【译】叉婊Pitchfork评Destroyer 2011年专辑《Kaputt》（故障）

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  

Dan Bejar带着一张出色的、可接受度极高的专辑回归，它汲取了20世纪80年代早期的繁茂内核，同时也并未忽视词作的重要性。

Every era has a sound. When considering this, it can be easy to forget that the sound developed as a way to express something. Music heard as kitsch years later was once put forth with complete sincerity. I mention this in connection with Kaputt, the new record from Dan Bejar's Destroyer, because the first thing that strikes you about the album is its unusual sound, one for which we've all developed a cluster of associations. The production and arrangements evoke a narrow window of time-- sometime between, say, 1977 and 1984, or between Chuck Mangione's "Feels So Good" and Sade's Diamond Life with stops along the way for Roxy Music's Avalon and Steely Dan's Gaucho. It slides between soft rock, smooth jazz, and new romantic pop. The bass is fretless; the synths have the blocky contrast of a Nagel painting; there are heavily reverbed trumpets and saxophones that almost serve as a Greek chorus, trilling away at the end of every line to enforce the beautiful plasticity of these songs. For Destroyer, this sound is new, and it's there for a reason.

每个时代又有着一个标志性声音。当考虑到这一点，人们便会很容易忽视声音是作为一种表达方式发展而来的。多年后被世人认为是庸俗的音乐，在过去也是被完全真诚地创作而出的。我之所以提到这一点与Destroyer的全新专辑《Kaputt》有关，正是因为这张专辑给你的第一印象便是她非同寻常的声音，引发我们对它产生的一系列联想。它的排篇布局、它的制作唤起了一个时间狭缝——在1977年和1984年之间、或是说在Chuck Mangione的《Feels So Good》和Sade的《Diamond Life》之间，沿途我们还会领略到Roxy Music的《Avalon》和Steely Dan的《Gaucho》。它滑行穿梭在软式摇滚、抒情爵士和新浪漫主义流行间。独特的无品贝司；Nage画作般块状的合成器；还有重度混响下的小号和萨克斯，像是来自古希腊的唱诗团，它们在每一诗节的结尾处颤动，使这些美妙曲目的可塑性愈发强烈。对Destroyer来说，这种声音是全新的，而它的存在意义也有迹可循。

The sound casts Bejar's songs in a very particular light, and reinforces the feeling of the singer as persona. Bejar has always come across this way to varying degrees, sure, and his albums all have their own unique feel-- the rootsy art-pop of Destroyer's Rubies, the MIDI experiments of Your Blues, and so on. But here the persona seems even more sharply defined. Singing these songs, Bejar comes over as the wizened ex-playboy; he's indulged every vice, come through the other side, and now looks on amused. The cover of Leonard Cohen's Death of a Ladies' Man, a record that seems to serve as a spiritual (though not sonic) father to this one, shows this figure in its quintessential form. On that sleeve, we see a man in sharp but slightly disheveled dress, a cigarette dangling from a couple of fingers; beautiful people are seated at the nightclub table, ready for another night of glamor and pleasure.

这种声音使Bejar的歌曲好似沐浴在尤为特殊的舞台光线中，并加强了歌手作为主角在其中演绎的感觉。Bejar总是在不同程度上以这种方式出现，当然，他的专辑都有着自己的独特感觉——《Destroyer's Rubies》中的根源艺术流行元素，《Your Blues》的MIDI实验，等等。但在这里，他所演绎的角色似乎愈加明确了。在演唱这些歌曲时，Bejar就像一个老练却已“英雄迟暮”的花花公子；他放纵了他的所有恶习，走上了另一条路，如今来看显得很是有趣。从Leonard Cohen《Death of a Ladies' Man》的封面来看，这张唱片似乎是《Kaputt》的精神（尽管并非音乐）之父——用它经典的方式再现了这一人物。在这张唱片的封套上，我们可以看到一个身着艳丽但面色略显凌乱的男人，手指间吊着根香烟；美丽的人们坐在夜总会的桌子旁，准备迎接另一个迷人的夜晚和无尽的欢乐。

Leonard Cohen in that image has a sense of swagger, and you want to pull up a chair, have a drink, and hear him hold forth on the topic of his choice. The figure inside the songs of Kaputt understands the allure of this life while understanding equally its futility. On early listens, a couple of lines from the title track jump out and seem to serve as a thesis for the record as a whole. "Wasting your days chasing some girls, alright/ Chasing cocaine through the backrooms of the world all night," Bejar sings, as horns twist around in a bath of reverb. He sounds bemused, but not necessarily judgmental, holding two feelings in mind at once: our reflex to indulge ourselves, and the knowledge that it's killing us.

Leonard Cohen在这一形象的演绎中颇具豪迈之感，你会想拉过一把椅子、小酌几杯、听他聊着自己擅长的话题，侃侃而谈。而《Kaputt》曲子中描绘的人承纳这种纸醉金迷生活诱惑的同时，也深知着蕴含其中的虚无。早先听到这张专辑时，主打歌中的几句词总是脱口而出，似乎奠定整张唱片的论调。“Wasting your days chasing some girls, alright/ Chasing cocaine through the backrooms of the world all night”Bejar忘情地唱道，号角在混响地池塘中穿梭起舞。他挺起来很是困惑，但并非主观臆断，我们也常常陷入两种感觉的阈限空间：我们放纵着自己的条件反射，也深知这会引我们进入深渊。

But this happens on just one level, which is what makes Kaputt so fantastic. It goes as deep as you want to go. People can miss that Dan Bejar is funny as hell-- he seeds his music with lyrical and musical in-jokes, and everyone has their own favorite lines to pluck out of his songs and admire for their concise wit. He likes surprises-- few lyric sheets have as many exclamation points. But the essential quality of all his records is complexity. They are doing a lot of things at once. Kaputt feels rich.

仅仅在这一个层面上，就已发掘《Kaputt》的神奇之处，同时你想多深入便能再深入下去。人们可能会忽视Dan Bejar的幽默感——他在他的音乐中夹杂了许多有关情感和音乐方面的笑话，每个人都能找到自己中意的词句，从中摘出，欣赏其简洁的智慧；他同样也喜欢惊喜——很少会有歌词有这么多的感叹号。但他们所有的唱片究其至深内核总是复杂的，他们总是同时在做好多事，令《Kaputt》听感极为富饶。

For one, there is the surface beauty of the sound. Some less inclined to the pleasures of the music from the aforementioned era might have an initial reaction to its essential corniness, but once you've tuned in, it sounds beautiful. The songs seem delicate and glassy and shimmering, and Bejar has toned down his quirky voice and sounds relaxed and focused. So it's easy to enjoy bumping the wet, jazzy pop of "Chinatown", which suggests the rainy streets of an old city and new dramas unfolding around every corner. Or wallow in the simple and elegant hook of "Blue Eyes", the way Bejar voice works next to Vancouver singer Sibel Thrasher, a regular vocal presence on Kaputt who sort of serves as the Nicolette Larson to Bejar's Neil Young. But "Blue Eyes" also has sly lyrical references ("your first love's new order," "Mother Nature's Son") and funny put-downs ("I sent a message in a bottle to the press/ It said, 'Don't be ashamed or disgusted with yourselves'"). More than any other Destroyer record, you can just throw this on and it sounds good, and plenty will do well stopping there. But for those so inclined, there's more to explore.

首先是声音的表象之美，对于一些不太喜欢上述时代音乐乐趣的人而言，初听时会对其内核里附有的粗糙质感有“不良反应”，但一旦你调整好了，它便会愈发美妙。这些歌曲听起来会有晶莹的玻璃质感、散发着独有的光泽，Bejar已慢慢淡化他古怪的声音，能让人更能沉浸其中、放松专注地享受。也因而，我们很容享受到“Chinatown”这一蒙着一层水汽的爵士流行乐，讲述着一个在古老城镇雨天街道上、角落里发生的故事；或是沉浸在“Blue Eyes”简单而优雅的Hook中，Bejar与温哥华歌唱家Sibel Thrasher（《Kaputt》中的又一常规主唱）常常相伴配合彼此，像是Bejar的Nicolette Larson（Neil Young的伴唱）。同时“Blue Eyes”中也有着一些委婉的抒情印证（“your first love's new order”，“Mother Nature's Son”）以及有趣的贬低（“I sent a message in a bottle to the press/ It said, 'Don't be ashamed or disgusted with yourselves'”）。比起先前的Destroyer的任何一张唱片，你可以毫不犹豫将它放在第一的宝座之上，它的听感绝佳，相信有很多人会忍不住为它停下脚步，同时对于这些愿意为之驻足的人而言，这张唱片还有着更多值得他们探索的东西。

So the lite-jazz style can seem a little funny, but it can also be sad and sexy and joyous. And the writing is dense with references-- to other songs on the album, songs by other bands, to the music business, art outside the sphere of music. "Suicide Demo for Kara Walker" is the most striking example. It's a collaboration with the artist Kara Walker, whose work, among other things, probes the racial history of America. Bejar adapted the words she provided for him on cue cards, and the result is fragmented and dream-like, taking the Destroyer project to a new place. "Wise, old, black and dead in the snow: My Southern sister..." isn't the sort of thing we've heard from him before. An early demo of the song reminded Bejar of the band Suicide, hence the title. That's how things work in his world. Laughs are mixed with grim insights.

轻爵士乐的风格听起来有点滑稽，但它也可以是悲痛、性感和愉悦的。在这张专辑的词作中充满了参照物——专辑中的其他歌曲、其他乐队的歌曲、整个音乐行业、甚至音乐领域以外的艺术。“Suicide Demo for Kara Walker”便是其中最引人注目的例子，这是与艺术家Kara Walker的合作曲目（她的作品绝大多数探讨了历史上美国的种族问题）。Dejar改编了她在提示卡上为他提供的词句，其结果便是支离破碎和像梦一样的一切，把Destroyer这一项目引领到一个全新的领域。“Wise, old, black and dead in the snow: My Southern sister...”这已然不再是我们以前从他那里听到的那种东西。这首歌的一个早期小样让Bejar会想起Suicide，所以也才有了如今这个标题。在他的世界里事情就是这样的，笑声中也会夹杂着严肃的见解。

Two tracks stick out a bit here. The astonishing "Bay of Pigs", released as a single in 2009, concludes the CD version of this album, and it's the one song that feels out of place. It's longer, proggy, uses different textures, and ultimately seems to be here because it's an amazing song and as many people as possible need to hear it. Fair enough. And the vinyl version of Kaputt also has a side-long, 20-minute ambient track with just a bit of voice called "The Laziest River", which is enjoyable and immersive but not essential. Both indulgences are easily forgivable.

专辑有两首曲目意外地有些突出。令人惊异的“Bay of Pigs”，在2009年时作为单曲发行，作为尾声结束这张专辑，它是唯一一首令人感到不适的歌曲。它更悠长，更前卫，运用了许多不同纹理的音色，最终近乎成为一首了不起的歌，因而公平起见，也希望尽可能多的人听到它。而在《Kaputt》黑胶版中还有一首加曲，长达20分钟的氛围乐，音量极低，标题是“The Laziest River”，它令人愉快和不禁会沉浸其中，但也并非必要——这两种放纵都很容易被世人承纳。

Bands can be brands or concepts that can be summed up in a line or two-- which is the power of brands. It's a good thing in proper doses. But Bejar's essential complexity ultimately feels human. It seems absurd to look for genuine wisdom in music in 2011, when we're constantly gorging ourselves on the all-you-can-eat buffet of post-modern web culture. But Kaputt feels wise. Like a mirror that actually points back at something better. Something you can jam and let wash over you, but also something you can use. It feels funny, tragic, artful, and ultimately true.

乐队可以是用一两句话概括出来的品牌或概念——这就是乐队的力量，在适当使用下，这是一件好事。但Bejar内核中的复杂性最终使这一品牌让人体悟到人性。在2011年，当我们不断地在后现代网络文化的自助餐中大快朵颐时，能在音乐中寻找真正的智慧似乎已经变得荒谬至极。但《Kaputt》作为例外问世了，它极富智慧，像是一面镜子，映射了世间许多更美好的东西。有些东西你可能会被它绊倒，磨练你，但也有些东西你大可以学会运用它。《Kaputt》便是这样的存在，趣味横生，不乏悲剧色彩，颇具艺术性，而且最终也是落在实处、真实可感的。