw, and newly sensitive, like the many references to roadblocks and changing on his debut album Walls suggest. Something isn’t right, though. The heart he so desperately wants to present is missing.

在单向乐队解散后的几年里，Louis Tomlinson的形象得到了重塑。他的生活也陷入了的真实的悲剧和欢乐中，这不仅仅是富人才有的问题，比如他母亲和18岁的姐姐去世，以及儿子的出生。当然，现在他想打破桎梏，重获新生、再次获得艺术灵感，就像他首张专辑《Walls（墙）》中提到的许多障碍和变化一样。不过，有些事情不对劲。他如此渴望呈现的真心却已经不见了。

Unfortunately, Walls is just as maddeningly uninteresting as its slate grey, cuffed-light-wash-jeans album cover suggests. The appropriately named album opener “Kill My Mind” is a feeble attempt to create stadium pop-rock, droning on with faux bad-boy guitar while Tomlinson limply delivers, “You’re a nightmare on the dancefloor/And you hate me, and I want more.” “Too Young” is an explicit introduction to the album’s running preoccupation with youth; like many of Walls’ folkier moments, the song is flat coffee-shop music. “Habit” features this same mood but adds in sleepy drumming. “Don’t Let It Break Your Heart” subtracts the drumming and adds in wistful vocal layering, reminding us that “life gets hard and it gets messed up.” Brian Eno had Music for Airports; this is Music for Your John Mayer Cover Band.

不幸的是，《Walls（墙）》这张专辑就像真正“墙”上的石板灰，也正如裤脚口卷起的褪色牛仔裤专辑封面所暗示的那样超级乏味。取名不错的专辑开场曲“Kill My Mind”这一尝试很无力，这首歌本想要制作成一首与假冒坏男孩般吉他合作的舞台流行摇滚，而Tomlinson的歌声却拖了后腿，“You’re a nightmare on the dancefloor/And you hate me, and I want more.（你是一个舞池的噩梦/你恨我，而我想要更多。）”。“Too Young”明确表明了专辑的重点来到了对年轻一代的关注；就像《Walls》的许多流行歌曲一样，这首歌也只是纯咖啡店的音乐。“Habit”的特点也是如此，但增加了令人昏昏欲睡的鼓声。“Don’t Let It Break Your Heart”减去了鼓声，加入了伤感的多层次人声伴奏，提醒我们“life gets hard and it gets messed up（生活变得艰难，变得一团糟）” 。Brian Eno有为缓解候机乘客紧张焦虑情绪的《Ambient1：Music For Airports》；而这张专辑就像是John Mayer乐队创作的翻唱作品。

When I was in high school, I owned a limited edition Harry Styles doll and read tawdry fanfiction about our favorite Frankenstein, Mr. Larry Stylinson. This was how you engaged in the fandom of One Direction, and fans knew that every One Direction member had an archetype. Harry Styles was the heartbreaker, Zayn Malik the mysterious (read: ethnic) one, Niall Horan the cute one, and Liam Payne was unlucky enough to receive the nickname “Daddy Directioner.” Tomlinson was the “sassy” one who couldn’t sing, which didn’t add up to much. Now on his own, Tomlinson is left with exactly what he is: someone who received massive success when flanked by other, more interesting people. Walls is filled with the kind of dead-eyed vocal delivery and lazy drumming, strumming, and writing that all pop stars fear. There is no attempt to scrape at the soul, to dig deep. The result is a depressing Xerox of people like Coldplay and Oasis, who managed to make soft Britpop with a little more charm and ingenuity.

我在上高中时，我拥有一个限量版的Harry Styles娃娃，那时我喜欢读一些大家都喜欢的Mr. Larry Stylinson的(几个乐队成员的)cp小说。这就是单向乐队粉丝的追星方式，粉丝们知道每个乐队的成员都有一个人设。Harry Styles是个芳心终结者，Zayn Malik是个神秘的人，Niall Horan是个可爱的人，Liam Payne很倒霉，被冠上了“Daddy Directioner”的绰号，Tomlinson是个不会唱歌的“时髦人”，这一点在团队中算不上什么。现在，Tomlinson一个人只剩下他自己了：一个在其他更有趣的人的支持下才获得巨大成功的人。专辑里充满了空洞的声音表现力和懒散的鼓点，所有流行歌手都避之不及的东西在《Walls》中全展现了出来。音乐里没有试图去深度挖掘其音乐灵魂的痕迹。就像设法用魅力与匠心来制作软英国流行的酷玩乐队和绿洲乐队，其音乐结果都只是一个令人失望的流水线复印品。

Tomlinson is best on “We Made It,” where his imitation begins to sound more like a sincere attempt at invention. The dreamy acoustic guitar sounds like the backdrop to the silliest, prettiest, slow-motion Instagram video of a sunset on the beach. Reminiscing about how he used to “share a single bed and tell each other what we dream about,” Tomlinson captures the essence of youth with one line. You can’t hear the stars in his eyes, but you know that they’re there. The rest of the album could have used this tenderness and lyrical specificity, but it’s mostly abandoned in favor of the pop conventions that Tomlinson pledges himself to, remembering how he used to sing “something pop-y on the same four chords/used to worry 'bout it but I don't no more.”

Tomlinson最成功的制作是“We Made It”，他的刻意模仿终于听起来像是一次真诚的发明创作。轻柔的原声吉他听起来就像是最梦幻、最漂亮、慢动作播放的Instagram海滩日落小视频的背景音乐。Tomlinson回忆起他过去是如何“share a single bed and tell each other what we dream about（与对方共用一张床，告诉对方我们的梦想） ，他用一句话抓住了青春的本质。你听不到他眼中的星星，但你知道它们就在那里。这张专辑的其余部分本可以发扬这种温柔和抒情的闪光点，但却再无踪影，取而代之的是Tomlinson固执的传统流行思维，他只记得自己曾经唱过的“同一个四和弦上的流行乐/曾经担心过，但我现在不再担心了”

It’s difficult to tell whether Tomlinson is even trying to make music different from his time in One Direction. On “Fearless,” he constructs an entire chorus around the question, “Do you still remember feeling young?” like he can’t quite get himself to move on from the golden days. “Perfect Now” is basically a low-quality rewrite of One Direction’s “Little Things,” featuring galaxy-brain observations of an insecure lover like, “You say to me your jeans don’t fit/You don’t feel pretty and it’s hard to miss.” Tomlinson himself calls this song a “kind of” lyrical extension of “What Makes You Beautiful,” One Direction’s legendary breakout single. Try as he may, Tomlinson has not quite progressed from featured voice to solo artist. For all the major changes in his life, his music seems to be stuck in place. You can take the boy out of the boyband, but not the boyband out of the boy.

甚至很难说Tomlinson是否在努力地制作与他在单向乐队时期不一样的音乐。在“Fearless”中，他整段副歌都围绕着一个问题： “Do you still remember feeling young?” （你是否还记得感觉自己很年轻的时候？）就好像他并不能接受自己的黄金年华已逝的事实一样。 “Perfect Now”基本上就是单向乐队曾经的单曲“Little Things”的低配版，里面是对一位不安的恋人的全面观察： “You say to me your jeans don’t fit/You don’t feel pretty and it’s hard to miss.（你对我说你的牛仔裤不合身，你感觉自己不漂亮，这件事很难不被注意）” Tomlinson本人说这首歌的歌词是对 “What Makes You Beautiful”的“某种”延伸。虽然Tomlinson很努力地在尝试，他还是没能从一位合作型歌手成长为solo艺术家。相比起他人生的种种变故，他的音乐仍在原地。单向乐队可以没有这个男孩，但这个男孩离不开单向乐队。