【搬运】【译】叉婊Pitchfork评Ariana Grande 2019年专辑《Thank U,Next》

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：Wendy Lee

审译：Lynn Liu

排版：Ryan-Chopin

In 2016, Ariana Grande manifested herself a future scandal. It was the premise of her self-aware monologue as a first-time host on “SNL,” but the gag was cutting. “I think I’m in a place where I’m ready to be caught in a real adult scandal, something to take my career to the next level,” she said. By that point, three years into her chart-topping musical career, her only offense of note had been licking a bunch of donuts. Grande continued, over a bed of lounge piano: “Miley’s had ’em, Bieber’s had ’em, everyone’s had ’em, and each day, I sit by my window and I dream, ‘What will my scandal be?’” She was joking, but not really. A couple of years earlier she’d suggested as much in a New York Times interview: “Maybe one day I’ll get away with something naughty.”

2016年，Ariana Grande表示未来她也会遭恶意诽谤。她第一次主持《周六夜现场》时，她表演了一段自嘲的独白，“我想我已经准备好被真正的成年人世界中的流言蜚语缠身了，它会让我的事业到达一个新的高度。”她说。那时，她的专辑已经蝉联榜首三年，她唯一值得关注的“过错”就是舔一堆甜甜圈。坐在长沙发上，沙发上有一架装饰钢琴，她接着说道：“Milley 被黑过…嗯…Bileber也挨过骂…嗯…每个人都曾经被攻击，每天，我坐在窗边都会想，别人会攻击我什么呢？”她在开玩笑，但也不完全是开玩笑。几年前她接受《纽约时报》采访时，她就谈及到诽谤，而且说得更多：“可能有一天，我会带着什么东西淘气地走开吧。”

Of course, Grande couldn't possibly have known back then what exactly was in store for her, how difficult and cruel the world would prove to be. After confronting the aftermath of a deadly attack on the Manchester stop of her 2017 Dangerous Woman tour, she retreated, reemerging a year later with new resolve. The story of her personal 2018 is a little too familiar now: She broke up with Mac Miller, quickly and very publicly became engaged to Pete Davidson, and then called that relationship off while grieving Miller’s death. In the midst of it all was Sweetener, a potent album that soundtracked her newfound role as pop's most lovable personality. With Rihanna focused on makeup and lingerie, Beyoncé preoccupied as the better half of the Carters, and Taylor unwilling to share anything beyond an entry-level grasp of politics, Grande ascended.

当然，那时她也不可能预料到未来会经历什么，世界会有多么艰难残酷。2017年，Dangerous woman巡演曼彻斯特站遭遇自杀式恐袭，随后她淡出了公众视野，一年后又强势回归。她2018年的事就非常熟悉了：和Mac Miller分手，继而又和Pete Davidson 高调订婚，前男友猝然离世，悲痛万分的她随即取消了婚约。伴随其中的是《Sweetener》的诞生，而这又是一张风靡全球的专辑。Grande作为最为人们最喜欢的流行歌手，这张专辑也赋予了她全新的定义。在Rihanna专注于美妆和性感内衣、Beyoncé酷爱驾车、Taylor不喜欢任何政治性过强的东西情况下，Grande 也在不断成长。

In retrospect, Sweetener was a bridge, a necessary post-tragedy assertion of survival and strength. In contrast, thank u, next, released just five months later, feels like the deliverance following Sweetener's catharsis. When she put out the title track as a single last fall, it felt like something had finally clicked. She’d not only survived a real adult scandal, but she’d also cracked it, and herself, wide open. She was untouchable. That seems to be the ethos of thank u, next, which stands out in sublime contrast to her previous releases. There are no wonky guest features or unconvincing, if always technically adept, ballads, as on past albums; she no longer needs those distractions. But as usual, it’s Grande’s voice—gently whistling here, totally annihilating there, always undeniable—that carries the album.

回想起来，《Sweetener》是一座桥梁，是有关生存和力量的宣言，这在悲剧发生后十分重要。相比之下，《thank u, next》仅在其后五个月就问世，像是《Sweetener》宣泄后的一种解脱。去年秋天，她把主打歌作为单曲发行，像是什么事终于拨开云雾见天日一样。她不仅挺过了一场真正的丑闻，还彻底击碎了它，自己也释然了。她是那么无懈可击，这大概是《thank u, next》传递的精神,与她从前的专辑形成了鲜明的对比。没有不靠谱的嘉宾特写，也不似从前那般充斥着技艺娴熟却难让人信服的民谣；她不再需要这些外在的东西了。但是像往常一样，口哨声在这边响起，声音却在那边完全湮没，是Grande的嗓音无可否认地承载了整张专辑。

The release of “7 rings” as a single last month brought scandal anew. She was immediately accused of both theft and appropriation, and an unfortunate misspelled tattoo punctuated the episode. And while she kinda-sorta engineered her own absolution in the form of a 2 Chainz remix, Grande’s collaborators on the song—Victoria Monét and Tayla Parx—are also her longtime friends and co-writers, not simply anonymous voices hired because black slang and Atlanta rap rhythms are trendy. In general, thank u, next is a calling card for Monét and Parx, both signed artists with forthcoming projects of their own, who have helped Grande capture the zeitgeist in clever lines and melodies. (Almost too perfectly, “thank u, next” producer Tommy Brown is co-writer Monét’s ex.) But “7 rings,” frankly, is just as good as any track on the last album or this one. I suspect it was actually the jarring shift in her tone that left people confused and disarmed; it seemed she’d ditched the inspiring moral high ground, luxuriating instead in Tiffany's jewelry and pink Veuve Clicquot.

前些时候“7 rings （七戒）”作为单曲发行招来了新的攻击。她随即被指控抄袭和盗用，一个不幸的纹身拼写错误打断了这一插曲。Grande 用Chainz 混音为自己摆脱了抄袭罪名，她这首歌的合作伙伴Victoria Monét 和 Tayla Parx，也逃过了指控。她们一直都是Grande的朋友，也是歌曲的共同作者，而并非仅仅是因为黑人俚语和亚特兰大rap很受欢迎，从而Grande雇佣了她们这样不是很出名的歌手。大体上说，《thank u, next》是Monét 和 Parx 的名片，作为签约艺人，她们有自己即将到来的事业。用巧妙的歌词和旋律捕捉时代潮流即是她们的工作。（几乎太完美了，《thank u, next》的制作人是Monét的前男友。）但是坦白来说，“7 rings”和专辑里的歌一样好，无论是上一张还是这张。我想对于她风格的急剧转变，人们刚开始会疑惑，但慢慢地都会接受；她似乎已经放弃了鼓舞人心的道德高地，转而沉迷于Tiffany的珠宝和粉色凯歌香槟。

Though thank u, next’s 12 songs are inspired by romantic and sexual relationships, taken together, they are actually assertions and affirmations of self, a reflection of millennial group chats the world over. “needy” is a therapist’s dream: “You can go ahead and call me selfish/But after all this damage, I can’t help it.” The extended space-metaphor of “NASA” is The-Dream-lite by way of Kacey Musgraves, executed in good faith. Soul singer Wendy Rene’s “After Laughter (Comes Tears),” most famously sampled by Wu-Tang on the heartbreaking “Tearz,” is cleverly repurposed into “fake smile,” possibly thank u, next’s most compelling song and the thesis of this current era in Grande’s life. “I can’t fake another smile/I can’t fake like I’m alright/And I won’t say I’m feeling fine/After what I been through, I can’t lie,” she sings in reclamation.

尽管 《thank u, next》12首歌的灵感都源于爱情和两性关系，但加在一起，都是对自我的断言和肯定。是千禧一代对话整个世界的印证。“needy（渴望被爱）”是疗伤者的梦想：“你可以继续该做的，可以说我自私，但这一切的灾难过后我已难以控制。”（歌词翻译来自网易云音乐）“NASA”一曲中空间的隐喻被真诚的表现了出来，就像是Kacey Musgraves写了一首The Dream的歌一样。灵魂歌手Wendy Rene的“After Laughter(Comes Tears)（欢愉过后，只有无尽伤悲）”被巧妙融入“fake smile（强撑笑意 ）”中，它那让人心碎的“Tearz”由Wu-Tang从原作品中提取出来，非常有名。“fake smile”可能是《thank u, next》最火的歌，也可能是Grande真实生活的反映。“我已无力再强撑笑意，我已无力假装我过得不赖，我不会说我过得很好，在经历了这么多伤痛，我无力在对自己说谎。”（歌词翻译来自网易云音乐）她动情地唱到。

There are more high points throughout—the soaring hook on the Max Martin classic “bad idea,” the slinky emotional honesty of “ghostin,” the delightful Beyoncé facsimile “make up”—but it’s still the album’s existence at all that thrills. The gentle familiarity of Grande’s musical references makes for effortlessly digestible, of-the-moment pop songs, but they’re elevated by a palpable despair that sits just below the surface. Beyond her four-octave soprano and robust wielding of it, thank u, next is buoyed by an urgency that could only come from the depths of her self-described “damage.” That it comes so soon after an already-spectacularly received album only swells the effect.

抓耳的Max Martin 的经典之作“bad idea（坏坏的主意）”中有更多的亮点; 声音柔媚，感情真挚的“ghostin（超生）”；极其欢快的Beyoncé翻版“make up（上妆）”。但真正让人兴奋的是这整部专辑。正因人们对Grande作品的参考之处略感熟悉，才让她的流行歌可以很容易地被人理解，但在表面之下却又一种明显的绝望。除了她对四八度女高音应用自如，《thank u, next》也深受一种紧迫感的鼓舞，这一紧迫感源于她自己所说的“伤害”的深度。它紧接着之前那张已经大受欢迎的专辑问世，无疑增强了它的影响力。

Grande explained in a recent Billboard interview that her motivation is “to release music like rappers do”—without the burden or unwieldiness of the major label machine, but certainly with much of its power. For all its spontaneity, thank u, next still registers as a big event. She has bragged that the album was written in a week and recorded in a couple more, and while that expediency gives it its weightlessness, it also accounts for the occasional notes of sloppy writing; I can’t get past, for example, the premise of “bloodline,” which seems to confuse genealogy with hypothetical procreation. But in the rare spots where the production is grating and the writing limp, Grande makes up for it with skill and intuition. thank u, next may be an imperfect album but it’s a perfect next chapter.

近期接受《公告牌》采访时，Grande表示，她想像说唱歌手那样发行音乐——没有负担，没有难搞的主流唱片公司，却有着主流唱片公司的影响力。因为一切都是自然而然的流露，《thank u, next》的发行还是被看作是一件大事。她不无吹嘘地说，专辑的创作仅在一周内就完成了，录制也只是花了几周的时间，可这权宜之计让专辑本身变得无足轻重，这也解释了为什么字迹有时会那么潦草；但我觉得这张专辑的质量不是很过关，就像在“bloodline （血脉）”中，似乎弄混了谱系学和假想生育。但在专辑中少有不足，Grande用她的技巧和直觉弥补了它们。《thank u, next》可能不那么完美，但它的确是一个完美的新篇章。