【搬运】【译】叉婊Pitchfork评 Banks 2019年专辑《III》
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
审译：Ryan-Chopin
排版：Ryan-Chopin
作者：Noah Yoo
While the brooding pop singer can’t always shake the anodyne songwriting that plagued her past work, III is still Banks’ best album to date.
尽管这位神秘的流行歌手总是不能摆脱掉限制她以往作品中平淡的歌曲创作，可《III》仍然是Banks迄今为止最好的专辑。
In 2013, Jillian Banks emerged as a poster girl for brooding, twilight-hours pop. She made all the right moves for an artist working in the burgeoning “alternative R&B” space: She committed to a monochromatic aesthetic, linked up with trendy collaborators, and commissioned Hype Machine-ready remixes. It worked, to an extent. Following a stint opening for the Weeknd, Banks became a relatively well-known name. Yet despite impressive stream counts, even her biggest singles weren’t quite enough to push her over the edge. Her signature sound relied on cookie-cutter production and “indie-pop voice” that weren’t hard to find elsewhere. With her latest album, III, Banks seems eager to reestablish her footing and take greater creative risks. While she can’t always shake the anodyne songwriting that plagued her past work, it’s still her best album to date.
2013年， Jillian Banks以海报女郎的身份出现在神秘、虚幻的流行乐中。作为一名新兴“另类R&B”领域的艺术家，她做出了所有正确的举动:她致力于单色美学，与时髦的伙伴合作，并委托Hype Machine（译者注：一个原创音乐app）的音乐人进行混音。在某种程度上，这很不赖。在Banks参与了The Weeknd一段时间的巡演后，她变得小有名气。然而，她虽有着可观的流量，但即使是她最火的单曲也还差了口气。她的标志性的嗓音依赖于千篇一律的制作，以及在其他地方不难找到的“独立流行乐的声音”。Banks的最新专辑《III》似乎有些急于让她重新站稳脚跟，而且这张专辑承担着更大的创作风险。尽管这位神秘的流行歌手总是不能摆脱掉限制她之前作品里那平淡的歌曲创作，可《III》仍然是Banks迄今为止最好的专辑。
Other than Banks herself, the most prominent presence on III is producer and Bon Iver collaborator BJ Burton, who produces or co-produces 10 of the album’s 13 tracks. He brings his unique bag of tricks—the Messina vocal harmonizer technique popularized on 22, A Million, the apocalyptic distortion that defined Low’s Double Negative. Paired with Banks’ voice, these strategies work wonders, and album opener “Till Now” sets the tone with liberal doses of both. A song like “Stroke” may lack lyrical finesse—“Say it’s hard to breathe inside my ocean/I give you the deep, but you’re still floating”—but flanked by Burton’s growling fuzz, Banks stands confident, smirking as waves of low-end crash around her.
除Banks本人之外，《III》中最引人注目的角色便是制作人兼Bon Iver的合作伙伴BJ Burton，他在专辑的13首歌曲中担任了10首歌曲的制作人或是联合制作人。他带来了他独特的技巧——墨西拿和声技术，它在“22”“A Million”中都得到了体现；另一个便是混乱失真的效果，它奠基了Low的《Double Negative》。与Banks的声音相配合时，这些策略产生了神奇的效果，而专辑的首支单曲“Till Now”则为这两种策略设定了宽松的基调。像“Stroke”这样的歌曲可能缺乏抒情的技巧——“Say it’s hard to breathe inside my ocean（在我的海洋之中难以呼吸）/I give you the deep（我想要给予你深沉的爱）, but you’re still floating（但你却一直不肯接受）”——但在Burton咆哮般的杂乱声环绕下，Banks自信地站在那里，得意地笑着，被一波又一波的廉价碰撞声所环绕。
On its face, lead single “Gimme” is another haughty banger about unfulfilled lust. But where on past albums it may have sounded lifeless, Banks’ voice sears through “Gimme” like twisted metal. Hudson Mohawke’s speaker-busting drums and bass blasts undergird a syncopated synth line reminiscent of Justin Timberlake’s classic “My Love.” Ballad “Hawaiian Mazes” strikes a diaristic tone against a melancholy backdrop of piano and old-world string trills, courtesy of Frank Ocean musical director Buddy Ross. “Telling me why you left and then complain you’re alone and I don’t know why,” Banks cries at the song’s apex. Though her lyrics can be as stilted as ever (“I tried my best to follow, but you moving too fast on ya daddy long legs”), the stream-of-consciousness style works far better than more playlist-ready fare.
从表面上看，主打单曲“Gimme”又是一首对欲望没有被满足的傲慢咆哮。但在之前的专辑中，它可能听起来毫无生气，而Banks的声音却像扭曲的金属一样，在“Gimme”中回荡。Hudson Mohawke的鼓声和低音为切分音合成器音色的旋律线条奠定了基础，这让人想起Justin Timberlake的经典歌曲“My Love”。抒情歌曲“Hawaiian Mazes”在钢琴和非现代弦乐颤音的忧郁背景音下，以日记式的语气展开，由Frank Ocean的音乐总监Buddy Ross所制作。“Telling me why you left and then complain you’re alone and I don’t know why（告诉我你为什么离开，然后抱怨说你是一个人，我不知道为什么）”Banks在歌曲的高潮处喊道。尽管她的歌词一如既往的僵硬（I tried my best to follow, but you moving too fast on ya daddy long legs（我已用尽全力去追赶，但你的大长腿让你跑的很快）”），意识流风格作品的效果远远好于那些早已被听烂的作品。
When Banks does attempt the latter, she stumbles. The lone collaboration, “Look What You’re Doing to Me,” featuring Francis and the Lights, fails to extract a memorable melody from either party. “Alaska” half-heartedly pursues a pseudo-dancehall vibe that never finds its rhythm, while “If We Were Made of Water” tries to rebottle the quivering magic of “Warm Water,” Banks’ similarly aquatic 2013 breakout single. When she sings, “Maybe if you say it again, change some words around, maybe I’ll believe you then,” she’s also speaking on behalf of her listeners.
The most interesting moments on III tap into life experiences beyond doomed relationships. On “The Fall,” a sharp-tongued critique of the music industry co-written with Miguel, Banks adopts the perspective of a record company bigwig and attacks herself viciously, painting a picture of gaslighting and sexualization that scans all too familiar. It’s not her best vocal performance—Banks can sound brittle through Auto-Tune, and rap-singing isn’t her forte—but it’s one of the only times we glimpse the real Jillian Banks, ostensibly the driving force behind all these songs. Seven years after her debut, III brings the overblown excitement around her career to an official close. With the death of that hype, she’s finally delivered a record that gives her room to expand.
当Banks真的尝试后者时，她却步履蹒跚。唯一的合作单曲，“Look What You’re Doing to Me”，这支单曲与Francis和the Lights合作而成，但它未能从任何一方提炼出一个抓耳的旋律。“Alaska”不走心地追求着一种永远找不到节奏的假舞厅氛围，而“If We Were Made of Water”则试图重现Banks 2013年同样以水为主题的突破性单曲“Warm Water”，这首曲子有着令人着迷的魔力。当她唱到，“Maybe if you say it again, change some words around, maybe I’ll believe you then（如果你再说一遍，换个说法，也许我会相信你）”她也在代表她的听众说话。
《III》中最有趣的时刻便是进入到不只有注定失败的感情的人生经历中去。在与Miguel共同创作的“The Fall”一曲中，Banks对音乐行业提出了尖锐的批评，她采用了唱片公司大亨的视角，对自己进行了恶毒的攻击，描绘了一幅过于熟悉的装神弄鬼且欲化的画面。这并不是她最好的声乐表演——Banks的嗓音在经音高修正器调整后听起来很脆弱，说唱也不是她的强项——但这是我们唯一一次看到“真正的”Jillian Banks，表面上，她是所有歌曲背后的推动力。在她出道7年后，《III》给她的职业生涯画上了一个正式的句号。随着这种炒作的消失，她终于创造了一个新纪录，让她有了更多发展的空间。
