【搬运】【译】Rolling Stone评Bruce Springsteen2019年专辑《Western Stars》

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：Will Lin

校对：Ryan-Chopin

排版：Spencerc

他最新发行的唱片唤起了人们对于上世纪六、七十年代略带乡村风格的加州流行乐的回忆，专辑听起来和他之前做的截然不同。

There have been times throughout Bruce Springsteen’s career when California has called. He named a song for the state after his parents moved there in 1971, and he’d return to it, in life and writing, repeatedly, chasing his dreams like Steinbeck’s Tom Joad. Western Stars (out June 14th) is the latest visit: a lushly orchestrated set of throwback, country-tinged folk pop that, despite some resemblance to previous works like Nebraska and The Ghost of Tom Joad, sounds like little else in his catalog. Frankly, its sheen is off-putting at first. But once you settle in, the set reveals some of Springsteen’s most beguiling work ever.

Bruce Springsteen的职业生涯中曾多次提及加州。1971年他的父母搬到加州后，他把一首歌命名为加州，之后多次重返加州，在创作上也多次涉及加州，追逐着他如Steinbeck创作的小说人物Tom Joad一样的梦想。《Western Stars》于6月14号发行，又一次提及了加州：略带乡村风格的民谣摇滚豪华回归，诚意满满。尽管与之前的《Nebraska（内布拉斯加州)》和《The Ghost of Tom Joad (Tom Joad 的鬼魂)》等作品有些类似，新专辑依然具有独特性。坦白说，一开始专辑并不出彩。但是一旦你习惯了，整张专辑就会向你散发Springsteen出道至今最吸引人的光彩。

The sonic approach is in full bloom on “Hello Sunshine,” the first single. Draped in strings and pedal steel moan, it evokes existential late-Sixties/early-Seventies radio balladry like Glen Campbell’s version of Jimmy Webb’s “Wichita Lineman” and Harry Nilsson’s cover of Fred Neil’s “Everybody’s Talkin’.” The sound dates back to Springsteen’s youth, and he channels it masterfully, with some of his most polished singing.

首单“Hello Sunshine（你好阳光)”中对声音的处理臻于极致。歌曲运用弦乐以及钢铁踏板发出的低音，唤起了听众存留在脑海中六十年代末期/七十年代初期的电台民谣，例如Jimmy Webb 的“Wichita Lineman（威奇托线务员)”（Glen Campbell翻唱版)以及Fred Neil 的“Everybody’s Talkin’(人人都在谈论)”(Harry Nilsson翻唱版)。Springsteen 的歌声把我们带回到他的青年时期，这归功于他炉火纯青的演唱以及强大的情感集中能力。

The vocals here are often revelatory, more Neil Diamond than Otis Redding or Woody Guthrie. “There Goes My Miracle” conjures the grandeur of Phil Spector-era Righteous Brothers and the Left Banke’s “Walk Away Renée,” with a dash of Fiddler on the Roof’s “Sunrise, Sunset.” Meanwhile, “The Wayfarer,” — with a TV soundstage worth of strings, French horns and cooing background singers (Patti Scialfa and Soozie Tyrell) — brings the sort of borderline-camp drama one recalls from The Engelbert Humperdinck Show.

歌曲的演唱通常具有启示性，Springsteen的嗓音更像是Neil Diamond，而非Otis Redding或者Woody Guthrie。歌曲“There Goes My Miracle（我的力量来了)”带有Phil Spector那个年代Righteous Brothers组合和the Left Banke乐队的歌曲“Walk Away Renée”中的宏伟感，又有一点音乐剧《Fiddler on the Roof (屋顶上的提琴手)》中的插曲“Sunrise, Sunset （日出，日落)”的感觉。同时，歌曲“The Wayfarer”运用了弦乐、法国号以及低声细语的人声伴唱（Patti Scialfa和Soozie Tyrell)，以现场音乐会的形式通过电视播出，让人回想起《The Engelbert Humperdinck Show》中阵营分明的戏剧表演。

The stories Springsteen tells here are a departure, too. Gone are the hardscrabble immigrant farmworkers and drug mules of Tom Joad. In their place is the C-list actor of the title track, whose claim to fame is having been “shot by John Wayne,” and apparently is now reduced to doing ads for boner meds (“. . . that little blue pill/That promises to bring it all back to you again”). The narrator of “Drive Fast (The Stuntman)” — in an echo of Springsteen’s theme song for Mickey Rourke’s The Wrestler — is a fellow has-been who laments, “I got two pins in my ankle and a busted collarbone/A steel rod in my leg, but it walks me home.” Against a backdrop of 2019 America, and sung by a man who turns 70 this fall, the music’s metaphoric thrust — tough-guy actors whose time is nearly past — is obvious.

Springsteen在这首歌中讲述的故事也是一场别离。贫穷的外来农民和Tom Joad的毒品走私犯走了。取而代之的是专辑同名曲中眼熟却叫不出名字的演员。他们因参与John Wayne拍摄的电影而出名，但明显如今落魄到给一些药物拍广告（“...蓝色小药片/保证让你再次重温一切”)。歌曲“Drive Fast (The Stuntman)”呼应了Springsteen为演员Mickey Rourke主演的电影《The Wrestler（摔角王）》创作的主题曲。该曲讲述了一个风光不再的专家，他哀叹道：“我的脚踝犹如针刺，我的锁骨伤痕累累/我的腿中好像有根钢筋，但是它却支撑着我回家。”专辑于2019年在美国发行，由一位即将在这个秋天达到70高龄的老先生演唱。如此一来，专辑体现的隐喻性要旨——属于坚韧演员的时代将要过去——就不言而喻了。

A number of the songs here straddle the classic and the cliché, as country songs often do, though they’re not country, exactly. Taken individually, they can also seem thin. As the singer himself cops at one point, “Same old cliché, a wanderer on his way.” But framed by the album’s larger themes, they hit home, deepened by a seasoned actor’s self-awareness. Western Stars shows Springsteen pulling back the curtain on his craft in much the same way Springsteen on Broadway did. In fact, in its elliptical narratives, it might have the makings of a good musical itself.

尽管确切地说，专辑中的许多歌曲并不属于乡村音乐，但正如乡村音乐常表现出来的那样，这些歌曲介于经典和陈腔滥调之间。以私人的眼光看，这些歌曲似乎看起来也没有深意。正如歌手本身一度说过：“又是同样的陈腔滥调，一个流浪汉在路上。”但是在专辑更宏大主题的框架下，这些歌曲切中要害，通过一位老练演员的自知之明得到深化。《Western Stars》表明了Springsteen正在退出自己的舒适圈，这点Springsteen在专辑《Springsteen on Broadway》里也有体现。事实上，借助隐晦的叙事方式，此专辑具有成为一部优秀音乐剧的潜质。