【搬运】【译】滚石Rolling Stone评Katy Perry2017年专辑《Witness》
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：Julie.L
校正：Alice Song
After steadily charting nine Number One hits since 2008, anthem-roarer Katy Perry is stumbling through the fog and strobes of a less bombastic pop universe. Fourth album Witness surfs on gentler throbs of house music and lets ballads smush into art-pop soup. It’s all a perfect fit for a Hot 100 dominated by the subtle, nuanced, EDM-informed music of artists like Halsey, Camila Cabello and Troye Sivan. But subtle and nuanced was never the calling card of the artist behind songs like “I Kissed a Girl.” Perry has replaced the eye of the tiger with the heart of a contemporary night owl, making an album of mostly moody, dreamy, reserved music – and one double-entendre-filled, AC/DC-ready food fight in “Bon Appetit.” In turn, a pop icon blends into the rest of the radio.
自2008年以来， Katy Perry平平稳稳地获得了九个冠军单曲，如今，她正跌跌撞撞地穿过过迷雾和喧嚣，度过一个不那么浮夸的流行音乐世界时代。第四张专辑《Witness》以更轻柔的浩室音乐，将抒情曲风融入艺术流行音乐。热门单曲100强非这些歌曲莫属，原因是这样包含温和EDM元素的歌曲在热门单曲100强中正显大势，Halsey, Camila Cabello和Troye Sivan等歌手的曲风便是如此。但是淡雅、温和这些词绝对不是能用来描述她的作品的（比如“I Kissed a Girl”）。Katy Perry如今用夜猫子的心取代了老虎的眼睛，制作了一张曲风大部分都是情绪化、梦幻、内敛的专辑，其中还有一首充满了“双关”的单曲“Bon Appetit”。巨星必须接受时间的考验，但这位流行偶像的作品正渐趋平凡。
Working with super-producer Max Martin and a list of modern cool kids (Duke Dumont, Jack Garratt, Corin Roddick of synth-pop band Purity Ring), Witness is a mish-mash of electronic-leaning pop: the currently trendy revival of British 2-step (“Witness”), a dancehall/disco smash-up (“Chained to the Rhythm”), fake Sam Smith (“Save as Draft”) and a look back on vintage early-Nineties house music (“Swish”) that jacks the same Roland Clark sample that Fatboy Slim did in 2000. Throughout, Perry is less like the so-unusual, candy-coated Cyndi Lauper of “Teenage Dream,” and is more an anonymous disco crooner, a breathy moderator leading us through passionate but muted songs of longing and empowerment.
其专辑制作人包括金牌制作人Max Martin以及一群当代的酷小孩 (Duke Dumont, Jack Garratt, 合成流行乐队Purity Ring的Corin Roddick),《Witness》这张专辑是个偏电音风的大杂烩:里面有对正流行的英国两步舞曲的复兴(“Witness”)，迪斯科舞厅大扫荡(“Chained to the Rhythm”),伪Sam Smith 风(“Save as Draft”)，以及模仿了Fatboy Slim在2000年出的Roland Clark小样，对九十年代初期浩室音乐的怀旧演绎(“Swish”)。Katy Perry一直不大像“Teenage Dream”般的Cyndi Lauper那样与众不同、甜美可爱，而是更像是一个不出名的迪斯科情歌手，一个有血有肉的调解者，带领我们领略刚柔并济的歌曲。
A brassy voice that once held long notes and sang lines like “I am a champion” is now devoured in effects and reverb, rarely reaching the excited joy of punkier electronic-poppers like Robyn, Charli XCX or even recent singles from Lorde. The exceptions are “Roulette,” an explosive EDM Eurythmics update (produced by Martin and Shellback), and the gospel-choir-assisted “Pendulum,” which brings a vintage Perry vocal performance to some late-Eighties filigrees by Kanye producer Jeff Bhasker. But her advice in that song doubles as a criticism: “Don’t try and reinvent your wheel/’Cause you’re too original.”
她曾经能拖长音，有着能大唱“I am a champion”的粗犷嗓音，如今却被各式音效和混响层层包装，即便如此也很少能像Robyn、Charli XCX，甚至是Lorde最近的单曲那样令电子乐爱好者们兴奋不已。而“Roulette”和 “Pendulum” 是个例外。势头大旺的EDM乐团Eurythmics为“Roulette”注入新鲜血液（由Martin和Shellback制作），“Pendulum” 在福音唱诗班的配合下，为听众带来了Katy Perry曾经的声音，以及由Kanye的制作人Jeff Bhasker带来的80年代后期的元素。但她在那首歌中的暗示同时也是一种批评:“不要试图打破常规/因为你太与众不同。”
