【搬运译】Pitchfork评Ariana Grande巡演专辑《k,bye for now(swt live)》

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|Peter D

校对|Lynn Liu

排版|Simon Yelich

Ariana Grande’s live album is both a capsule and a capstone, encompassing a nine-month, 102-show tour at what might be the peak of her career.

Ariana Grande的这张现场专辑既像一枚涵盖一切的胶囊，又像一块顶石，它囊括了横跨9个月、共计102场的巡演，这更标志着她职业生涯的顶峰。

We didn’t need an Ariana Grande live album. The sweeping, hour-and-a-half-long recording of her Sweetener world tour offers faithful renditions of recent and past hits; very little is new here, beyond a pre-recorded cover of a song from a Cole Porter musical. These are recitations, not re-interpretations. Videos circulated over the summer of Grande crying during some of her concerts, but on the recorded tracks selected for the album—stitched together from various tour stops, so that she shouts out a different city nearly every song—she is polished and composed. Even if a live album may not have been necessary, k bye for now gleams. It is both a capsule and a capstone, encompassing a nine-month, 102-show tour at what might be the peak of Grande’s career.

我们其实并不是很需要一张Ariana Grande的现场专辑。这张长达1个半小时的专辑完整地记录了她的Sweetener（甜味剂）世界巡演，你能听到她对近些年来大热单曲的忠实演绎；除了一首翻唱自Cole Porter音乐剧的预录歌曲外，其中并没有什么新东西。歌曲都尽力还原了录音室，而非重新改编表演。整个夏天，Grande在好几场演唱会上落泪的视频被到处疯传，但在这几首被挑出来收录进专辑的录音中——录音收录自不同的巡演场次，它们被重新串接起来，这样的话，几乎每首歌中她都能喊出不同城市的名字——她显得优雅娴熟，镇定自若。但即使这样一张现场专辑显得没什么必要，《k bye for now（好啦，暂时先说再见啦）》仍然熠熠生辉。它既像一枚涵盖一切的胶囊，又像一块顶石，囊括了横跨9个月、共计102场的巡演，更标志着她职业生涯的顶点。

While k bye for now may not have much new information, it builds on our understanding of Grande as an artist. We know she has a dazzling voice, but we get to hear it swoop and pierce while the audience shrieks around her. We know she’s lurched and leaned into hip hop aesthetics; on the live album, we hear her chirp into raps over recorded features from Nicki Minaj and Big Sean. We also see different shades of some tracks. “Break up with your girlfriend i’m bored,” a song that can come across as glib and brash as its title, becomes huskier and tender. Sighs and coos trickle into spaces where production was left sparse. “Side to Side” crackles with a live band. The sing-songy flow of “7 rings” becomes more lilting and precise; after the line, “Happiness is the same price as red bottoms,” she blurts out, “Just kidding!”

虽说《k bye for now》可能没能为我们带来太多新意，但它在于我们对Grande作为一名艺术家的理解。我们都知道她有着迷人且金灿灿的嗓音，但我们现在又得以听到这美丽嗓音在被观众们的尖叫声包围时突入内心、深深打动我们。我们都知道她早已在在嘻哈领域有些跌跌撞撞的尝试；而在这张现场专中，我们能听到现场在放合作曲里的Nicki Minaj和Big Sean原声时，她也能自如地说唱几句。我们还能听到许多歌曲焕发出了别样的色泽。“Break up with your girlfriend i’m bored（和你的女友分手吧，我有点无聊了）”，歌如其名，难免给人留下肤浅又高傲的印象，但现在它变得更低沉、更温柔。制作松散的地方也被随性的哼唱巧妙弥补。“Side to Side（摇摇摆摆）”在现场乐队的伴奏下火花四溅。“7 rings（7枚戒指）”中的念白式唱段也变得更活泼、更清晰；在唱完“Happiness is the same price as red bottoms（幸福的价格不过就相当于萝卜丁红底高跟鞋）”一句后，她立刻喊道：“Just kidding!（只是开个玩笑！）”

While the tour focused on Sweetener and thank u, next, Grande weaves in past highlights from her catalog that demonstrate how much she’s grown. The titanic Zedd banger “Break Free” is fun, but can’t compare to the nuance and texture of a song like “God is a woman.” “Break Your Heart Right Back” sounds flimsy and disposable when followed by “NASA.” k bye for now becomes a way to track throughlines of Grande’s career: how feathery murmurs bloomed into dynamic tapestries, how flamboyant love ballads led to delicate pop anthems. One of the live album’s greatest assets is the juxtapositions created by the newly shuffled song order; thank u, next tracks glow brighter beside the softer edges of Sweetener songs. The pleas of “Needy” are more urgent and lovely when preceded by “Breathin,” a galvanic song about anxiety attacks. “Thank u, next” becomes even more stunning when “no tears left to cry” bleeds into it, coaxing a way forward through loss.

这次巡演把重点放在了《 Sweetener（甜味剂）》和《thank u, next（靴靴，下一个）》两张专辑上，但Grande还会时不时回顾过往的高光时刻，来证明自己已成长许多。与Zedd合作的火爆热单“Break Free（冲破束缚）”确实很有趣，但还是没办法和像“God is a woman（上帝是个女人）”这样的歌中的精妙与神韵相提并论。后面紧接着“NASA（宇航局）”让“Break Your Heart Right Back（马上就要让你心碎）”一曲显得有些轻浮，人们的注意力被迅速转移。《k bye for now》变成一条遍历Grande整个职业生涯的途径：羽毛般轻柔的喃喃细语如何盛放成活力四射的织锦，艳丽的爱情歌谣如何进化成精致的流行颂歌。这张现场专辑最值得称颂之处的其一就在于全新安排的并置曲序；《thank u, next》中的单曲在《Sweetener》中歌曲的柔软边际旁散发出更明亮的光芒。讲述焦虑袭来时刻的“Breathin（呼吸）”能让人一下打个激灵，它被安排在“Needy（需要）”之前，让后者中的恳求变得愈发急切，愈发动人。“no tears left to cry（泪已流尽）”中的鲜血滴滴渗入“Thank u, next（靴靴，下一个）”，让其更富魅力，哄着大家从失去中摸索出一条向前的路。

Like any live album, k bye for now strains to transmit the feeling of an actual concert, and banter about costumes and dancers is a clumsy reminder. Recordings only capture part of what illuminated the Sweetener tour—not outfit changes or neon lights, but the power of a woman confronting trauma. At a Brooklyn show this past summer, sobs slipped out of me during “get well soon.” Grande was singing about flashbacks, dissociations that wrench you out of your body—feelings I had barely described to other people, and had never heard sang back at me. In the live recording, her voice drops to a low, raw shudder. But just a few tracks later, you can hear her laugh.

和任何一张现场专辑一样，《k bye for now》竭力传达和营造真实的演唱会的感受，那些关于演出服和伴舞们的玩笑话就是在有点笨拙地提醒你。但真正让Sweetener（甜味剂）巡演光彩夺目的因素，这些录音仅仅只抓住了一小部分——不是那些换装，也不是现场灯效，而是一名女性在面对精神创伤时所展现出来的力量。上个夏天在布鲁克林的一场演出中，我在唱到“get well soon（快好起来）”时禁不住啜泣起来。Grande唱着过去的回忆，唱着能把你的灵魂一把从身体里拽出来的痛苦的别离——这是我几乎从不向别人提起的感受，也从没听人向我唱过这样的情绪。在现场录音中，她的声音渐渐放低，直到变成一声低沉而真切的颤音。但几首歌过后，你能听到，她又笑了起来。