【搬运译】Pitchfork初评The Microphones 2001年专辑《The Glow, Pt.2》

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：Beans_Beans 

It's an amazing thing when pop music expresses beauty through ambiguity. After being pummeled over the head for years and years with I Love Yous and You Are So Beautifuls, the most direct way of expressing images of love and beauty have pretty much lost all impact. Melodic tricks can wear thin just as easily. Hooks are all well and good, but when you've seen a hook enough times, you know not to bite.

流行音乐开始尝试通过模棱两可的方式来表达美，这很是令人惊讶的事情。在已被“我爱你”和“你是如此动人”猛击脑袋多年后，用最直截了当的方式表达爱和美的意象显然已几乎失去了所有的积极影响；旋律技巧也同样会因此容易被忽视。这些吸人眼球的亮点当然不错，但显然当你已经见识过足够多的“钩子”后，就知道不要再上钩了。

Perhaps the problem is that most pop music doesn't put enough faith in the listener. Everything must be laid out in the most obvious of terms, and eventually, that obviousness obscures whatever the music originally intended to convey. If you want to invoke the quiet beauty of the ocean, for example, you can write a pop song that says, "Hey, the ocean is really beautiful," or you can try to come up with a sonic approximation of that beauty.

也许问题在于，大多数流行音乐并未给予听众足够的信任——一切都必须以最浅显的言语来阐述，最终，这种浅显性遮蔽了音乐本能传达的更深层的东西。例如，如果你想歌颂海洋的静谧之美，你当然可以写一首流行歌曲，唱道：“嘿，这海洋真的很美”；亦或你可以试着想出一种相近的声音来借以表达那种美好。

It's a huge undertaking to attempt to capture something so visual in a song. But for Phil Elvrum, it seems to be second nature. The Glow Pt. 2, the follow-up to last year's gorgeous brainmelt It Was Hot, We Stayed In the Water, captures the sea, the sky, and the mountains in a sonic panorama that seems to live without beginning or end. A sprawling, swirling composition that is both as varied and as consistent as the landscape itself, The Glow Pt. 2 exceeds even its predecessor in capturing the simultaneous wrath and fragility of nature. And sounding really, really cool.

在一首歌中捕捉如此栩栩如生的部分是一项艰巨的任务。但对 Phil Elvrum 来说，这似乎是浑然天成一般。《The Glow Pt.2》，是他去年华丽的、脑洞大开的《It Was Hot, We Stayed In the Water》的后续作品，它以一种“声音全景”的方式捕捉这世间中海洋、天空和山脉的身影，无边无际。《The Glow Pt.2》有着一个庞大的、漩涡式的构图，它既像风景一样变化多端，又像风景一样和谐统一，在捕捉大自然的愤慨和脆弱的同时，甚至超过了它的上一部作品。这听起来酷极了。

Like It Was Hot's "The Pull" before it, "I Want Wind to Blow" opens with subtle manipulations of acoustic guitars across stereo channels. There's an amazing sense of open space to the track as overtones from a low, rhythmic rumble, and from the stereo acoustic guitars, create a wash of barely audible noise floating through the mid-frequencies. "I Want Wind to Blow," like a good portion of The Glow Pt. 2, uses repetition and understatement to transform itself from a simple song into a landscape.

就像之前《It Was Hot》中的 “The Pull” 一样，“I Want Wind to Blow” 从对立体声通道中原声吉他的精妙操控作为着手点。从低而极富韵律感的隆隆声和立体声吉他的泛音中得以一瞥这首曲子所蕴含的一种惊人的开放空间感，同时还创造了一种漂浮在中频上几乎不能捕捉到的微噪。“I Want Wind to Blow” 很可能作为了《The Glow Pt.2》绝佳的一部分，使用反复和低调的表述，将这一首简易歌曲绘成了一幅风景画卷。

And as with any landscape, the way the songs on The Glow Pt. 2 are perceived greatly affects the impact of the record. This album simply must be listened to on headphones. Hearing the record on regular speakers is like staring at the Grand Canyon through a Viewmaster. The illusion of depth is weak at best, and easily broken. With headphones, the sounds contained within the record absolutely come to life, bouncing and slithering from ear to ear. The use of stereo panning is as integral a part of the disc as the melodies and instrumentation.

和任何其他景色一样，《The Glow Pt.2》中歌曲被感知的方式极大地影响了这张唱片的影响力。显然这张专辑只能用耳机来听；在普通扬声器上听这张唱片，就像透过视景仪观赏大峡谷——沉浸式的视觉体验极为脆弱，很容易被打破。用耳机听，唱片中刻录的声音绝对是栩栩如生的存在，在耳道间跳跃和滑翔。立体声平移这一技巧的运用与旋律和乐器一样，是这张唱片不可或缺的一部分。

With this stereo enhancement, parts of The Glow Pt. 2 are absolutely breathtaking. And perhaps the single most breathtaking song on the album is its title track, which may or may not be a thematic follow-up to "The Glow," the 11-minute-long centerpiece of It Was Hot, We Stayed In the Water. Opening with blasts of fuzzy guitar and massive drums, "The Glow Pt. 2" segues somewhat abruptly into another segment of stereo acoustic guitars, before giving way to a drop-dead gorgeous wash of multitracked organs. On top of this, Elvrum lets loose what could be the most striking lyrics he's ever penned: "I faced death. I went in with my arms swinging. But I heard my own breath and had to face that I'm still living. I'm still flesh. I hold on to awful feelings. I'm not dead... My chest still draws breath. I hold it. I'm buoyant. There's no end." Elvrum delivers these lyrics in a melodic stream-of-consciousness style that's structured enough to be musically riveting, but loose enough to sound spontaneous and sincere. As the last words of the song fade, the swell of organs segues into a trebly acoustic guitar and hi-hat section highly reminiscent of early Modest Mouse.

在这种立体声增强下，《The Glow Pt.2》的部分内容是绝对耀眼的。也许这张专辑中最令人惊叹的歌曲是它的标题曲，而它也可能不仅仅是专辑《It Was Hot》中长达11分钟的核心曲目 “The Glow” 的主题后续。以模糊不清的吉他声和厚重的鼓声开场，“The Glow Pt.2” 又有点突然转入另一立体原声吉他得片段，随后让位于多声道风琴的华丽旋律洗礼。除此之外，Elvrum 还发表了一首可能是他所写过的最引人注目的歌词——“I faced death. I went in with my arms swinging. But I heard my own breath and had to face that I'm still living. I'm still flesh. I hold on to awful feelings. I'm not dead... My chest still draws breath. I hold it. I'm buoyant. There's no end”。Elvrum 用一种旋律化的意识流风格来表达这些歌词，结构足够紧凑，在音乐上引人入胜；但又足够松散，听起来愈加自然而真诚。随着歌曲最后几句词渐渐淡出，风琴厚重的低吟便过渡到高音吉他和高擦部分，很容易让人联想到早期的 Modest Mouse。

Nowhere on this album are there short, straightforward pop songs like It Was Hot's cover of Eric's Trip "Sand" or "Karl Blau." Instead, the record ebbs and flows gracefully between fragile acoustic numbers like "Headless Horseman," and overpowering swells of noise, with all points in between represented. The flow between songs on The Glow Pt. 2 is absolutely flawless-- the album functions as one giant piece of music as well as it does a collection of songs. Themes of flesh and blood, water and wood, and life and death permeate the record, connecting well enough to create a sense of something greater without beating you over the head with its concept.

这张专辑中没有像《It Was Hot》中翻唱乐队 Eric's Trip 的 “Sand” 或 “Karl Blau” 的那样短小直白的流行歌曲。相反，这张唱片“Headless Horseman” 等精致易碎的不插电曲目和汹涌澎湃的噪音之间优雅地起伏着、跳跃着，在这两者之间的所有节点都有所体现。《The Glow Pt.2》歌曲间的衔接是绝对完美的——这张专辑作为一个宏伟的音乐整体的恶一部分，又同时能被视作为一个歌曲集锦。血与肉、水与木、生命与死亡的主题贯穿于整张唱片，入木三分；同时在不会让你头晕目眩的情况下营造出一种更加伟大的感觉。

Ultimately, The Glow Pt. 2 is the sound of one man working through a changing landscape-- a single voice challenging its surroundings while also accepting that it's powerless to alter them. The disc ends with a throbbing heartbeat, the most basic sign of life having braved through the stormy trek that precedes it. The Glow Pt. 2 is unpredictable, volatile, vibrant, terrifying, and comforting. The Glow Pt. 2 is alive.

说到底，《The Glow Pt. 2》是一个人在不断变化的环境中工作生活的录音——一个挑战外界大环境的微弱声音，也仅能接受它无力改变环境的事实。这张唱片以悸动的心跳结束，这是生命勇敢走过先前的风雨跋涉后的基本印记。《The Glow Pt. 2》的存在不可预测、不稳定、却充满生机，令人惊惧却令人欣慰——《The Glow Pt.2》是活生生的。