【搬运译】叉婊Pitchfork评Charli XCX 2011年单曲“Stay Away”

搬运自：网易云音乐专栏【Music Online Zine Courier】（在原文基础上添加了英语原文与排版调整）

翻译：豆目豆科

In the three years since UK up-and-comer Charli XCX released her first single, the press has tempered any enthusiasm for the teenage singer's lush pop songs with skepticism about her longevity. So perhaps it's a sly rebuke to faint-praising critics that her latest single, "Stay Away", draws so heavily from T'Pau, the 1980s one-hit wonder whose "Heart and Soul" was one of the most eloquent synth-pop songs on the radio in 1987. The group never again scaled such heights, but nearly a quarter-century later, that song survives on countless compilations, mixtapes, and wedding setlists. Charli XCX's fate is, of course, unknowable, but "Stay Away" smartly evokes a certain romance for pop's darker corners, evoking any number of artists who were largely forgotten by the time Charli XCX was born: Nu Shooz, Martika, Shakespear's Sister. This song should be pastiche, but its synths pulse with gothic fervor as Charli effortlessly toggles between careful restraint and operatic emotionalism. "Won't you just stay away?" she pleads on the hook, her infectious longing making it pretty damn difficult to do just that.

在英国新晋歌手Charli XCX在发布她第一支单曲后的三年里，媒体对这位少女歌手优美的流行歌曲的热情有所减弱，同时也为她能长红持怀疑态度。她的最新单曲“Stay Away”在很大程度上借鉴了T'Pau的作品，这也许是对那些不堪一击的批评者的一种狡猾的回击，T'Pau可谓是上世纪80年代的单曲奇迹，其“Heart and Soul”是1987年电台中最具影响力的合成器流行歌曲之一。这个团体之后再也没有达到这样的高度，但近四分之一个世纪后，这首歌仍在无数的合辑、混音带或是婚礼节目单中得以留存。当然，Charli XCX的命运尚不可知，但“Stay Away”巧妙地唤起了暗藏在流行音乐阴暗角落的某种浪漫，唤起了人们对那些在Charli XCX出生时已基本被遗忘的艺术家——Nu Shooz、Martika、Shakespear's Sister。这首歌可能仅仅是模仿，但它的合成器却充斥着哥特式的狂热，Charli毫不费力地在谨小慎微的克制和歌剧式的浪漫主义之间切换。她在Hook中恳求道：“Won't you just stay away?”她那富有感染力的渴望是常人难以做到的。