【搬运】【译】娱乐周刊Weekly Entertainment评Ariana Grande专辑《Sweetener》

评分：A-

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

校正：Ryan-Chopin

Over the past five years, Ariana Grande has established herself as a constantly on-the-rise pop star with an impressive and canny sense of taste. Armed with a coterie of producers and songwriters — including perpetual pop powerhouse Max Martin — the 25-year-old singer has established a versatile sense of range, shifting from electro-pop's neon glow to various strains of big-tent EDM and the perpetually evolving confines of hip-hop and R&B without batting so much as an eyelash. Grande's selection of collaborators has been similarly on-trend, occasionally unlocking previously unexplored strengths in her work with artists ranging from Zedd, the Weeknd, and Mac Miller. Her pop-cultural currency has possessed a bulletproof quality; how else does one prominently feature a pop pariah like Iggy Azalea on a single like "Problem" from 2014's My Everything and walk away not only unscathed, but with a bonafide and critically pleasing hit?

在过去的五年中，A妹（Ariana Grande）凭借其令人深刻而独到的品味，成为一名有长红趋势的流行歌手。

这位25岁的歌手拥有一群音乐合作伙伴，包括封神的“热单”制造机——Max Martin。A妹早已确立了她的多重音乐风格——从霓虹灯下的流行电音到各种各样包容性极强的电子舞曲，但如今受到越来越火的嘻哈音乐和R&B音乐的限制，A妹的音乐转型之路并不会有我们想象中的那么快。A妹在合作者的选择上同样紧跟大众潮流，在与Zedd，the Weeknd和Mac Miller等艺术家合作中，A妹可能会流露出全新的音乐实力。她的流行文化拥有无懈可击的特性。她与不可小觑的流行新星——Iggy Azalea在2014年的合作——收录于A妹三专《My everything》中的歌曲“Problrm”则很好的证明了这一点，A妹做到了不仅没有FLOP（过气），反而倍受欢迎，大获成功。

The sonic palette that Grande works in frequently reflects where chart-pop is currently at, or the point at which it's about to arrive — which is precisely what makes her fourth full-length, Sweetener, such a surprising left turn. A practical album-length collaboration with Pharrell Williams, who holds writing and production credits on the majority of its 15 tracks, Sweetener is decidedly and boldly out of step with current-day pop sounds. At a time when Post Malone's oily, empty genre-blend continues to dominate nearly every inch of pop and R&B imaginable, Grande has seemingly ditched any attempt to push either genre forward, instead retreating into the breezy, clean, and nerdy (not to mention N.E.R.D.-y) sounds representing the 2000s-era reign of Williams and Chad Hugo's production team the Neptunes. Quite possibly the only way that Sweetener reflects current trends in 2018's largely trendless pop arena is its embrace of negative space throughout; instead of the buzzsaw synths and booming bass that's defined previous Grande highs, there's cool-handed guitar licks and crisp, clean percussion you could practically eat off of.

A妹经常使用的乐器sonic palette基本能代表如今的流行乐，或是能指出流行音乐的下一步走向——这使得她能准确地制作出第四张专辑《sweetener》，带来一次出人意料的转型。这张专辑是与 Pharrell Williams合作而成的，整张专辑由他监制制作了15首歌，但这张专辑与近段时间的流行乐整体不搭调。当Post Malone油腻而空洞的大杂烩音乐继续主宰流行乐和R&B时，A妹似乎已经放弃选择其中任何一类来尝试，而是回归到一些轻快、素净、甚至有些呆板的音乐中去（不是指N.E.R.D.-y），而这类音乐在21世纪初，曾被Williams 和Chad Hugo所在的The Neptunes支配着。甜味剂之所以能代表2018年当前流行乐坛的趋势，是因为它能包容整个负面空间；有人曾用嘈杂的蜂鸣音和随波逐流的低音来评判出A妹的音乐水准，而如今我们听到更多的是炫酷而清脆的吉他声和干净利落的打击乐。

To this point, Grande's held a sterling reputation as a singles artist, her albums' obvious highlights possessing a near-ubiquitous presence on pop radio with more than a few deep-cut gems tucked away in the tracklists. The relative success of Sweetener singles "God is a Woman" and "No Tears Left to Cry" suggest that she hasn't yet lost her touch in that department — but within the context of the album proper, they also represent Sweetener‘s least impactful moments, disrupting the record's singular, subtle vibe. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; rather, it speaks to the artistic evolution that Sweetener represents for Grande, a consciously auteurist gesture cementing her as an album-oriented artist.

如今，A妹的盛誉绝无仅有，她的新专辑也充满亮点，可谓流行电台曲目列表中的神秘宝藏。《sweetener》中，“God is a Woman”和“No Tears Left to Cry”的成功有效地巩固了她的流行地位——但在专辑的背景下，它们也仅代表了《sweetener》初步的、甚微的影响力，对唱片的独特性，和其微妙的氛围都有所干扰。这不一定是坏事，更确切地说，它提醒我们《sweetener》代表的是A妹的音乐艺术发展道路，这是一种主观意识形态，再次铺拓她逐步成为专辑型音乐人的道路。

Despite possessing a nearly incomparable vocal range, Grande leans on her lower register more than ever here, her every sigh and swirl adding texture to Sweetener‘s alluringly blank sound. As much as the album's commitment to an overarching vibe represents new artistic territory for Grande, it's also a throwback of sorts to the beginnings of her career — specifically, her 2013 debut Yours Truly, which featured heavy writing and production contributions from Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds to craft a velvety, lush, and youthful take on 90s-era hip-hop and R&B styles.

很少人能达到A妹这种大跨度的音域，而这次，她重点利用好了她的低音域，每一次诱人地换气声和转音都为《sweetener》中偏空洞的音色增添了质感。正如其专辑意向所旨，对于A妹来说，在这种包罗万象的氛围中呈现出的新艺术领域，也是她职业生涯的一种新开始，或者说一次大逆转。这体现于她于2013年发行的首张专辑《Yours Truly》。这一张专辑有着沉稳的创作风格，此风格源于Kenneth Edmonds（又叫“Babyface”），造就了天鹅绒般华丽的音乐，极具90年代嘻哈和R&B色彩。

But more than any of her previous works, Grande is in the driver's seat behind Sweetener‘s wheel. As she revealed in a Time cover story earlier this year, the album represents the first time she took on lead writing credits, and it feels unmistakably personal as a result. Her sly sense of humor — an under-appreciated facet, perhaps, of Grande's public persona — creeps in during "god is a woman," a bold declaration of deification by way of sexual ecstasy that doubles as one of the cleverest lyrical flexes in pop music this year. She takes a similarly boasting tone over the wheezing, pleasing funk of "Successful," ticking off her achievements before stating simply, "It feels so good to be so young/ And have this fun and be successful."

但是与她以前的作品相比，A妹更能掌控《sweetener》全局。她于今年早些时候在《时代周刊》采访中提到，制作这张专辑时，她第一次担任主创作人，因此这张专辑有绝对的个性化与私人性质。在“god is a woman”中，她那单纯的幽默悄悄潜入了我们的视线。这首歌富含了大胆的神化宣言，并且在个性化地喜悦中宣扬这种观念，可谓今年乐坛中最巧妙的抒情表达之一。她同样将其运用于“successful”中，令人愉悦的放松体验中混杂着同样夸张的语气，一笔勾勒出她的成就，然后轻快地唱到：“It feels so good to be so young/ And have this fun and be successful.（年轻的感觉真是好，乐趣无穷，还能获此殊荣。）” 。

Sweetener feels most personal in its evocation of the dizzying smack that new love can possess — a vibe cultivated, no doubt, by Grande's much-discussed and ultra-public engagement to comedian and Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson (whose name adorns the title of the album's brief, undulating penultimate track). Sensuality abounds, particularly on the title track's plush, declarative passion — but there's also smaller details reflecting the simplicity of starting anew, and the thrill of exploring human connection. "Goodnight n Go" flips a sample of Imogen Heap's 2005 single "Goodnight and Go," as Grande implores her paramour to skip the train home in favor of staying up all night and talking before exclaiming, "We'd be good/ We'd be great together." It reflects an explicitly devotional take: the intoxicating desire to lose oneself in a new romance — and it's similarly impossible not to give in to Sweetener as a whole, a fascinating and sneakily complex pop album that adds new creative wrinkles to Grande's already estimable repertoire. 

我们在《sweetener》中能感受到A妹极致的个性，因为它唤起了人们着迷于新恋情的那种感觉。毫无疑问，这种感觉是由A妹与Pete Davidson（喜剧演员、曾登上《周六夜现场》）恋爱后所激发的。专辑中的倒数第二首歌也以A妹男友的名字来命名。其带来的感官享受非常丰富，尤其是专辑同名曲，我们甚至能感受到话语间的激情。但也有一些小细节体现了A妹“一切从简再来”的想法，以及探索人情纽带的兴奋。“goodnight n go”采样Imogen Heap于2005年发行的单曲 “Goodnight and Go”。歌中，A妹恳求她的爱人多停留片刻，不要登上远行的列车，整夜畅聊，然后发誓：“We’d be good/ We’d be great together（我们会好好在一起/我们在一起的日子会很精彩）”。它展现出一种虔诚的信仰：令人陶醉的欲望使其在新恋情中弱化自我——不止于此，你同样也会沉醉于《sweetener》整张专辑，这是一张让人着迷又神秘复杂的流行音乐专辑，它为A妹本就出彩的音乐作品画上浓墨重彩的一笔。