【搬运译满分乐评】The Skinny评Soccer Mommy 2020年专辑《color theory》

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

Sophie Allison, aka Soccer Mommy, just keeps getting better. Her latest record surpasses any expectations set by 2018’s Clean, which set her apart from the crowd with its effortlessly cool pop energy, razor-sharp riffs and wise takes on adolescent turmoil. With color theory, Allison revives a fiery and rebellious noughties aesthetic, upgraded with enchanting sonic clarity.

Sophie Allison，又名 Soccer Mommy，一直在变得更好。她的最新唱片《color theory》超越了2018年的《Clean》所既定的一切预期，这张杰作以其不费吹灰之力的清爽酷炫流行能量、剃刀般犀利的即兴创作和对青春期骚动的理智见解使她从人群中脱颖而出。凭借《color theory》，Allison 复兴了本世纪头十年极富热情和反叛气质的美学，并以迷人的清澈人声将之升华。

‘I’m the princess of screwing up!’ she declares on royal screw up, surely with pop-punk heroine Avril Lavigne in mind. “I feel like it really bangs,” admits Allison in an interview with The New York Times, and she's not wrong. color theory is brimful of delicious melodies, finding a place for both her signature brash earworms like Your Dog and the innocent prettiness of Blossom and Switzerland.

“我是废柴公主！"她在 “royal screw up” 中高呼，这必定是联想到流行朋克女英雄 Avril Lavigne。“我觉得它真的很炸。”Allison 在接受《纽约时报》的采访时承认道，这显然是事实。《color theory》充斥着美妙的旋律，这为她无论是 “Your Dog” 中的标志性粗暴耳语，还是 “Blossom” 和 “Switzerland” 中的纯真可爱找到了舞台。

color theory finds Allison digging a little deeper, addressing topics that she may have previously been avoiding. The record consists of three distinct parts – a spectrum of emotions – each embodying a corresponding colour: blue for depression; yellow for paranoia, mental and physical illness; grey for death. Although the majority of the record is upbeat, a closer look shows Allison staring misery in the face, tackling, in particular, emotions surrounding her mother’s terminal cancer diagnosis when she was a pre-teen. But far from providing resolution, the record is a candid portrait of a woman still very much in turmoil; untangling the knots of trauma, of depressive numbness, of the realisation of her own mortality.

从《color theory》中我们得以发现 Allison 更深入地发掘内心的困顿，解决了她先前一度回避的话题。这张唱片由三个不同的部分组成——情绪的光谱——每个部分都有相应的颜色与之呼应：蓝色代表抑郁；黄色代表偏执、精神囚笼和身体疾病；而灰色代表死亡。虽然这张唱片讲述的的大部分内容是乐观的，但仔细品味，Allison 所面对的仍是苦难，特别是当她正值年少，却深陷她母亲不幸确诊癌症晚期的情绪之中。但这张唱片并未提供解决方案，而仍在很大程度上逼真地描绘了一个身处动荡之中的女性肖像；解开创伤、抑郁、发觉自己死亡的结。

‘I’ve barely left my room in the past week’, she sings serenely on bloodstream, cheerfully chugging guitars carrying her along while her world falls apart. With circle the drain, Allison longs to feel ‘calm’, ‘strong’ for her loved ones, but is unable to escape her turmoil. The song’s power lies in the mismatch of the music and the lyrics, in the relief that never comes. As the chorus reaches a kind of sonic resolution, you wait for the resolving line but are left only with the strange conclusion: ‘I’m going down’. 

“在过去的一周里，我几乎没有离开过我的房间”，她在 “bloodstream” 中平静地唱道，伴着欢快的吉他音，而她的世界却渐渐分崩离析。在 “circle the drain” 中，Allison 渴望能为她所爱的人感到 “平静”、“坚强”，但却仍无法摆脱她内心的混乱。这首歌的力量恰恰在于音乐和歌词的违和，在于时时等候却从未得到的一刻解脱。当副歌达到某一音色识别度时，你等待着清晰的那一刻，但最终只留下了一个怪异的尾声：“I’m going down”。

On one hand, color theory could easily be enjoyed as intelligent and catchy indie-rock; on the other, it could be heard as something much more disquieting. By juxtaposing shatteringly sad lyrics with the cheeriness of the music, Allison presents her pain as unconquerable; too big to look at directly. When there can be no possible relief, she has to find a way to live on anyway. Maybe this is it: ‘Can’t erase the hue / It’s just coloured over’.

一方面，《color theory》可以很容易地作为聪明的、朗朗上口的独立摇滚乐来欣赏；但另一方面，它也可以被认为是更令人深感不安的东西。通过将令人心碎的悲伤歌词与欢快的编曲交错，Allison 将她的痛苦附上了不可战胜的战衣；强大到难以直视。当无从得到缓解喘息，她也不得不寻得一种方法来继续生活，也许这就是它——“Can’t erase the hue / It’s just coloured over”。