【搬运】【译】叉婊Pitchfork评Jorja Smith 2018年专辑 《Lost & Found》
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：Lynn Liu
审校：Ryan-Chopin
The precocious 20-year-old singer fuses R&B, soul, and trip-hop on a debut album that documents her ongoing quest to discover who she is and how she fits into a troubled world.
这位20岁的歌手在她的首张专辑中融合了R&B，灵魂乐和trip-hop。这张专辑记录了她不断探索真我、成功融进混沌之中的过程。
“Why do we fall down with innocence?” Jorja Smith wonders on the opening title track of Lost & Found. The 20-year-old English singer’s deeply personal debut is full of impressionistic questions like this, yet she never demands easy answers. Her approach to seeking self-knowledge is compassionate and patient, demonstrative of a keen intellect and rich with precocious wisdom.
“为何我们依附清白而却失败（歌词翻译源于网易云音乐）”Jorja Smith在《Lost & Found（失物招领）》的首支单曲中表现出色。这位20岁的英国歌手的初次登台，就抛出了诸如此类让人印象深刻的问题，但她要的答案可不简单。她寻求自我认知的方法极富同情与耐心，表现出敏锐的智力，有着经验丰富的早熟智慧。
“I need to grow and find myself before I let somebody love me/Because at the moment I don’t know me,” she admits on “Teenage Fantasy.” On “February 3rd,” she reflects, “I’m constantly finding myself.” But she doesn’t seem worried about the final result of that search. Smith makes the restlessness of young adulthood sound elegant.
“答应别人的追求之前我要先成长并找到自我（歌词翻译源于网易云）”，她在“Teenage Fantasy”中唱到。在“February 3rd”一曲中，她唱到“我一直在不断地找寻自我”，但她似乎毫不担心这场探寻的结果，Smith让年轻人的这种躁动不安听起来很优美。
That self-assurance is what makes her special, and what makes her music sound timeless. “I know what I’m doing,” she told Pitchfork last year, and her music reflects that independence. After emerging in 2016 with the commanding Project 11 EP and finishing fourth on the BBC’s Sound of 2017 list, she employed expert restraint in picking her next moves: two features on Drake’s More Life, a solo placement on Kendrick Lamar’s Black Panther soundtrack, a handful of cool collabs, and a few stellar standalone singles. The further she descended into herself, in disarmingly sincere ballads and DIY music videos, the higher her star rose.
这种自信让她变得与众不同，也使她的音乐能够经久不衰。她去年告诉Pitchfork “我知道我在做什么”，她的音乐恰恰反映了这种独立性。她在2016年时初露头角，发行了《Project 11》这张EP，并名列BBC的2017年度之声的第四位，她抉择随后的工作极其谨慎：两次与Drake在专辑《More Life》中合作，在Kendrick Lamar的黑豹原声带中演唱，这个原声带中有很多非常酷的合作单曲，还有一些独唱单曲。随着她进一步沉溺于自己的内心，展露在了一些真诚的抒情歌曲和DIY视频中，她的咖位也越来越高了。
Comprising a brisk but dense 12 songs (including four previously released tracks and several others Smith has teased live), Lost & Found is the biggest test to date of Smith’s commitment to making music on her own terms. The result is a bold statement of artistic purpose. There’s nothing resembling “On My Mind,” her infectious 2017 collaboration with Preditah, nor does Smith seem to be taking cues from contemporary pop radio. She’s doing things her way.
《Lost & Found》中包含了12首轻快而难以捉摸的单曲（包括了四首已经发行的单曲，其它的单曲Smith也现场演唱过），《Lost & Found》是Smith致力于用自己的方式做音乐时所面临的最大挑战，这张专辑也是她对自己艺术目标的大胆陈述。她在2017年与Preditah合作发行了“On My Mind” 这一热单，不过她自己的音乐中可能不会再有像“On My Mind”的单曲了吧，因为她看起来并没有从当代流行电台中吸取元素，她是在按照自己的方式做音乐。
While Project 11 often resembled Amy Winehouse’s Frank, Lost & Found forges a more original sound, incorporating adult contemporary, R&B, acoustic folk, jazz, dancehall, and even gospel (on the stunning “Tomorrow”). But it’s most indebted to 1990s trip-hop in the vein of Portishead and Massive Attack. The instrumentals on “Lost & Found,” “Teenage Fantasy,” and standout single “Where Did I Go” rely on the same kind of downtempo, backbeat-laced grooves that so perfectly suited Morcheeba frontwoman Skye Edwards’ silky voice and breathless delivery. But Smith doesn’t whisper—she belts. Lost & Found thrives on emotionally raw minimalism, with her voice as the central instrument. Pure and soulful, it stretches like a rubber band, soaring between virtuosic Winehouse warmth and vertiginous, FKA twigs-style falsetto.
虽然《Project 11》与Amy Winehouse 的《Frank》有些相似，但《Lost & Found》打造出了一种更原创的声音，其中涵盖了成人当代、R&B、原生民谣、爵士、舞曲，甚至福音音乐（在单曲“Tomorrow”中可以听到），这得多亏了90年代Portishead和Massive Attack发扬了迷幻舞曲，“Lost & Found”“Teenage Fantasy”的伴奏，以及热单“Where Did I Go”也是有着这样慢摇的风格与基本的节奏；但这种风格也非常适合Morcheeba的主唱Skye Edwards那丝绸般的嗓音，还有她那令人瞠目的音乐表达。但是Smith并没有低声细语，而是大胆地表达出了她的想法。《Lost & Found》中，Smith的乐器就是她的声音，在情感表达上，这张专辑可以说是把未加工的极简主义发挥到了极致。它纯粹而深情，就像皮筋一样慢慢被拉开一样，结合了Winehouse（Amy Winehouse）的温暖和FKA twigs风格的迷幻假音。
It’s an appropriately mutable centerpiece for an album centered on youthful searching and questioning. “Teenage Fantasy,” written when Smith was 16 and originally released in 2017, has her singing smokily about a good-for-nothing lover, only to unleash the full power of her voice in a poignant chorus so vehement, it feels like she’s delivering it through a megaphone: “We all want a teenage fantasy/Want it when we can’t have it/When we got it we don’t seem to want it.” This is a familiar sentiment, but Smith’s intensity gives it new resonance.
这张专辑聚焦于对年轻的探索与质疑，可以说这是一个可适度变化的主题。“Teenage Fantasy”是Smith16岁时写的，最初在2017年时发行，她颓颓地歌颂着一个无私的好情人，只为在凄美的和声中释放出她声音的全部力量，这就感觉像是她在用扩音器传递：“We all want a teenage fantasy/Want it when we can’t have it/When we got it we don’t seem to want it.【我们都向往年少单纯的爱情，得不到的时候心向往之，得到了却不珍惜（歌词翻译源于网易云）】”这种情感对我们来说再熟悉不过了，但是Smith富有情感的演唱给予了它新的共鸣。
The previously unreleased track “On Your Own” could be a cut from Rihanna’s ANTI, with Smith’s howling vocals moving nimbly through dancehall drums and distortion. “The One” is even better and more surprising, employing morose piano and a Brazilian samba-tinged groove (anchored, like much of the album, by live instrumentation) that simultaneously encourage hip-swaying and wondering about your exes. “I’m not trynna let you in/Even if I found the one,” she warns a suitor. These songs help to build the convincing character of a young woman who is scowling and swaggering, only as vulnerable as she wants to be.
之前未发行的单曲“On Your Own”本可能会被当作Rihanna的专辑《ANTI》的某首歌，Smith咆哮着的怒音在舞曲的鼓点和失真中敏捷地转动着。“The One”这首单曲甚至更好，更让人惊喜，它采用了柔和的钢琴和巴西的桑巴舞节奏（这张专辑很多都采用乐器现场录音的方式），这同时也让你有一种想扭动身体的冲动，也能让你想起你的前任来。她警告一个求婚者：“I’m not trynna let you in/Even if I found the one（我不会再让你插手了，如果我能找到这个人的话）。”这些歌曲有助于塑造一个令人信服的年轻女性角色——一个年轻女人皱着眉头，大摇大摆，但也能随心所欲变得很娇弱。
But Smith’s wanderings extend far beyond the personal, and it’s this insight and curiosity that elevate her work. “Blue Lights,” her 2016 debut single, resurfaces here; its heartbreaking and transporting take on police brutality and racial profiling remains a remarkable feat of storytelling. This time, Smith’s questions are posed rhetorically, to illuminate injustice: “What have you done?/There’s no need to run/If you’ve done nothing wrong/Blue lights should just pass you by.” “Lifeboats (Freestyle)” is a spoken-word take on privilege, income disparity, and the failures of the welfare state. “So why are all the richies staying afloat?/See all my brothers drowning even though they’re in the boat/Mothership ain’t helpin’ anyone,” she raps with the swagger of a young Lauryn Hill, indicting her government for its treatment of marginalized citizens and mishandling of the refugee crisis.
Smith的思维漫游远远超过了她的个人范围，而正是这种洞察力和好奇心让她的作品大有提升。2016年发行的首支单曲“Blue Light”，横空出世，它让人心碎，大胆讲述了警察虐打犯人事件和种族形象定性，这仍然是人们谈资的重点。这一次，Smith的问题很讲究修辞性，以说明不公正：“What have you done?/There’s no need to run/If you’ve done nothing wrong/Blue lights should just pass you by.【你都做了些什么？你没必要逃跑，如果你没有做错任何事，幽蓝的光只会与你擦身而过（歌词翻译源于网易云）】”“Lifeboats (Freestyle)”是一个口头词，它表明了特权、收入差距和福利国家的失败。“So why are all the richies staying afloat?/See all my brothers drowning even though they’re in the boat/Mothership ain’t helpin’ anyone（所以为什么所有的富人都能活下来？即使我的兄弟们在船上，我也看着他们沉入水中，航母并不会帮助任何人）。”她以Lauryn Hill招摇的方式在歌中rap着，指责她的政府对待边缘化公民以及错误地处理了难民危机。
It’s not surprising that Smith resents comparisons to other artists, but her link to Hill is clear. Another wildly talented, young, black woman looking for clarity in a world built for everyone but her, Hill used her music to transform her pain into salvation. Just three years younger now than Hill was when The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill was released, Smith shares her predecessor’s wounded takes on the world’s injustices and compulsion to search for deep truths.
Smith讨厌与其他艺术家比较，这并不奇怪，但她与Hill的联系很清晰。Hill是另一位才华横溢的年轻黑人女性，她在那为所有人(除她以外)打造的世界中寻找明晰的一面，她用她的音乐将痛苦转化为救赎。Smith仅仅比Hill发型《The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill》时年轻3岁，Smith告诉我们，她用前任所带来的伤害来展现出世界的不公，那些历史使她被迫去寻找那些深藏的真相。
On Miseducation’s luminous title track, Hill sings what could be Smith’s battle cry: “Deep in my heart, the answer, it was in me/And I made up my mind to define my own destiny.” On Lost & Found, Smith is defining her own destiny. In the process, she confirms that she is special and rare, an asker of impossible but necessary questions.
《The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill》中有那些闪闪发光的标题曲目，Hill唱出了Smiith的战斗口号：“Deep in my heart, the answer, it was in me/And I made up my mind to define my own destiny.（答案就在我的内心深处，它就在我的身上/我决定主宰自己的命运。）”而在《Lost & Found》中，Smith正在定义她自己的命运。 在这个过程中，她确信她很特别、很少见，是一位敢于对自己不可能做到但有必要出力之事的发问者。
