【搬运】【译】叉婊Pitchfork评Snail Mail 2021年回归单曲《Valentine》

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

Many young female musicians who wereheralded as prodigies have made music this year revisiting the barbarity ofthat early renown, the powerlessness they felt as teenagers trapped in anall-consuming gaze. Lorde described having “nightmares from the camera flash”;Billie Eilish observed “a stalker walking up and down the street”; Clairo spokeabout being “just useless and a whore” but still getting cosigned by “your favoriteone-man show” after being sexualized in the industry. To deal with theaftereffects of a “young life colliding with sudden fame,” Lindsey Jordan of Snail Mail—who became an indie rock phenom after she released her debut album,Lush, at 18—spent time at a recovery facility. There she charted outarrangements for what would be her upcoming second album, Valentine, laterbuilding on and refining those sketches in North Carolina with producer BradCook. Her intimate worlds, usually confined to a “you” and “I,” now faceunwanted intruders: “Careful in that room,” she warns a lover on Valentine’stitle track. “Those parasitic cameras, don’t they stop to stare at you?”

许多曾被誉为神童的年轻女性音乐家在她们今年发行的音乐作品中重温了在早期极负盛誉时的野蛮一面，以及她们作为青少年却被暴露在全方位注视下的无助。Lorde曾谈到“相机闪光灯带来的噩梦”；Billie Eilish也总是能察觉到“一个狗仔在街上跟着她寸步不离”；Clairo甚至说到对此自己“就是个没用的女表子”，但她们仍能在这个尤为看重性别的行业中得到" your favorite one-man show "的签名。为了处理“青春与突如其来的名声碰撞”带来的后遗症，Lindsey Jordan (a.k.a. Snail Mail)——在18岁时发行了她的首张专辑《Lush》，成为独立摇滚的又一杰出存在——也曾在康复机构度过了一段时间。在那里，她着手为即将发行的第二张专辑《Valentine》制定了计划，后来在北卡罗来纳州与制作人Brad Cook一起重建完善了这些Demo。她的内心世界——通常被限制在“你”和“我”之间——如今面临着不受欢迎的闯入者。“Careful in that room,”她在《Valentine》的同名曲中警告一个情人。“Those parasitic cameras, don’t they stop to stare at you?”

The most striking change on “Valentine” isJordan’s voice, which is deeper, hoarser, and more mature than before. It cutsthrough foggy, cinematic synths as she lays out the unsteady dynamics of arelationship (“You’ve gotta live/And I gotta go”) while emphasizing the forceof her devotion (“Fuck being remembered/I think I was made for you”). “Valentine”is accompanied by a gory, high-drama music video in which Jordan plays achambermaid to a high-society woman with whom she has an illicit affair;crestfallen and crazed after seeing her lover with a man, she binge-drinks,stuffs her face with cake, and eventually murders him. The song ratchets upfrom slow-jam to power pop, souring in an instant as Jordan reels frombetrayal: “So why’d you want to erase me?” she cries, speeding into thequestion with all of her might. Jordan is shattered yet hopeful, anticipatingfuture envy upon seeing her lover with someone else and preparing for when, notif, they change their mind. Undergirding all these emotions is a simple truth:“I adore you.”

“Valentine”中最引人注目的变化是Jordan的声音，比以往更深沉、更嘶哑，也更显成熟。在她娓娓道来这一段不稳定的关系（“You’vegotta live/And I gotta go”），强调着她为此做出的种种牺牲（“Fack beingremembered/I think I was made for you”）时，它穿梭在迷雾一般、极具电影感的合成器声效之间。“Valentine”的发行伴随着一个血腥的、高度戏剧化的MV，Jordan在其中扮演一个与她有不正当关系的上流社会女主人的女仆；但当她目睹了情人竟与一个男人在一起后，沮丧和疯狂涌上心头，她喝的烂醉，用蛋糕糊满自己的脸，拿起叉子捅进那个男人的咽喉。这首歌从缓慢叙事到汹涌澎湃的情感爆发，当乔丹从背叛中回过神来时，歌曲瞬间变脸——“So why’d you want to erase me?”她哭着说道，接着用尽全身力气加速回答这个问题。Jordan内心已经粉粹，但又充满希望，在看到她的爱人和别人在一起时，她期待着、羡慕着，幻想着她和他“一定会”改变主意，而不是“是否会”。而支撑所有这些情愫的是一个简单的事实——"我爱慕你"。