【搬运】【译】叉婊Pitchfork评Carly Rae Jepsen 2019年专辑《Dedicated》（奉献爱）
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：Simon Joanne
校对：Tyler smith
排版：SpencerC
On her fourth album, the Canadian pop star is doing what she does best, calibrating lovesick or lovelorn synthpop that’s neither too hot nor too cold—and sometimes, regrettably, only lukewarm.
在这位加拿大流行歌手的第四张专辑中，Carly Rae Jepsen把她最擅长的东西发挥到了极致，用合成器流行乐将单相思与失恋苦的差别校准明晰，不过最后结果有点显得不温不火。
Carly Rae Jepsen ties up bright, ribbony pop songs with the magnetism of a person who’s a little too modest to be a pop star. She goes for the big feelings, and as a result, inspires near-rapturous devotion. Jepsen’s most ardent fans feel called to defend her, to arm her with a sword, to catalyze the moment that will reveal her magic beyond doubt. With 2015’s E•MO•TION, they nearly had it; I’ll go one further and say that its follow-up, the overflow collection E•MO•TION Side B, is the better listen. Dedicated, Jepsen’s fourth full-length album, returns to her signature combination of self-aware innocence and mature restraint, though its greater purpose is not always quite clear. She’s doing what she does best, calibrating lovesick or lovelorn synthpop that’s neither too hot nor too cold—and sometimes, regrettably, only lukewarm.
Carly Rae Jepsen用一种似乎谦逊得不像一个流行歌手的个人魅力将闪亮、条状的流行歌曲束牢系紧。她倾向于抒发大的情感，结果是引发了几乎是热烈的奉献。Jepsen最狂热的粉丝感觉使命在召唤自己来为Jepsen辩护，手执刀剑来守护她，并努力促成她必定展现的魔法的时刻的到来。当「E•MO•TION」在2015年发行之时，他们几乎已经做到了。但我要说，其续作也可以说是多余曲目的合辑也可以说是「E•MO•TION」的下半部分，并且听起来还要好一点。「Dedicated」，Jepsen的第四张个人全长专辑，回归到了她混合她自觉到的单纯与成熟带来的约束的独特标识，尽管其更为深刻的意图并没有显得非常明晰了然。她正在把她最擅长的东西发挥到极致——用合成器流行乐将单相思与失恋苦的差别校准明晰，不过最后结果有点显得不温不火。
Dedicated takes a more relaxed approach to Jepsen’s well-established penchant for ’80s pop. By her own description, the album began under the working title of “Music to Clean Your House To,” a characteristically unassuming goal. The windshield-wiper synths that open “Julien” or the casual autopilot of “Automatically in Love” point to Jepsen’s other guiding aesthetic: “chill disco,” a mood that vaunts sparkling melodies over writing that can feel short on intrigue. Each of these upbeat yet tasteful jams is sturdy enough to spur you through another load of laundry, and light on the kind of indulgent flourishes that spawned “Run Away With Me” saxophone memes. The total effect is glossy, but the individual moments shine a little less; few lines here have the breathless potency of, “Late night watching television/But how’d we get in this position?”
「Dedicated」用一种更为轻松的方式达到了Jepsen对80年代流行乐成熟的偏爱。用她自己的描述，这张专辑一开始是在“你在家里打扫卫生时候会听的歌”这个标题之下开始制作的——这完全是个典型的谦逊的目标。开篇「Julien」的挡风玻璃雨刷器合成器、「Automatically in Love」里的随机自动驾驶仪都指向了Jepsen所引导的另一种审美——“弛放迪斯科”，一种在吹嘘着耀眼旋律并使人在神秘气氛感觉不到时间流逝的创作的心情。音乐中每一种阳光美味的果酱都足够坚固到能刺激你再洗一道衣服，还有这种放纵的繁荣上的光芒引起了「Run Away With Me」里的萨克斯管模因。总的来说，其效果是光彩夺目的，但单个看的时候，这种效果又会小打折扣；有一些歌词还是有一种令人窒息的震撼力，比如：
“Late night watching television/But how’d we get in this position?（深夜时分看着电视，但我们是怎么达到这里的？）”
Everything in Jepsen’s world always comes back to love, and in the past, the feeling was usually unrequited. That’s changed now; on Dedicated, love is more assured of itself, and for the first time, distinctly sexy. Rarely has her singing sounded so breathy and astonished. “No Drug Like Me” describes the intoxication of new love as a dry-mouthed truth serum; “The Sound” can play like a plea for spoken commitment, or something altogether more carnal. “Like pressure points my love can ease him in my hands,” Jepsen sings on “Everything He Needs,” an unlikely and lightly risqué flip of “He Needs Me,” the Harry Nilsson-written song performed by Shelley Duvall’s Olive Oyl in the 1980 film Popeye. “Want You in My Room,” a scene-stealing Jack Antonoff production, wields its pitch-shifted hook like a conspiratorial voice disguise. “I’m like a lighthouse/I’m a reminder of where you’re goin’,” Jepsen sings, the kind of clever line that’s often missing here. She’s also used it before, on E•MO•TION’s “All That,” so she must really mean it.
在Jepsen的音乐世界中，所有事物最后都会归为爱，而在过去，这种感觉通常是没有回报的。但是现在不同了，在「Dedicated」中，爱变得更为坚定，而且第一次，变得直白而性感。她的演唱很少如此有如此浓重的呼吸声和受到震惊的感觉。「No Drug Like Me」将对于新欢上瘾般的依恋描述为一种让口腔干燥的真相血清；「The Sound」可被看作是一种对于口头承诺的恳求，或者总的来说是一种较为肉欲的感觉。“Like pressure points my love can ease him in my hands（就像压力点一样，我的爱可以让他在我手中放松）”Jepsen在「Everything He Needs」中唱道，带有一种有点不真实的、轻微的色情色彩，“He Needs Me（他需要我）”这首在1980年的电影《大力水手》中由Harry Nilsson创作、Shelley Duvall饰演的Olive Oyl演唱的歌曲。「Want You in My Room」一首抢镜头的Jack Antonoff制作的作品，把它转换音调的钩子像一个充满阴谋的声音伪装一样挥舞。“I’m like a lighthouse/I’m a reminder of where you’re goin’（我就像一座灯塔，我为你指引着方向），” Jepsen唱道，这种巧妙的歌词经常被忽略掉。在「E•MO•TION」的「All That」她曾经也这样做过，这说明她一定是认真的。
Though an album of coy disco romance is a good thing, at times Dedicated strains in other directions. The pastel EDM-pop bounce of “Now That I Found You” comes closest to the reckless joy of Jepsen’s single “Cut to the Feeling,” a song impossible to improve on. “Happy Not Knowing” takes a more classically CRJ approach to romance with its “please don’t tell me” appeal to a crush, but perhaps the territory is too familiar. “I’ll only go so far/I don’t have the energy/To risk a broken heart/When you’re already killing me,” Jepsen sings, because she’s loved and lost, and she mostly just sounds bummed about it. These should be some of the album’s best songs, but they feel wiped clean of the messy ambiguities that fog up real emotions.
尽管作为一张浪漫羞涩的迪斯科专辑其本身很不错，但「Dedicated」依然在其他方面有所偏离。蜡笔般多彩活力的电子流行「Now That I Found You」最接近其单曲「Cut to the Feeling」的那种无顾后果的欢愉，这首歌几乎没有进步的空间。「Happy Not Knowing」用了一种更加Jepsen式的方式表现了让“请别告诉我”更加浪漫的一种迷恋，不过她也可能对这方面太过熟悉了。“I’ll only go so far/I don’t have the energy/To risk a broken heart/When you’re already killing me（我只能到达这一步了，我已经筋疲力尽，无法再孤注一掷，而你已经让我无法喘息）,”Jepsen唱道，因为她既正被爱着，同时也是迷茫无助的，只不过她大概是太过于灰心丧气了。这些歌应该成为全专最佳，但他们似乎被去除了一种真实情感中混杂的摸棱两可的混乱因素。
As with E•MO•TION, Jepsen wrote a lot of songs for this album—more than 100—and ultimately a few too many made the cut. Some of the weakest tracks are swallowed up in their expertly interlocked sequences of pre-chorus and chorus; the verses to “Right Words Wrong Time” feel like afterthoughts. The extra distractions hide potential sleeper hits like the funk-lite of “Feels Right” and the balmy, vulnerable “Real Love,” which deserves to be a standout. But by the time the album ends with last November’s single “Party for One,” it’s been displaced, lost in the shuffle of a transitional album with its heart set but its mind not yet quite made up.
加上「E•MO•TION」，Jepsen已经为这张专辑写了一共超过100首歌——最终只有少部分歌曲得到了使用。他们之中的有些歌被吞没在了熟练的副歌-前副歌的互锁序列之中。「Right Words Wrong Time」的主歌部分就像一种反思。其他分散注意力的因素隐藏在潜在的睡眠冲击之后，就如「Feels Right」的放克线和温和、脆弱的「Real Love」这首本该成为亮点的歌。但在专辑用最后一支十一月的歌「Party for One」结束之前，它已经被替换、消失在了这张过渡性专辑的拖沓之中，心境已定而心意却未决。
