【搬运】【译】滚石Rolling Stone评FKA twigs专辑《Magdalene》
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：Lynn Liu
排版：Ryan-Chopin
这位来自英国的流行乐未来主义者组建了一个slay惨的创意团队，并且在其音乐中尽显（她近年经历的）苦难挣扎。
（译者注：专辑名《Magdalene/抹大拉的玛丽亚》中的玛利亚一直以一个被耶稣拯救的形象出现在基督教的传说里，后有说法她可能是耶稣在世间最亲密的信仰伴侣，或者说她是未被正史记载的最受耶稣教诲最得其神髓的门徒。）
An Afrofuturist Kate Bush with some fierce pole-dancing moves, FKA Twigs lept from kinetic music video extra to among the most electric of electronic pop acts with her debut LP1 five years ago. On Magdalene, her long-brewing followup, she moves to the next level, making music that resists being pinned by genre — or even as merely music, so integral is choreography, filmmaking, and photography to what she does. Few current artists (Beyoncé and Bjork come to mind) have made the visual feel so organically integral to their sound.
对比顶着一头圆蓬式秀发的未来主义者、能跳热辣的钢管舞的Kate Bush，FKA Twigs（小枝）也从拍摄动感音乐录影带的舞者，到五年前发行首张专辑《LP1》，成为了电子味最浓的电子流行歌手之一。在她酝酿已久的后续作品《Magdalene(抹大拉的玛利亚)》中，她迈上了新的台阶，创作出了反流派束缚的音乐——甚至说同她的音乐一样，她的编舞、制片和摄影都已早已浑然一体。现在很少有艺术家(能想到的有Beyoncé和Bjork)把视觉效果和他们的声音有机地融合在一起。
That’s not to say Magdalene comes up short musically; the sound’s kaleidoscopic. The multi-tracked vocals of “Thousand Eyes” begin like medieval music, Hildegard Von Bingen floating over sub-bass menace, a song about a separation that, rather than leaving the singer lonely, leaves her in a frightening crowd of people, or personas. “Home With You” is a whispered piano-ballad rap with a shout out to the album’s Biblical namesake, plus a sneered observation that you’ve “never seen a hero like me in a sci-fi.” On “Sad Day,” she spins an earworm melody with her avine soprano and high-tea phrasing over murky beat-fractals. The psychedelic r&b of “Holy Terrain ft. Future” is a creative pile-on also shaped by Jack Antonoff, Skrillex, Sounwave, and Les Mystére des Voix Bulgares, the Bulgarian choral group, who get looped into a haunting sort of trap pygmy-chant. It takes nothing from the originality of Twigs’ work that the latter echoes Kate Bush, ditto the lyrical nods elsewhere to “Running Up The Hill” and “This Woman’s Work,” gestures that by now should be equated to architects referencing gothic doorways or rappers paraphrasing Biggie — an artform’s foundational bedrock. Ditto for the whiff of Radiohead’s “Pyramid Song” in the meditative opening piano chords of “Fallen Alien,” which shifts in and out of a cacophony of grime beats, a see-saw of EDM and distressed chamber music.
但这并不是说《Magdalene》的音乐性不足，她的音乐简直就像个万花筒。作为专辑开场曲，“Thousand Eyes”中，多声道演唱给人一种中世纪音乐之感，正如Hildegard Von Bingen（德国早期女音乐家，1098-1179）之音在超低音给人的恐怖感中飘过，这是一首关于分离的歌曲，歌手在音乐中未感到孤独，而是置身于一群可怕的形形色色的人群中。“Home With You”是一首低声说唱的钢琴伴奏抒情曲，但在歌曲中她也嘶吼着唱到了专辑同名的圣经人物（Magdalene/抹大拉的玛利亚），并附有一句讽刺性评论，说着你“never seen a hero like me in a sci-fi/从未在科幻电影中见过像我这样的英雄”。在“Sad Day”中，她用风格独特的女高音和英腔措辞在其阴郁的紧凑节奏上粉饰出一段悦耳的旋律。与说唱歌手Future合作的迷幻R&B歌曲“Holy Terrain”是由Jack Antonoff、Skrillex、Sounwave和保加利亚合唱团Les Mystere des Voix Bulgares共同塑造而成的创意结合之作，他们沉醉于一种骇人的trap风格中，颇像一支歌颂弱小群体的圣歌。后面几首歌尽管与Kate Bush的歌曲遥相呼应，但都不失小枝的歌曲原创性，与Kate的“Running Up The Hill”和“This Woman’s Work”这等抒情曲有异曲同工之妙，到目前为止，这样的借鉴就好比建筑师采用哥特式的门廊般，或者等同于说唱歌手们采样Biggie（声名狼藉先生，饶舌歌手，1972-1997）般——他们都属于一种艺术形式的基石。另外，我们也能在小枝的“Fallen Alien”里那冥想式开头的钢琴和弦中找到电台司令的“Pyramid Song”的踪影。
Twigs’ lyrics conjure struggle, which one imagines she’s had plenty of recently, between major surgery and a public breakup with paparazzi–magnet Robert Pattinson. But like UK peer Charli XCX, she has the artistic support of a smartly-curated collaborative team. On LP1 it was Arca, Sampha, Emile Haynie and Devonté Hynes. Here it’s Nicolás Jaar, Benny Blanco, Daniel Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never), and Lewis Roberts (Koreless), among others. But the music runs counter to mainstream pop groupthink, and for all the digitalia, Magdalene sounds like the messy, eccentric product of human hands, not algorithms. You can see those hands in the video for “Cellophane,” hoisting the artist up a pole, where she moves through backslides, chopsticks, ballerina spins and butterflies like it ain’t no thing — although like her album, it sure as heck is.
小枝的歌词能让人联想到她近年来经历的多次苦难挣扎，从（打败子宫肌瘤的）一场大手术到与狗仔们常年紧跟着的Robert Pattinson公开分手等等。但她与英国另一歌手Charli XCX一样，她们都能得到一个技术精湛的协作团队的艺术支持。在《LP1》中，就有Arca, Sampha, Emile Haynie和Devonte Hynes参与。这次的专辑有Nicolas Jaar、Benny Blanco、Daniel Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never)和Lewis Roberts (Koreless)等人加盟。但这种音乐思路与主流的流行音乐人思维背道而驰，而且不管你在什么数码产品上听，《Magdalene》听起来都像是用双手乱搞一通的怪异产物，而非循规蹈矩的作品。你可以在“Cellophane”的音乐录影带中“看到这些制作者的手”（看到他们的制作方式和想法），她高攀于一根钢管，做着下滑、筷子、旋转、蝴蝶等动作（钢管舞中的动作及技巧名称），仿佛这对她来说是小菜一碟——这确实就像她制作出这张专辑一样，slay惨！
