【搬运译】Pitchfork重评Songs：Ohia 2003年专辑《Magnolia Electric Co.》
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
Songs: Ohia's best and most pivotal album, 2003's The Magnolia Electric Co., showcased the late Jason Molina's strong shift toward rock populism. Imbued with a dust-under-the-fingernails weariness, the album is so representative of Molina’s sound and spirit, he subsequently took Magnolia Electric Co. as his new band’s name.
于2003年发行的专辑《Magnolia Electric Co.》是乐队 Songs: Ohia 最精彩纷呈，音乐生涯中最关键的作品，揭示了已故去的乐队核心 Jason Molina 向摇滚大众主义的激进转变。这张专辑像是指缝间淤积的灰尘，是 Molina 声音和精神的代言，在这之后他将 “Magnolia Electric Co.” 作为他新乐队的名字。
The late Jason Molina began his career by enduring constant comparisons to Will Oldham. The analogy became a lazy one, but its basis is understandable. Molina’s debut single under his Songs: Ohia moniker, 1996’s “Nor Cease Thou Never Now”, was released on Oldham’s own Palace Records, and his quivering, sing-speak cadence bears an unmistakable resemblance to Oldham’s. That association endured—up to and including a 2002 collaboration between Molina and Oldham (plus Appendix Out’s Alasdair Roberts) called Amalgamated Sons of Rest. But there are two other singing-songwriting contemporaries of Molina that make for equally apt comparisons: Ryan Adams and Elliott Smith. Adams’s Gold came out in 2001, and its unabashed ode to heartland-fueled classic rock emboldened a generation of punk-and-indie shitkickers to embrace their FM-radio roots. Smith had turned increasingly away from indie rock and toward a more organic classic-pop sound in the late 90s and early 00s—that is, until his suicide in 2003 cut that evolution short.
已逝的 Jason Molina 在他职业生涯初期，不断的被人拿来与 Will Oldham 作比较。这一比较可谓是慵散、不负责任的，但究其基础仍是可以理解的。Molina 1996年在他的乐队项目 Songs: Ohia 发行的第一支单曲 “Nor Cease Thou Never Now” 便是通过 Oldham 的个人厂牌 Palace Records 问世的，他颤抖的唱腔与 Oldham 的有着显而易见的相似之处。这种联系一直持续到2002年，Molina 与Oldham（除此之外还有乐队 Appendix Out 的 Alasdair Roberts）之间的合作作品，名为“Amalgamated Sons of Rest”。除此之外还有两位与 Molina 同时代的艺术家，也可以进行同样恰当的比较——Ryan Adams 和Elliott Smith。Adams 的《Gold》于2001年问世，它不加掩饰地颂扬了经典的中心地带摇滚乐，是使一代朋克和独立音乐人拥抱电台时代的奠基人。在九十年代末和〇〇年代初，Smith 逐步远离独立摇滚的范畴，转向更加有机的经典流行乐——这也就是说，直至2003年 Smith 自杀后，这一革命才渐渐平息。
That year also marked the release of Molina’s best and most pivotal album: The Magnolia Electric Co., which showcased his own strong shift toward rock populism. Imbued with a dust-under-the-fingernails weariness, the album is so representative of Molina’s sound and spirit, he subsequently took Magnolia Electric Co. as his new band’s name. Molina’s work on Magnolia wasn’t as cryptically oblique as Oldham, as stadium-sized as Adams, or as harmonically polished as Smith. It was, perhaps for the first time in his recording tenure, pure and full Molina. But the album installed itself into the American songwriter landscape circa '03 in a way that closed the circuit among his peers and secretly, quietly willed a pocket of the zeitgeist into being.
就在那一年，Molina 发行了他最精彩，最关键的专辑《Magnolia Electric Co.》揭示了他自己向摇滚大众主义的激进转变。这张专辑充斥着好似指缝间淤积的尘土一般的颓废感，是 Molina 声音和精神的代表，再后来他将 “Magnolia Electric Co.” 作为他新乐队的名字。Molina 在《Magnolia.》 中的作品不再像 Oldham 那样隐晦，不再像 Adams 那样有着宛如体育场般宏伟的规模，也不再像Smith 那样有和声的修饰点缀——这也许是 Molina 音乐生涯中第一次拥抱了纯粹而完整的 “Molina”。即便如此这张专辑仍在03年左右的美国词曲创作领域中，以一种在他同行中密闭的方式，润物细无声般地将这一时代潮流从口袋寸地引向现实。
The 10th anniversary of The Magnolia Electric Co. is upon us, hence the obligatory 10th-anniversary reissue. The album would have called for the deluxe retrospective treatment even if Molina hadn’t died earlier this year, of organ failure related to his long struggle with alcohol. The respectful euphemisms have flown. The bottom line, however, is harsh: Molina drank himself to death. But Magnolia is not a drunk record, nor is it a drinking record. While legions of alt-country troubadours have drained the tear-in-my-beer song of much of its traditionalist proof, Magnolia is sharp, clear-eyed, and savagely focused.
《Magnolia Electric Co.》的十周年纪念日即将到来，因此我们也必将进行十周年再版。倘若 Molina 并未在今年年初死于与酒精斗争的多器官衰竭中，这张专辑也将被进行豪华的回顾性再版。奢华的悼词已不再重要，人的脆弱是残酷的，Molina 把自己喝死了。但《Magnolia.》并不是一张酒后所作的唱片，也并非须以酒精作伴方能欣赏的唱片。当众多的另类乡村歌手将“以酒代泪”式庸曲唱烂时，《Magnolia.》是尖锐而深刻、清晰、野性、专一的杰作。
Beginning the album with “Farewell Transmission” is more than an act of perversity. Molina lays out his blueprint not just for the rest of Magnolia Electric Co. the album*,* but for the rest of Magnolia Electric Co. the band. What once was jittery and hesitant in his delivery is now howlingly powerful; gone is Songs: Ohia’s push-and-pull between intimacy and stridency. In its place is red-blood, full-throated, post-hippie country rock, right down to a name that evokes both Quicksilver Messenger Service and the Grateful Dead’s “Sugar Magnolia”. Only this is Cosmic American Music scorched by the heat of reentry, space-cowboy romance for the year of the Columbia shuttle disaster. “Must be a big star about to fall,” Molina rasps in awestruck wonder over amber waves of twang and pedal-steel majesty. The sweetheart of the rodeo now works at a truck stop somewhere on Route 66, handing out the men’s room key and smiling crookedly to hide her missing teeth.
以 “Farewell Transmission” 作为专辑的开篇，绝非仅是一种任性的作派。Molina 不仅为专辑《Magnolia.》的其余部分，也同时为他之后的乐队 Magnolia Electric Co. 绘出了蓝图。在他的言语中，往日的紧张和忧虑消失殆尽，转变为如今咆哮的雄浑力量；他的逝去留给 Songs: Ohia 的并非在亲昵与严厉间的辗转，取而代之的是充斥着鲜血、巨响、后嬉皮文化的乡村摇滚乐，就连名字都让人联想到 Quicksilver Messenger Service 和 Grateful Dead 的 “Sugar Magnolia” 。除此之外这是宇宙式的美利坚音乐，好似被重返大气层的热度所炙烤，有着哥伦比亚号航天飞机遇难之年的太空牛仔式浪漫。“这定是一颗陨落世间的巨星” Molina 在琥珀般精致的鼻音和钢制踏板的威严中敬畏地呐喊着。这位身处牛仔竞技场的甜心，如今正在66号公路某处的卡车站工作，一边分发男厕的钥匙，一边歪着头笑，试图遮掩她缺失的牙齿。
Route 66 is mentioned by name on “John Henry Split My Heart”, and it’s more than just an obvious stab at harnessing American mythology. But it is that—an homage to the folk archetypes of a relatively young nation, yet one that hauls around so much weight. Calling Molina a death-obsessed singer-songwriter would be as off the mark as calling him a drunk singer-songwriter. Still, the gravity of “John Henry”—especially its bruising distortion and spiraling chords—hits like a Dust Bowl twister. And on “I’ve Been Riding with the Ghost”, a more hushed meditation on absence and regret builds into a stiff, inexorable shuffle toward death, complete with ghoulish backups by Molina’s frequent foil, Jennie Benford of Jim & Jennie and the Pinetops (the group with whom Molina recorded the sparse Didn’t It Rain in 2002). “Ghost” is almost Halloweenish in its spooky, oohing, voice-and-guitar refrain, but that dead-leaf brittleness raises gooseflesh. And when, on the churning threnody “Almost Was Good Enough”, Molina chants, “Almost no one makes it out,” it’s Crazy Horse galloping along the lip of a cliff.
“John Henry Split My Heart” 中所提到的66号公路，这不仅是显而易见地引用美利坚神话。但它也就是如此——向一个年轻国家的民间英雄致敬——肩负着如此宏伟的内涵。说 Molina 是一个痴迷于死亡的唱作人，同称他是一个酗酒的唱作人一般。尽管如此，“John Henry” 的引用仍不失威严——特别是它那伤痕累累的失真效果和扶摇而上的和弦——好似沙尘暴一般。在 “I've Been Riding with the Ghost” 中，在经由 Molina 长期合作搭档——乐队 Jim & Jennie and the Pinetops 的 Jennie Benford（Molina在2002年与他们一起录制了举世罕有的《Didn't It Rain》）所创造的可怖伴奏下，将对不复存在和遗憾的沉思化为死尸一般，继而不可避免地走向死亡。“Ghost” 几乎有着万圣节式的诡异、呜咽、人声与器乐音交相应答，那种枯叶式的清脆感令人不寒而栗。而当 Molina 在汹涌澎湃的悲歌 “Almost Was Good Enough” 中吟唱 “Almost no one makes it out” 时，倘如狂马奔驰在崇山峻岭之上。
For every act of negation—self- or otherwise—on Magnolia, there’s an imperative. “Just Be Simple” is Molina’s lone commandment, only he wields his Occam’s razor with a gentle subtlety, even as his arrangements are far more textured and complex than they let on. “Everything you hated me for/ Honey, there was so much more,” he sings softly and cleanly; meanwhile, what he doesn’t sing screams volumes. The obvious reference is to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Simple Man”, only here there’s no external narrator, no motherly figure through which to filter homespun wisdom. This is a hard-earned, heart-damaged cautionary tale told far too late for caution to do any good, and Molina seems content to judge no one but himself. “Hold on Magnolia” also delivers an order, but again it’s directed inward. “You might be holding the last light I see/ Before the dark finally gets a hold of me,” he pleads over lonesome strums before adding doubtfully, “Hold on, Magnolia/ I know what a true friend you’ve been.” The eerie similarity between “Magnolia” and “Molina” isn’t lost on anyone.
在《Magnolia.》中，Molina每一次自我否定或是其他行为，都附加有一个要求。“Just Be Simple” 便是 Molina 唯有的戒律，只是他以一种温和而微妙的方式挥舞着他的 “Occam’s razor”*，即使他的布局远比它们所表达的更富质感、复杂精巧。“Everything you hated me for/ Honey, there was so much more” 他轻轻地、利落地唱着；同时，他尚未言说的东西却叫嚣着。显而易见这里参考了Lynyrd Skynyrd 的 “Simple Man”，只是这里没有旁白，没有母亲来充当家庭滤镜。这是一个来之不易、令人心碎的警世寓言，而又到来的太晚，杞人忧天也无济于事，Molina 似乎仅批判了自己的未来。 “Hold on Magnolia”也传达了相似的命令，但同时它再次指向内在。“You might be holding the last light I see/ Before the dark finally gets a hold of me”他在孤寂的弦乐之中恳求道，随即又在质疑中发声“Hold on, Magnolia/ I know what a true friend you’ve been.” “Magnolia” 与 “Molina” 深入黄泉的相似性不言而喻。
The dark-horse tracks of Magnolia have only gotten better with age. Presented back-to-back in the middle of the album, “The Old Black Hen” and “Peoria Lunch Box Blues” feature guests vocalists—grizzled country singer Lawrence Peters on the former and British-born singer Scout Niblett on the latter. Both are excellent. On “Black Hen”, Peters drawls like molasses across a honky-tonk funeral waltz; “Peoria”, on the other hand, conjures a mystic, distorted-folk lope worthy of Sandy Denny-era Fairport Convention. More than just being strong on their own, though, this one-two punch gives Molina a breather from all the turned-earth bleakness—plus it describes the entirety of the spectrum he draws from: orthodox Americana on one hand and otherworldly atmosphere on the other.
随着时间的推移，《Magnolia.》中的惊喜曲目只会愈发的灿烂辉煌。专辑中背靠背接连呈现的 “The Old Black Hen” 和 “Peoria Lunch Box Blues” 的合作歌手——前者是灰头土脸的乡村歌手 Lawrence Peters ，后者则是土生土长的英国歌手 Scout Niblett ，二者都很出色。在 “The Old Black Hen” 中，Peters用糖浆一般的嗓音夹杂酒吧钢琴的伴奏，在送葬曲中独舞，泣不成声；另者，“Peoria” 则孕育了一种诡秘、扭曲的民谣韵律，值得与 Sandy Denny 时代的 Fairport Convention 一同欣赏。然而，这不仅仅是他们本身的强大，这种得两强相助的做法让 Molina 得到喘息的机会，将荒凉的大地颠覆——汲取全部光谱：一方面是正统的美式音乐，另一方面超凡脱俗的氛围。
When it comes to the bonus tracks, not a moment is wasted. The complete set of guitar-plus-vocals demos—originally included in a limited-edition run of Magnolia upon its first release—shows the bones of “Black Hen” and “Peoria” with Molina himself supplying the vocals, studies in haunted restraint that recall the Songs: Ohia of old. “Just Be Simple” is given the most felicitous treatment as a skeleton of its full-band self. Every crevice and shiver of Molina’s voice is allowed to hang in empty space, naked and aching. The pair of newly restored outtakes, “The Big Game Is Every Night” and “Whip Poor Will”, are essential to the album; hearing them in the context of the established track listing, it’s hard to imagine how Magnolia ever did without them. “Whip Poor Will” is light and sweet, a melancholic confection in which Molina plucks at taut strings and duets with Benford, whom Molina begs to “Sing it, sister, one more time.” Their harmonies on the chorus are jagged, uneven, vinegary, perfect.
谈到加曲，它们的存在没有浪费一分一秒。这套完整的人声 + 吉他音的小样——最初也包括在《Magnolia.》的限量版中——显示了 “Black Hen” 和 “Peoria” 最初的骨架，由 Molina 自己提供人声，对神鬼魂魄克制的研究，不禁让人想起了最初的 Songs: Ohia。“Just Be Simple” 作为全乐队的核心得到最完美的处理。Molina 歌声的每一个间隙和颤音，都仿佛悬于空旷之地，暴露着伤痕累累的躯壳。一对重新修复后的加曲，“The Big Game Is Every Night” 和 “Whip Poor Will” 对于这张专辑能够达到如今的成就至关重要，很难想象没有它们，《Magnolia.》将如何做到这一点。“Whip Poor Will” 轻盈而甜美，是一种夹杂忧郁的甜品，Molina 在其中拨弄着紧绷的琴弦，与 Benford 对唱，恳求着“Sing it, sister, one more time”。他们在副歌部分的和声参差错落，随机散开，带有淡淡的酸甜味，完美至极。
But it’s “The Big Game Is Every Night” that truly astounds: 10 glorious minutes long, the song pulses like a severed vein, its rhythm slowly ebbing out as Molina sings, “The last thing I see/ Let it be me helping/ Honestly, let it be me working/ On being a better me.” Only Molina knew if he fulfilled that promise to himself before he died. Ultimately, that’s all that matters about Magnolia, regardless of its maker’s deserved place in the pantheon alongside Oldham, Adams, and Smith: the way Molina sank his roots so deep, they took up more than they could bear.
但真正令人震惊的是 “The Big Game Is Every Night”，这首歌长达10分钟，像条剥离出的静脉一样跳动，而当 Molina 唱道“The last thing I see/ Let it be me helping/ Honestly, let it be me working/ On being a better me.”时，它的跃动渐渐平息。最终唯有 Molina 知晓他是否在身死前实现对自己的诺言。归根结底，这便是《Magnolia Electric Co.》的全部意义，无论他的成就者是否在万神殿中与 Oldham , Adams 和 Smith 并列应有的地位：Molina 将他的根系触及得如此之深，它们将背负的远超它们所能承受的东西。
