【搬运】【译】叉婊Pitchfork评Weyes Blood 2019年专辑《Titanic Rising》

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：WhitneyL

审校：Lynn Liu

Natalie Mering’s fourth album is a grand, sentimental ode to living and loving in the shadow of doom. It is her most ambitious and complex work yet.

Natalie Mering的第四张专辑，是一张气势磅礴且感人至深的颂歌，歌颂着在厄运阴影下的生活与爱。迄今为止，这是她所有的作品中最雄心勃勃、风格多样的作品。

In the face of catastrophe, Natalie Mering always finds serenity. Throughout her fourth record as Weyes Blood, tides are surging, trees are falling, the internet is ruining romance, capitalism is pushing workers to the brink of exhaustion, and reality is breaking her heart. In the wake of all this, Mering continues to search the stars for salvation. Belief—in oneself, in another, in myths—is Titanic Rising’s only request. “I want to make sure everybody feels like they deserve to be alive,” she told Pitchfork. “I hope you could have a smile during the apocalypse.” Building on the psychedelic chamber-folk of 2016’s Front Row Seat to Earth, these convictions push the 30-year-old songwriter towards her most ambitious and complex work yet.

灾难来袭，Natalie Mering却总是能够找到庇护之处。在她以艺名Weyes Blood发行的第四张专辑中，潮水上涨，树木倒下，网络破坏了浪漫，资本主义将工人们推向了近乎精疲力竭的边缘，而现实伤透了她的心。在这一切觉醒之前，Mering仍在坚持不懈地寻找救赎之光。《Titanic Rising》中唯一的诉求就是相信自己，相信别人，相信神话。她在接受《Pitchfork》的采访时说到，“我想让每个人都知道，他们都值得拥有生命，即使末日来临，我希望他们仍然可以微笑以对。”这些信念从2016年的专辑《Front Row Seat to Earth》开始就已经初露锋芒，同时，这些信念给这位30岁的作曲家带来了她迄今为止最雄心勃勃的、风格多样的作品。

Titanic Rising approaches these modern-day problems through a distinctly sentimental lens. Mering has referred to herself as a “nostalgic futurist,” and here she leans into that title by examining the strange ways technology has shaped modern romance through the earnest lyrics and golden, gigantic arrangements of 1970s pop songwriters. But unlike Joni Mitchell or the Carpenters, whose love affairs were clouded by plain old anxiety and desperation, Mering’s love affairs are clouded by algorithms. As she seeks true love on the jaunty “Everyday,” Mering’s desire for companionship bursts forth like a geyser. When she bellows “I need a love every day” over a baroque clavinet, it’s with a herculean determination.

《Titanic Rising》以一种别具一格的视角来探讨这些当代的问题。Mering称自己是一个“怀旧的未来主义者”，她之所以这样称呼自己，是因为她在发掘科技影响现代浪漫的奇怪方式，通过重要歌词、类似于70年代流行音乐创作人金碧辉煌、宏大的编曲体现出来。但不像Joni Mitchell和卡朋特乐队，他们的风流韵事被那些所谓的焦虑和绝望所笼罩，而Mering的爱情被算法所笼罩。当她在欢快的“Everyday(每一天)”中寻找真爱时，Mering对伴侣的渴望像喷泉一样喷涌而出。当她伴随着巴洛克风格的轻手风琴音调上高唱“I need a love every day（每天，我都需要被爱）”时，她有着无比坚定的决心。

Even at her most optimistic, Mering grounds herself in reality. On the majestic opener “A Lot’s Gonna Change,” Mering yearns to return to the purity of childhood, a time when the world seemed to swell with wonder and possibility. But she cuts her fantasy short and admits that since progress is impossible to escape, why not focus on what matters right now? Later on “Mirror Forever,” she is her most blunt: “No one’s ever gonna give you a trophy/For all the pain and things you’ve been through/No one knows but you.” This advice comes off as almost gravely urgent and upholds Titanic Rising’s acceptance of difficult truths.

甚至她在最激动的时候，她仍然让自己保持冷静。在气势恢宏的开场曲“A Lot 's Gonna Change（很多事情将会发生改变）”中，Mering渴望回归童年的纯真，那个时候，世界似乎充满了各种各样的奇迹与可能性。但是，她打断了自己的幻想，她认为，既然承认进步是不可能逃避的，为什么不把注意力集中于当下呢?在之后的歌曲“Mirror Forever”中，她坦率地说到:“No one’s ever gonna give you a trophy/For all the pain and things you’ve been through/No one knows but you（没有人会给你一座奖杯/尽管你经历了所有的痛苦/而这些，除了你，没有人知道。）”这似乎听起来非常急迫，但是却同时支持了《Titanic Rising》中接受困难的真理。

Midway through the album, Titanic Rising moves into the murky realm of the subconscious through its instrumental title track, like a sunbeam finding its way to the ocean floor. On the subsequent “Movies,” Mering sounds as if she is singing from the album cover’s sunken bedroom, her voice wobbly and distended. As phosphorescent synthesizers swirl around her, Mering ponders cinema’s emotional shaping of our collective psyche, ultimately finding acceptance in the fantasy. “Movies” might be a melodramatic outlier on the record, but the song exemplifies the way Mering considers the world: as a constant renegotiation of self and place. If the record’s first half was built on swooning dreams, the second half faces the world with a melancholic but hopeful heart.

在整张专辑中，《Titanic Rising》通过它的主打歌毫不费力地进入了潜意识中的黑暗领域，仿佛一束阳光直射入海底一样。在随后的 “Movies”中，她的声音就像从专辑封面凹陷的卧室里唱出来一样，颤抖而发胀。当那些磷光合成器在她周围旋转时，她若有所思地思考着那些虚构的情节对我们心理情感的塑造，最终，她在幻想中寻找到了认同感。“Movies”可能是这部唱片的一个局外人，但这首歌体现了Mering思考世界的方式:作为一个不断自我协调的地方。如果说这张唱片的前半部分是建立在令人神魂颠倒的幻想之上，那么下半部分则以一颗忧郁但充满希望的心面对着世界。

The truth that lies beneath Titanic Rising is that love blossoms and love wilts. This law of nature is mirrored in the emotional arc introduced by “A Lot’s Gonna Change.” “Everyone’s broken now/And no one knows just how,” she murmurs on the monumental “Wild Time.” The songs are more stoic and elegant even when Mering sings of apocalyptic imagery like a “million people burnin’.”

《Titanic Rising》背后的真相是:爱之花怒放，同时，爱之花也随之枯萎。这一自然法则反映在由“A Lot’s Gonna Change”所引出的情感弧中。她在不朽的“Wild Time”中低声说道：“Everyone’s broken now/And no one knows just how（现在每个人都崩溃了/却没人知道是怎么崩溃的，）”。这些歌曲更加坚忍和优雅，即使是在酝酿着唱出“million people burnin（数以万计的人正在燃烧）”这样的末日意象时也是如此。

But Mering’s business is not of misery, but of faith. She suggests dystopian images, but insists that with action, beautiful results are possible. Titanic Rising comes full circle with the instrumental closer “Nearer to Thee,” which borrows the string arrangement from “A Lot’s Gonna Change.” The song’s title alludes to the hymn that the Titanic’s house band supposedly played as the ship sank. Here, as it was then, Weyes Blood can’t help but offer one last breath of hope as she gazes towards an uncertain future.

但是，Mering生来并不是为了受苦，而是为了信念。她提出反乌托邦的形象，但她坚持认为，只要有了行动，善果是可能的。《Titanic Rising》以一曲“closer to you（离你更近）”为背景做了一个完整的循环。这首歌的名字暗指泰坦尼克号即将沉没之时，船上的乐队所演奏的优美的乐章。在这里，就像那时一样，当她凝视着一个不确定的未来时，Weyes Blood情不自禁吐露着心底的希望。