【搬运】【译】滚石Rolling Stone评Hozier 2019年专辑《Wasteland， Baby！》

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：Simon Joanne

校正：Ryan-Chopin

In 2013, Hozier broke through with “Take Me To Church,” a somber folk song that became an unlikely Top 40 smash, catapulting the twentysomething Irish singer-songwriter into momentary pop stardom. But after releasing his debut album in 2014, he’s waited five years before putting out a follow up.

早在2013年，那首带有忧郁色彩的民谣——“Take Me To Church（带我去你的教堂）”就冲入榜单前40名，并让这位20出头的爱尔兰唱作者一举跻身时下最受欢迎的音乐巨星之列。在2014年发布了自己的同名处女作专辑之后，Hozier花了整整五年的时间来酝酿自己的下一部作品。

Turns out, that was a wise move. Wasteland, Baby! is relatively free of the too-high expectations that tend to plague young artist’s anticipated second albums. In addition to the soul-searching title track, songs like “Nina Cried Power and “Shrike” show new depth. The former, an ode to musical truth-telling with a fitting appearance from Mavis Staples is a welcome pop-protest left-turn that finds Hozier conjuring the power of his record collection as a means of symbolic resistance. The latter, a Celtic-lilted torch-song, features his sharpest lyricism to date: “I couldn’t utter my love when it counted,” he sings, “Ah, but I’m singing like a bird ’bout it now.”

事实证明，Hozier这步棋下得非常高明。大众对于新出道的艺人发布的第二部作品都会持非常高的期待，但相对来说，这些期待带来的压力却并没有对《Wasteland, Baby!》产生任何负面影响。除了在主题上挖掘内心的专辑同名曲，像“Nina Cried Power”和“Shrike”这样的曲目也具有不一样的深度。前者（“Nina Cried Power”）是一首赞美敢于吐露真相的颂歌，在Mavis Staples制造的精巧外饰之下有意识地做出与流行相悖的转向，由此展现了Hozier能够驾驭音乐并使其成为表达自己反抗的象征性工具，并且操作起来也越来越成熟。后者（“Shrike”）是一首凯尔特式欢快的歌曲，它标志出了Hozier至今最奔放的激情——“当我的爱真正显得重要的时候，我却不能表达出来，”他唱道，“但是我现在已经能像一只小鸟一样把爱大声唱出来。”

And yet, Hozier still spends much of the album burdened, in one form or another, by the success of “Take Me To Church.” That song’s spectral presence can be found in moments like “Almost” and “To Noise Making (Sing),” songs that can feel like they’re merely piling on feel-good folksy handclaps and grandiose gospel choirs in the hopes of landing on a chill-coffeehouse Spotify playlist.

不过，Hozier的这张专辑还是在很大程度上没有摆脱“Take Me To Church”带来的影响。在“Almost”和“To Noise Making (Sing)”这些歌曲中，我们有时候还是能感觉到“Take Me To Church”幽灵般的存在，这些歌曲仍然只是在简单地堆砌抓耳的民谣风格击掌鼓点和宏大的福音和音合唱，感觉就像是那些只追求能被加入到某间咖啡店的Spotify播放列表的歌曲罢了。

Nevertheless, Wasteland, Baby! has enough encouraging displays of maturation to feel like a transitional moment for Hozier. At its best, the album carves out a space for the singer to work out his creative tensions as he finds new ways to make his straight folk influences more accessible without losing anything along the way.

话虽如此，对于正处于转型期的Hozier，《Wasteland, Baby!》仍然提供了令人欣慰的证据来证明他已足够成熟。从积极的角度来看，这张专辑为歌手展现自己的才华与思想提供了足够的空间，同时，Hozier也在不做出任何牺牲的情况下，不断尝试着新的方式使自己的民谣音乐风格更加成熟。