【搬运】【译】滚石杂志Rolling Stone评Carly Rae Jepsen专辑《Dedicated》

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：Ryan-Chopin

校对：Whitney.L

排版：Peter D

Carly Rae Jepsen在《Dedicated（奉献）》中为活力四射的Teen-Pop（青少年流行音乐）注入新的智慧

——Carly Rae Jepsen在第四张专辑中向80年代这流金岁月敞露心扉，可谓该风格的又一力作。

One of the funniest lines in Amy Poehler’s new movie Wine Country is when Paula Pell tells Rachel Dratch that her soul’s age is around 18-and-a-half. “Probably old enough to drink and bone … almost out of the house.” It’s a sentiment Carly Rae Jepsen can certainly relate to. The 33 year-old pop star specializes in dragging our souls back to that special, post-pubescent place. And her fourth LP keeps on doing it with the precision we’ve come to expect from her.

在Amy Poehler的新片《葡萄酒之乡(Wine Country)》里，Paula Pell告诉Rachel Dratch说，她灵魂的年龄大约是18岁半，这要属该片最有趣的台词之一了。“可能到了一定年纪，人就会嗜酒，也会更专注一些了……心却几乎已经走远了。”Carly Rae Jepsen肯定也对此感同身受。这位33岁的流行歌手擅长带我们的灵魂拉回到那个有特殊意味的后青春期之地。的确，她的第四张专辑依旧不负众望。

The album beings with “Julien” – a watered-down version of ABBA’s “Waterloo” – but revs up with some good, old chaste titillation. “Automatically in Love” packs a whole CW season of romantic cliches, from rollercoasters to getaway cars into an Eighties-Madonna track. Jepsen tries out a breathy purr on “Too Much.” Then really goes for it on “Everything He Needs.” “Like pressure points/ My love can ease him in my hand,” she sings. The lyrics were actually inspired by cartoon couple Popeye and Olive, which, for a Carly Rae Jepsen album, sounds about right.

专辑以歌曲“Julien”拉开序幕——算是ABBA的歌曲“Waterloo”的低配版——但这首歌也有所妙笔生花，融入了古老而纯洁的愉悦感。Jepsen似乎把CW电视台一整季的浪漫桥段都搬进了“Automatically in Love”里，从老套的过山车到逃亡汽车的场景，都融入了八十年代Madonna的风格。Jepsen还试着在“Too Much”里发出呼噜声，然后全力以赴去满足“Everything He Needs（他需要的一切）” 。“Like pressure points, my love can ease him in my hand/压力使然 只有我的爱可以将他抚慰”（歌词源自网易云音乐）她如此唱道。这首歌实际上是受到著名卡通情侣大力水手(Popeye)和奥利夫(Olive)的启发而作的，运用在Carly Rae Jepsen的这张专辑里是恰到好处的。

Four albums in, the notion of Jepsen coming out with a “mature” album would be anathema to all that is Carly Rae. And she seems more than happy holding the mantle of cheerful, mid-tempo pop-rock for her generation – a great American tradition passed down from the Monkees to Wilson Phillips to Hanson. The downside is that when your fans expect you to bring the hooks, you better bring them. Jepsen doesn’t appear constrained by those expectations, maybe because pop’s two main ingredients – melody and melodrama – come to her naturally. But with all its polish and production, Dedicated can sound less like an artistic benchmark and more like throwing gum drops at the ceiling to see which ones stick.

Jepsen已经发行了四张专辑，她推出一张“成熟的”专辑可能对她所有曾经的形象来说会是一个诅咒。她似乎更乐于为她那一代人披上欢快、中速流行摇滚的外衣——这是一个伟大的美国音乐传统，几乎从Monkees乐队传到了Wilson Phillips和Hanson，其缺点就是当你的粉丝希望你能制作时下流行之作时，你最好满足他们。Jepsen似乎抛开了这些期望的束缚，也许因为流行音乐的两大主要成分——旋律和背景——总是青睐她，一切都自然而然发生了。不过，尽管《Dedicated》有着精心的打磨和制作，但里面的曲目听起来离艺术基准还有差距，更像是往天花板上扔口香糖，看看哪个能粘上（译者注：歌曲制作欠点火候，歌手试图在制作一些艺术造诣高的歌曲时，有碰运气的成份）。

That’s not necessarily a bad thing. And if that’s the case, “Want You In My Room” and “Now That I Found You,” are up there for good. They’re both joyous gallops in the vein of her previous slam-dunk, “Cut to the Feeling.” The album-closing “Party For One” is another easy success. Like her apocalyptic hit “Call Me Maybe,” it rides a sparse, peppy melody, but takes a subtle turn when Jepsen proclaims that she’s better off alone than with someone who won’t return her calls. “If you don’t care about me/I’ll just dance for myself,” she sings. Jepsen may have the soul of a teen queen, but she’s also got the wisdom of a 33-year-old woman. 

但这未必是件坏事。如果真是这样的话，“Want You In My Room”和 “Now That I Found You”可以算沾上天花板的口香糖（上成品）。这两首听着都像是继她之前发行的大制作“Cut to the Feeling”后的再度狂欢。专辑结束曲“Party For One”又是一首抓耳的歌，和她的热门单曲“Call Me Maybe”一样，这首歌的旋律简单而活泼，但Jepsen宣称，比起和一个不回她电话的人在一起，她一个人过得要好，这时的剧情便发生了微妙的转折。她这样唱道：“If you don't care about me/I'll just dance for myself/若你不予我关心/我便要舞出自己。”Jepsen的灵魂也许对应着一位有少女心的女王，但她同样也怀揣了33岁女人的智慧。