【译】美国乐评网站Pitchfork评2NE1 2014年第二张原创专辑《Crush》

翻译：Nomanlandever

The brash all-female Korean pop supergroup 2NE1's new album, Crush, bottles up contemporary trends as well as their usual EDM/reggae/hip-hop/R&B stylemash. But it represents a sleeker, more refined vision for the group.

韩国流行音乐超级女团2NE1的新专辑《Crush》将当代流行趋势和他们一贯的EDM/雷鬼/嘻哈/R&B风格融为一体。但它承载了该组合更平滑、更精炼的愿景。

Instead of following a tried-and-true formula of slowly rolling out individual songs and their characteristically flashy videos, the all-female Korean pop supergroup 2NE1 went the opposite direction with their new album, Crush. Announced in January—no advance snippets were available—and released digitally in February, 2NE1 dropped two singles simultaneously (the uptempo pair “Come Back Home” and “Gotta Be You”). Though both unsurpisingly lit up the Korean charts, the excitement—as well as an appearance in a January episode of ABC’s The Bachelor—buoyed an entrance into Billboard 200, where 2NE1 sold more copies in the first week than any Korean outfit in history. The only semi-micro-plotted movement in the whole campaign happened when YG Entertainment bumped the digital release three days—meaning that they broke the record in four days, instead of a full seven—so it would come out on the February 27 birthday of CL, 2NE1’s ascendant star. Hold that thought.

韩国流行超级女团2NE1没有遵循固有的成熟模式，即挤牙膏似的推出单曲和她们特有的浮华视频，而是采用了相反的方式，推出了新专辑《Crush》。2NE1在1月份宣布专辑《Crush》即将发行(没有提前预告歌曲片段)，并在2月份以数字形式发行，同时发布了两首单曲(快节奏的《Come Back Home》和《Gotta Be You》)。尽管两首单曲不出意料的引爆韩国榜单，但令人激动的是——以及组合在1月份ABC电视台的《The Bachelor》（单身汉）电视剧中的客串亮相——推动了专辑打入美国Billboard 200专辑榜，2NE1的首周销量就超过了历史上所有的韩国艺人。唯一有点变动的地方是YG娱乐将数字发行的日期推迟了三天——这意味着他们仅用四天就打破了纪录，而不是整整七天——所以它在2月27日2NE1的翘楚CL的生日那天发行。可能有这种想法。

As one could imagine, Crush is similarly fashioned around the shapeshifter CL, who wrote lyrics and composed three songs on the album in addition to the solo thumper “MBTD”. Crush, in total, is exactly the stylemash you’ve become accustomed to from the group, a release that bottles up contemporary trends (such as the blurry Trap sound frequented by Future and others) as well as the usual EDM/reggae/hip-hop/R&B hybrid that YG’s in-house producers favor for the quartet. While the instinct to position the versatile CL in the front of 2NE1 is right on, her compositions fall a hair short of Crush’s standouts, which include the earworms “Come Back Home” and “Happy” as well the subtle, pretty G-Dragon-penned ballad “Good to You”. But it’s not a “sore thumb” situation: CL stacks up to the more experienced hands of the YG factory, and thus seems primed for a huge solo career. Crush represents a sleeker, more refined vision for the group; if nothing else, the well-balanced record serves as a capsule of the outfit’s pop instincts and versatility. Though the soulful, organ-spiked R&B take “Baby I Miss You” might be the most natural fit for the group, they generally make a breeze of it, bolstering strong performances by the ensemble of Dara, Minzy and Park Bom.

可以想象，《Crush》差不多是围绕百变女王CL创作的，除了个人单曲《MBTD》，她还为专辑创作并写好了三首歌的歌词，总的来说，这正是一贯的组合作风，一经发行便引领潮流(比如Future等人经常使用的模糊Trap音效)以及YG内部制作人喜欢为四人组合打造的EDM/雷鬼/嘻哈/R&B音乐。虽然把多才多艺的CL作为2NE1牌面的直觉是正确的，但她的作品比《Crush》的优秀作品少得多，其中包括洗脑抓耳曲《Come Back Home》和《Happy》，以及G-Dragon谱写的精巧不错的民谣《Good to You》。但这不是一个棘手的情况：CL积攒着比YG工厂更多的资源，因此似乎对自己宏大的个人事业准备就绪。《Crush》承载了该组合更平滑、更精炼的愿景。如果没有别的，这张协调性不错的专辑可代表该组合的流行嗅觉和多边形的缩影。尽管含情脉脉、管风琴味十足的R&B歌曲《Baby I Miss You》可能是最适合这个组合的，但她们都能轻车熟路地驾驭，造就出其他成员Dara、Minzy和Park Bom的强势表现。

In his K-Pop primer from 2011, James Brooks made much of 2NE1's brash, attention-grabbing ethos; Crush finds them wisely dialing back the assault. And, unlike G-Dragon’s strained crossover attempt Coup d’Etat, YG’s team—primarily the producers Teddy, DEE.P and CHOICE 37—create something fairly universal on Crush. Like a number of records in this vein, there are a handful of moments that push the sound’s signature maximalism too far—I would argue that “Come Back Home” holds up plenty well without the skizz-skizz-WOMP-WOMP-WOMP breakdown stapled to the bridge—but maybe that’s a little like penalizing a Swans album for having too many guitars. With Crush, 2NE1 succeed on their inlaid mission statement—they've made music for anyone.

在2011年的 K-Pop入门书中，James Brooks对2NE1狂妄自大、引人注目的气质大加描写；《Crush》中她们明智地做出回击。而且，不像G-Dragon牵强的跨界尝试《Coup d’Etat》，YG的团队——主要是制作人Teddy, DEE.P和CHOICE 37在《Crush》上创作出的一些相当普通的东西。如同许多类似的专辑，许多时候追求繁芜丛杂的标志音效太过了——我想说的是，《Come Back Home》在没有“skizz-skizz-WOMP-WOMP-WOMP”故障音效的情况下仍然很不错——但可能是因为为弥补一张Swans专辑的遗憾而使用过多吉他的原因。通过《Crush》，2NE1成功实现了他们的使命宣言——他们为所有人创作音乐。