【搬运译】叉婊Pitchfork评Ariana Grande 2018年专辑《Sweetener》（甜到翻）

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：Whitney.L

校正：Alexander.Z/Ryan-Chopin

After years of searching, Ariana Grande has found her true voice. Sweetener is an exemplary pop album, radiating with low-key joy and newfound love.

经过几年的探索后，A妹找到了属于她自己的风格。《sweetener》（甜味剂）称得上典型的流行唱片，这一唱片流露出了她平淡的喜悦和对新恋情的憧憬。

Ariana Grande’s journey from child star to “human cupcake” to heir apparent to the diva throne has been centered around discovering the song that defines her. Though her soprano is instantly recognizable—floating from sultry melismas to whistle singing, elocution be damned—locating her in the hits has been difficult at times. Her last two albums, 2014’s My Everything and 2016’s Dangerous Woman, were solid but musically scattershot, filled with trendy guests and weighed down by her bad-girl alter-ego. For Grande to ascend to the next creative level, she’d need more than just the range.

    A妹从童星一路发展到“蛋糕人设”（应该是说A妹像蛋糕一样甜），再到成为登上天后宝座的继承人，这一路的攀登，使她寻找到自己独特风格的音乐。尽管她的女高音--不管是性感的装饰音还是哨音，都一听便知，但是她的发音不尽人意，使得我们很难在她的歌中准确找到她的风格。她于2014年发行的《My Everything》和2016年发行的《Dangerous Woman》中，歌曲基础很扎实，但整体性不强，合作过许多流行的音乐人，也成功把自己塑造成了一个坏女孩的化身。但是，如果A妹想踏上更高的创作台阶，她需要比现在突破更多。

Sweetener, Grande’s first album since the 2017 bombing at her Manchester concert, feels more honest and distinct than any of her past work. Perhaps because tragedy has a way of revealing our true selves, the 25-year-old star finally allows herself to just take things as they come. She doesn’t force the heart-wrenching emotion of it all into tearful ballads and message-heavy anthems, but instead lets the low-key joy of the title track radiate across the album. The best parts of Sweetener have her looking for hope and stumbling upon the glow of new love. By the time you reach the interlude about her comedian fiancé Pete Davidson called “pete davidson,” where the word “happy” is repeated 22 times in just over a minute, whatever cynical snapshot of their quickie engagement that may have formed between That Lollipop Photo and reports of Big Dick Energy has fallen away. Let the yung diva love in peace.

    2017年曼彻斯特演唱会爆炸的悲剧发生以来，《sweetener》是A妹复出后的的第一张专辑，它比以往的作品更显独特与真诚。可能是因为这场悲剧，这位25岁的歌手更加主动的去揭示真实的自己。她并没有强行把这痛彻心扉的情感付诸于令人泪流满面的民谣或者是沉痛的颂歌中，而是使她的专辑主打歌成为拥有平淡喜悦的歌曲。《sweetener》中最好的那部分表现了A妹寻找希望，邂逅并沐浴于新欢光芒的过程。当你顺着曲单听到他的现任男友，喜剧演员，“Pete davidson”这首歌的时候，你会发现，在短短一分钟内，“happy”这个词被重复了22次。不管是“棒棒糖闪照”，还是“男友之力”的消息，还是夹杂于其中那迅速订婚的消息，都让他们烟消云散吧，不如让这对年轻情侣平静地相爱吧。

Grande co-wrote more songs than usual (10 out of 15) and formed a clear bond with Pharrell, who serves as a songwriter and producer across Sweetener’s stronger half. His funk-lite idiosyncrasies set a bright tone and help elevate the record’s more conventional song structures. Grande and Williams leave themselves plenty of room to play around with texture in clever ways, particularly when it comes to layered vocals and skittering percussion. Set to little more than panting, tongue clicks, and keyboard orbs, “R.E.M” finds novel ways for Grande to expand her vocal repertoire. Singing in a stream of consciousness style about the man in her dreams, she flows in and out of R&B crooning, doo-wop vocal runs, gospel harmonizing, cheeky sing-talking, and a surprisingly precise rap flow (“‘Scuse me, um? I love you/I know that’s not the way to start a conversation, trouble”). She doesn’t even need a money note to stamp her mark.

 A妹和平时相比，参与创作了更多的歌曲（15首歌中有10首参与创作）并且与菲董形成了一种明确的合作关系，菲董成为《sweetener》这张专辑的创作和歌曲制作的有力后盾。他的funk-lite式的音乐特色为这张专辑设立了明亮的音调，并且创建了更为经典的音乐模式。A妹和菲董为自己留下充足的空间，用聪明的方式去摆弄音质，其中，最特别是利用多层次的人声和轻快简洁的打击乐。除了喘息声，咬舌声，和键盘敲击声，歌曲“R.E.M”为A妹提供了更加新颖的方式去拓展她的音域。她用一连串的意识流方式唱出她梦中的男人，她用R&B的方式低声吟唱，还有doo-wop式（经常由4~5人组成重唱小组，由一人担任领唱，其他人以密集和声作伴唱）唱腔流转，福音式的和声演唱，毫不羞涩的娓娓道来，和令人惊奇的精确的rap流畅度（“对不起，嗯？我爱你/我知道这并不是谈话的方式，这是一种麻烦”）。A妹的音乐印记，已达到挣脱物质性锁链的程度。

The non-Pharrell tracks come courtesy of past Grande collaborators like Max Martin, ILYA, and TB Hits, and largely tap into the ongoing trap influence on the Top 40. Not one of them is outright filler, but an ode to a toxic ex like “everytime” is markedly less original—the kind of bad-decision-making set to ominous thumping that’s all over the charts. Grande’s got her own new rules, though: She tweaks the daydreaming of Imogen Heap into the throbbing EDM twinkle of “goodnight n go” and turns the melancholy of Drake into a meditation on anxiety with “breathin.” Neither is a direct extension of her work with Williams, but both feel like natural fits on an album all about finding the light.

 一些像Max Martin，ILYA，和TB Hits等的其他合作制作人，制作的歌曲很大程度上都是B榜上前四十的热门曲目风格。其中没有一个是完全的filler（垃圾）曲，但是像“everytime”这首颂歌式的音乐明显不那么跟随潮流，并且歌里没有那种统治着整个榜单的烦躁的“砰砰声”。A妹有她自己的新套路：她将Imogen Heap的“白日梦”转变为闪烁着EDM光芒的作品--“goodnight n go”，并且将德雷克式多愁善感转变为能表达出在焦虑中沉思的歌曲--“breathin.”这两首歌都不是与菲董一起直接创作的，但是这两首歌都自然适用于在专辑中，表达着寻找光明。

Grande may have delivered more of a full-album vibe than a bangers-filled juggernaut, but there is at least one career-defining moment here—the song she has been looking for, wrapped in an unassuming package. Sweetener ends with “get well soon,” the sort of freeform, self-help soul ballad you’d maybe expect to round out a Beyoncé opus. Anyone who knows how gracefully Grande handled the horrific events at her Manchester show last year will recognize an equally graceful response to her own emotional aftermath in this song. Channeling all the conflicting voices in her head, Grande sings striking downbeat counter-melodies of “girl what’s wrong witchu come back down.” She soothes herself with her own luscious harmonies, urges fans to take care of one another, and modestly assures that anyone can work their way to the top. Like much of Sweetener, the song is musically sparse but encompasses a kaleidoscope of vocal tones. It is here, four albums in, that the true multitudes of her voice, and by extension herself, blossom.

  A妹要传达的是一种完整的专辑氛围，而不是爆炸性、摧毁性的力量，但是在这张专辑中至少有一个足以定义她职业生涯的时刻，也是她一直追寻的歌曲风格，仿佛装在一个隐秘的包裹中。《sweetener》以“get well soon”为结尾，这是一种可以媲美碧昂斯作品般探寻自由与自我救赎精神的抒情歌。大家都知道A妹从容地处理了去年曼彻斯特演唱会发生的恐怖事件，她同样在她的歌曲中从容地回复了她自己的情感余波。当她脑中响起各种不和谐的声音时，A妹便唱起那朗朗上口的旋律，“girl what’s wrong witchu come back down.”她用甜美的和声宽慰自己，敦促粉丝互相照顾，并且适当地告诉人们，任何人都可以到达任何自己想要企及的顶峰。《sweetener》中的很多歌音乐结构比较散，但是却包含着如万花筒般的各式声调。

    是的，我们从这四张专辑中听到了属于Ariana Grande那许许多多真实的声音，以及她不断的自我提升与万丈光芒。