【搬运】【译】NME杂志评Lady Gaga 2009年专辑《The Fame Monster》

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：Clara

校正：Lynn Liu/Ryan-Chopin

作者：Ben Patashnik 

Let’s just get this out of the way, shall we? About 99 per cent of pop is drudging twuntery assembled by blank-eyed robots who are unjustly rewarded with mountains of cash, while all my favourite bands languish and die in places like Tacoma, Washington. As someone who believes hardcore punk to be mankind’s highest artform, [a]Lady Gaga[/a] is the antithesis of my Fucking soul: she eats diamonds marinated in the tears of seraphim, I eat week-old misery on toast. I’d despise her… but she is that remaining one per cent. 

我们何尝不先来直接谈谈这件事呢？几乎99%的流行音乐都像是由空洞的机器人组装起来一样，没有一点人情味，即使如此，依然能大卖；相反，我最喜欢的乐队却在塔科马（Tacoma, Washington）这样的城市中饱受煎熬、萎靡不振，令人唏嘘。一些人坚信硬核朋克（hardcore punk）才是人类的最高艺术形式，更是把它奉为灵魂的制高点，而Lady Gaga却与此相悖。这就像是她吃着由六翼天使（seraphim）泪水浸泡过的钻石，我却咀嚼着一周前剩下的发霉面包。我虽嗤之以鼻，但不得不承认，她的音乐就是那仅有的百分之一。

It’s because she’s baffling. ‘The Fame Monster’, being eight new tunes welded to last year’s ‘The Fame’ (where most pop muppets would tack on a tossed-off remix or two, La Gaga delves into her paranoid soul and constructs a thematic collection around new demons that have invaded her life – monsters representing her fear of, among others, sex, death, loneliness and alcohol) is as pristine as you’d expect, but has a sub-zero core of isolation and fear. In the same way as [a]Radiohead[/a] battle computers and learn new instruments to hew their sculptures while [a]Fuck Buttons[/a] and [a]HEALTH[/a] discover new sonic languages, she uses pop, its producers and masks and all its artifice, as her tool of self-expression. 

这是因为她有着令人捉摸不透的心思。新专辑《The Fame Monster》和去年发行的《The Fame》一脉相承，围绕着极度孤独和恐惧的核心，给人一种期待已久的质朴纯净（大多数的流行音乐都会加入一两首混音，而Lady Gaga却深入挖掘她充满恐惧的灵魂，以入侵生活的魔鬼为主题作为全专辑的基调——表达了她对他人，性欲，死亡，孤独，酒精的恐惧）。电台司令乐队（Radiohead）转而开发计算机、学习新乐器来打磨乐曲，Fuck Buttons和HEALTH也不断变换、发现新奇的声音与更好的言语表达，而Lady Gaga依旧坚持从流行音乐出发，苦心钻研传统制作方法，传统的技巧，大胆地表达自我。

‘So Happy I Could Die’ perfectly evokes the feeling of being alone in a crowded room with its icy beats, suggesting Gaga takes refuge in masturbation as the only way to retain control, while ‘Bad Romance’ would be hateful if it didn’t have a chorus so wonderfully big it dwarfs the industry of a million angry dudes with guitars. Next to the light-hearted ‘Alejandro’, the jagged ‘Teeth’ and ‘Speechless’, an old-fashioned torch song that sounds like it was recorded with the sole intention of being sung while Gaga sprawls hungrily over a grand piano, are proof of her range and depth of talent. And in an ecstasy of look-how-Fucking-gargantuan-we-are-as-icons, Beyoncé appears on ‘Telephone’ to effectively say cheers for Gaga singing on her ‘Video Phone’. Coincidence? This shit’s as organised and potent as a North Korean military parade. 

"So Happy I Could Die"借助冰冷的节奏，完美诠释了一个人在拥挤喧闹房间内的孤独感，引发了人们的共鸣，这也暗示Gaga借助自我发泄作为唯一控制自己的手段，而"Bad Romance"的成功之处在于精彩的副歌部分使上百万吉他手的表演黯然失色。接下来的几首音乐——节奏轻快的"Alejandro"，曲风独特的"Teeth"，老式伤感的"Speechless"（它听起来像是记录着Gaga在三角钢琴上贪婪地边爬行边唱歌的场景），更是展现了她过人的音乐天赋和制作潜力。在合作"Telephone"后，粉丝们看到Beyoncé又通过她的单曲"Video Phone"为Gaga歌唱喝彩，不禁欣喜若狂。这是巧合吗？这出杰作就像是朝鲜阅兵队伍一样有组织、有力。

Those new songs are fine, even though ‘Dance In The Dark’ and ‘Monster’ are slightly too disposable, but considering the likes of the stone-cold stunner ‘Paparazzi’ and of course ‘Poker Face’, pretty much the one song 2009 will be remembered for, are included on the original album, this becomes essential for anyone who even remotely likes pop. For the rest of us, it’s the moment Gaga cements herself as a real star. Damn. 

尽管"Dance In The Dark"和"Monster"有些随意，但总体来说这些新歌都还是不错的。就节奏冰冷如石的"Paparazzi"和传世经典的"Poker Face"而言，喜欢流行乐的人们也正希望它们能被收录在这张专辑中，这对他们来说有着特殊的意义；而对于我们来说，此专辑是见证Gaga成长为一位明星的时刻。