搬运译Pitchfork评Wilco 2002年专辑《Yankee Hotel Foxtrot》

搬运自：网易云音乐专栏【All About Music】（在原文基础上添加了英语原文与排版调整）

翻译：Bromantique_Victime

Myth, it has been said, is the buried part of every story. On April 23rd, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot finally emerges into the light of day, having spent the last year interred in its own cluttered mythology: a hermetic studio gestation, with the inscrutable guidance of Chicago ex-pat/kindly wizard, Jim O'Rourke; ; conflict and resolution with American media behemoth AOL Time Warner; the release portentously slated for September 11th, but mysteriously delayed; the indecipherable short-wave radio prophecies; and, eventually, the hero's welcome, with the first stirrings of spring. It's all there: the miracle birth; the unlikely hero; the, um, benevolent mentor; ; good over evil. Joseph Campbell would be pissing himself if he weren't dead.

据说，神话是每个故事中被掩埋的部分。4月23日，《Yankee Hotel Foxtrot》终于得以重见天日，在过去的一年里，它洇没在自己纷杂的传说之中：受前芝加哥侨/和善巫师 Jim O'Rourke 的神秘指引，工作室进行了与世隔绝的酝酿；内部成员更迭，厂牌争纷；与美国媒体巨头美国在线时代华纳的冲突与解决；原定于9月11日发行，却又神秘地推迟了；无从破译的短波无线电预言；随着春的第一缕曙光降临尘世，如今终于适时迎接英雄归来。这一切都实实在在存在在那里：奇迹应运而生；不可能的英雄显世；仁慈的指路人；原初的威胁；正义战胜邪恶。倘若 Joseph Campbell 仍在世，他必会吓破胆。

The miraculous birth narrative of Wilco's fourth album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, is already old hat: banished from straightedge AOL Time Warner imprint Reprise on the cosmically short-sighted judgment of label executives who deemed the album a "career-ender," Wilco streamed Yankee Hotel from its left-wing website to millions before signing with weirdo progressive AOL Time Warner imprint Nonesuch. Long is the way and hard that leads up from AOL Time Warner into the light, I guess.

Wilco 的第四张录音室专辑《Yankee Hotel Foxtrot》的传奇诞生故事已是老生常谈：在认为这张专辑是 “职业生涯终结者” 的唱片公司高管的宇宙罕见鼠目判决下，Wilco 毅然决然在其左翼网站向数百万人播放《Yankee Hotel》，随即便与诡异的美国在线时代华纳唱片公司 Nonesuch 签约。我想，他们从美国在线时代华纳踏向光明的征程是漫长而艰难的。

But the unique circumstances of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot's long deliverance make for more than just pointless disc jockey chatter before spinning "Heavy Metal Drummer." The long delay and streaming audio conspired to ensure that everyone in the world has already heard Yankee Hotel Foxtrot in part, if not in its entirety. Vast digital pre-circulation, corporate controversy, and buzz like a beard of bees have rendered all reviews afterthoughts at best.

但是，也正是《Yankee Hotel Foxtrot》漫长的诞生过程，使得在播放“Heavy Metal Drummer”前，便已不仅仅是单纯的音乐主持人的闲聊节目。长时间的推迟筹备和流媒体播放共同确保了世界上每个人都得以听到《Yankee Hotel Foxtrot》的全部内容，至少是一部分。大量的数字预发行、厂牌争端和蜂拥而至的嗡嗡声，让所有评论充其量只能是事后诸葛亮。

But myth is always an afterthought, and these days, the motif I like chewing on best is, without question, that of the Unlikely Hero. Who would have predicted an album of this magnitude from Wilco? As much I love the band, the fact remains that they were together for five years before they produced anything that could stand with Uncle Tupelo's March 16-20, 1992 or Anodyne. AM is rather forgettable, while the expansive Being There, though frequently inspired, travels on paths blazed by Tom Petty on Damn the Torpedoes, if not The Flying Burrito Brothers.

但无论如何“神话”都是事后做的评价，而这些天，我最喜欢咀嚼的主题毫无疑问是“不可能的英雄”。谁又能预料到 Wilco 能够成就如此伟大的一张专辑？尽管我很喜欢这个乐队，但事实是，他们在一起历经5年的时光才制作出可以与 Uncle Tupelo 的《March 16-20, 1992》或《Anodyne》相提并论的杰作。《A.M.》显然是相当容易遗忘，而《Being There》，虽然常常可以从中得到启发，却已然是走在 Tom Petty 早在《Damn the Torpedoes》中所开辟的道路上，倘若不是那便是《The Flying Burrito Brothers》。

1999's dolorous Summerteeth was exponentially more sophisticated than anything that came before it, though its heroin innuendoes, shades of domestic abuse and nocturnal homicidal impulses sat somewhat ill at ease alongside the album's lush and infectious pop arrangements. Of course, Summerteeth was a strange and majestic, albeit dark, deviation from the alt-country genre Jeff Tweedy co-invented. But since Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, it has retroactively become more of a harbinger of things to come. Upon being pressed by the Chicago Sun-Times about abandoning alt-country, Tweedy dismissively bequeathed the old Wilco sound to Ryan Adams. And you can never go home again.

1999年沉浸在忧郁色彩中的《Summerteeth》比之前的任何作品都要复杂得多，尽管它暗影下隐藏的毒品、家庭暴力、夜间谋杀等元素与这张专辑丰富而极富感染力的流行旋律布局有些格格不入。显然，《Summerteeth》是一个怪异、雄伟，却黑暗、便离了 Jeff Tweedy 所开创的 Alt-Country 风格。但自《Yankee Hotel Foxtrot》后，它深究起来便更像是未来事物的先兆。在被芝加哥太阳报追问关于放弃 Alt-Country 道路的问题时，Tweedy 不屑地将旧 Wilco 的声音甩给了 Ryan Adams 。显然，而你再不能“重归故里”了。

So does Yankee Hotel Foxtrot justify the controversy, delay and buzz? Everyone, I think, already knows that the answer is yes; all I can offer is "me too" and reiterate. And after half a year living with a bootleg copy, the music remains revelatory. Complex and dangerously catchy, lyrically sophisticated and provocative, noisy and somehow serene, Wilco's aging new album is simply a masterpiece; it is equally magnificent in headphones, cars and parties. And as anyone who's seen the mixed-bag crowd at Wilco shows knows, it will find a home in the collections of hippies, frat boys, acid-eating prep schoolers, and the record store apparatchiks of the indiocracy. No one is too good for this album; it is better than all of us.

那么，《Yankee Hotel Foxtrot》是否真的足以挑起如此的争议、延迟发行和外界喧嚣？我想每个人都已知晓答案是肯定的；而我所提供的当然只能是“我也赞同”并再三重申。在我与盗版唱片共存了近半年后，每每听到这些音乐仍具有启示意义。复杂而危险十足的吸引力、缜密精致的歌词和挑衅意味、喧闹之中蕴藏着平静——Wilco 再度迎来的新专辑简直是一个杰作；无论将至在耳机、汽车还是派对上播放都同样华丽。任何看过 Wilco 演出的人都知道，它会在无论是嬉皮士、兄弟会男孩、正津津有味吃着酸奶的预备生还是殖民国家的唱片店员的收藏中寻得归属——没有人配不上这张专辑；它是我们所有人都应仰视的存在。

But for all the talk of terminally hip influences-- Jim O'Rourke, krautrock, and The Conet Project-- Yankee Hotel Foxtrot still conjures a classic rock radio station on Fourth of July weekend. And this extends beyond the alternating Byrds/Stones/Beatles comparisons that pepper every Wilco review ever written; Yankee Hotel Foxtrot evokes Steely Dan, the Eagles, Wings, Derek & The Dominos and Traffic. The slightly disconnected, piano-led "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart," is delicately laced with noise, whistles and percussive clutter, like some great grandson of "A Day in the Life." The muted, "Kamera" strums along darkly with acoustic and electric guitars; the twittering electronics in the background don't quite mitigate the tune's comparability to the clever and precise (though now largely neglected) jazz-inflected blues-rock of Dire Straits' stunning debut.

但是，所有关于最终时尚影响的讨论——Jim O'Rourke、krautrock 还是 The Conet Project——《Yankee Hotel Foxtrot》仍然会让人回想起独立日那天的某个古典摇滚乐电台。这远超了交替出现被用来比较的 Byrds、Stones、Beatles，虽然他们在几乎 Wilco 的每篇评论中都有出现；《Yankee Hotel Foxtrot》唤起了人们对 Steely Dan、Eagles、Wings、Derek & The Dominos 以及 Traffic 的遥远记忆。由钢琴演绎的 “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” 略有些松散，夹杂着噪音、口哨声和打击器乐的杂音，就像 “A Day in The Life” 的后辈。柔和的 “Kamera” ，原声吉他和电吉他在黑暗中交相辉映；背景中吱吱作响的电子乐音并未使这首曲子所具有的与 Dire Straits 令人惊异的处女作中巧妙而精确（尽管现在很大程度上被忽视了）的爵士风格蓝调摇滚别无二致的多变性大打折扣。

The cone-filtered and anthemic country psychedelia of "War on War" could have been jammed straight out of a hot "Bertha" at a 1973 Grateful Dead show. The violin and coked-up country lounge of "Jesus, etc." recalls some mythical seventies in true love and cigarettes. The sharp, stuttering guitar solo that rips open "I'm the Man Who Loves You" could have come directly out of Neil Young's hollow body electric circa Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. For all its aural depth and layering, Yankee Hotel tends to come off as earnest as yesteryear's FM radio. Wilco gets the benefit of O'Rourke's gift for cutting straight to the guts of every style, without the burden of his trademark contempt for the subject matter at hand.

“War on War” 的锥形滤波和国歌般的乡村迷幻曲，简直是直接从1973年乐队 Grateful Dead 演出中的 “Bertha” 中揪出来的。“Jesus, etc.” 中的小提琴和迷幻乡村酒吧让人想起了那些神话七十年代的真爱故事和香烟。撕开 “I'm The Man Who Loves You” 尖锐、断断续续的吉他独奏的面具，这直接来自 Neil Young 的空心电吉他作品《Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere》。就其所包含的所有听觉深度和层次感而言，《Yankee Hotel Foxtrot》有着往往像旧日调频广播一样的认真严谨。Wilco 从 O'Rourke 的天资中大受裨益，他可以直接切中每种风格的精髓所在，而没有刻意回避他对手头主题的标志性蔑视。

And Tweedy seems to be coming into his own as a lyricist. I still wince when I hear him sing, "I know you don't talk much but you're such a good talker," on Being There. The brooding introspection of Summerteeth made for a handful of elegant lyrics, most notably the skeletal beauty of "She's a Jar," where "she begs me not to miss her" returns as the stinging "she begs me not to hit her," transforming a wistful love song into something gently bruising. But on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Tweedy becomes what I think he always was: an optimist and a romantic.

而 Tweedy 作为一个抒情词作家似乎正崭露头角。当我听到他在《Being There》中唱到“I know you don't talk much but you're such a good talker”时，我仍会感到害怕退缩。《Summerteeth》深思内省造就了几首优雅动人的歌词，最引人注目的是 “She's a Jar” 中骨感的美，其中又将一首伤感的情歌 “she begs me not to miss her”变为了轻柔的伤痕 “she begs me not to hit her”。但在《Yankee Hotel Foxtrot》中，Tweedy 又转变成我认为他一直以来的样子：一个乐观主义者和一个浪漫主义者。

His declaration of wanting to salute "the ashes of American flags," is less cynicism than, perhaps, the devoted liberal's nostalgia for an honest patriotism (check out the array of properly lefty links at wilcoworld.com if you don't believe me). "All my lies are always wishes," he sings, "I know I would die if I could come back new." In "Jesus, etc.," there's a cascading simplicity when he sings, "Tall buildings shake, voices escape, singing sad, sad songs to two chords/ Strung down your cheeks, bitter melodies turning your orbit around." Sad, celestial and lovely. The final declaration on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is one of abiding dedication: "I've got reservations 'bout so many things but not about you." There isn't a truer word to be had.

他宣称要向美国国旗的灰烬（“the Ashes of American Flags”）致敬，这与其说是愤世嫉俗，不如说是忠诚的自由主义者对爱国主义的怀念（如果你不相信我，那请看 wilcoworld.com 上的一系列左派言论链接）。“I know I would die if I could come back new.”他唱道，“I know I would die if I could come back new.”在 “Jesus, etc.” 中，当他唱到 “Tall buildings shake, voices escape, singing sad, sad songs to two chords/ Strung down your cheeks, bitter melodies turning your orbit around.” 时，有种瀑布般层层堆叠的简朴感。悲伤、圣洁、可爱——《Yankee Hotel Foxtrot》的最后宣言是一种永恒的奉献：“I've got reservations 'bout so many things but not about you.”——再没有比这更为真挚的话语了。

On Summerteeth, Tweedy yowled about "speakers speaking in code" and I thought of that refrain from "I Can't Stand It" when I first heard the words "yankee-hotel-foxtrot" uttered by the disembodied English woman on the sublimely creepy box-set of shortwave radio transmissions, The Conet Project, which is sampled sporadically throughout this record. And in a deeper, more deliberate world, perhaps we could trace that thread to unravel the secret wonder of Wilco's new album. But I don't think there's any secret; and I don't think there's any code. Beneath the great story of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, there are all the tropes and symbols and coincidences of a little mythology; but under that is a fantastic rock record. And why tell you? You all already knew this.

在《Summerteeth》中，Tweedy 嚷嚷着 “speakers speaking in code”，而我回想起 “Can't Stand It” 中的这一叠句是当我第一次听到 “yankee-hotel-foxtrot” 这句话时——出自一个虚拟英国女人在令人毛骨悚然的短波无线电盒 The Conet Project 中所讲——这句话在这张唱片中零星出现。在一个更深入、更深思熟虑的世界里，也许我们可以追踪这条线索，揭开 Wilco 新专辑所蕴含的的神秘奇迹。但我不认为有什么秘密；我也不认为有什么谜语。在《Yankee Hotel Foxtrot》这个伟大的故事背后，已蕴含了所有的比喻、象征，巧合；紧接着便是一张很赞的摇滚唱片。而我又为什么要告诉你们这些呢？显然你们都已知晓。