【搬运】【译】Pitchfork评Meghan Trainor 2020年专辑《Treat Myself》

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：Kai-Kaiyue

审译：Lynn Liu

排版：Ryan-Chopin

The pop star attempts to be all things to all people, offering an overstimulating mix of sounds and a message of self-flagellation disguised as empowerment.

这位流行歌手尝试做到面面俱到，她的新专里大咖云集，可谓是一场听觉盛宴，同时也向我们提供了伪装成女权的自我鞭策的信息。

Meghan Trainor’s latest album, Treat Myself, includes the tapping sound of a coconut opener used as an instrument, the word “genetics” spelled out in a chant, and a children’s choir. It does not include the song “Treat Myself,” a jangly slew of saccharine self-indulgence released in a blitz of singles that preceded the album. For that, you’ll have to buy the extended version, available only at Target.

Meghan Trainor的最新专辑，《Treat Myself（善待自己）》中，有将椰子开瓶器作为乐器的击打声，有拼写单词“genetics”的反复吟唱还有童声合唱。专辑并不包含“Treat Myself（善待自己）”这首歌，这首甜到发腻关于自我放纵的单曲先于专辑发布，且仅在Target上可购买。

Treat Myself was originally scheduled for release back in August 2018, but Trainor pushed it back because she couldn’t stop writing songs, vowing not to release it “until I get everything out of my head and recorded in the studio.” The result is an album that tries to be all things to all people, a sonic overload that bludgeons the listener with bastardized “empowerment” for 15 songs. Treat Myself is clogged with oozing ballads, contaminated funk, and garish shudders of EDM. The closest thing to a mission statement is “Babygirl,” a glitchy, throbbing wail whose chorus goes “Love yourself! Love yourself! Love yourself! Love yourself! AHHH!”

这张专辑原定于2018年八月发布，但是Trainor的灵感源源不断，她发誓直到脑中的所有东西都写出来并在工作室录制完才可以发行。结果就是这张尝试让所有人满意的专辑，包含了15首让听众被迫接受的女权观点。这张专辑中包含抒情，放克还有花哨的EDM。最接近主题的一首歌是“Babygirl”，副歌间断的唱出“Love yourself! Love yourself! Love yourself! Love yourself! AHHH!（善待自己！善待自己！善待自己！）”

If you ask Meghan Trainor, she might say she makes feel-good songs, anthems for boss-bitches-in-training who yearn to “have it all,” as she croons. But in Trainor’s world, having it all tends to center around male approval. She catapulted to fame in 2014 with “All About That Bass,” a catchy-enough jingle assuring the masses that men do, in fact, like butts. Feminists condemned the song for its not-so-subtle messaging (your body is acceptable, but only because men want to Fuck it), and Trainor later announced that she didn’t consider herself a feminist—a sentiment she doubled down on with followup single “Dear Future Husband,” which painted a housewife fantasy in which marital happiness hinges on the wife buying groceries. (Two years later, with a new album to promote, she changed her mind.)

如果去问Meghan Trainor，她会说每首歌都非常令人愉悦，这些歌都是为了那些渴望拥有一切的人而作。但是在她的世界中，拥有一切的基准是倾向于得到男性的认可。2014年，她因“All About That Bass”这首歌一炮而红，这首朗朗上口的歌曲向大众传递出的信息是：事实上男人都喜欢丰满的女人。女权主义者们指责这首歌中透露出的明显的态度（只有男人认可的身材才是好的），但之后Trainor宣称她并不是一个女权主义者，在她随后发行的单曲“Dear Future Husband”还加强了这一观点。这首歌描绘出一个家庭主妇的幻想就是婚姻的幸福来自于妻子采购。（两年后，在她新发行的专辑里，她的想法改变了。）

Much of Treat Myself relies on the idea of female duplicity; instead of dismantling the trope, Trainor’s lyrics capitulate to it. “I’m crazy but I’m sweet,” she warbles on “Blink.” “Evil Twin” is more explicit: an apology from Trainor for the “crazy bitch” side of her, which makes her “make my bad decisions, but I’m innocent.” Where Lizzo and other pop stars who capitalize on the commodification of female empowerment have embraced the unruly, unlikable woman—“100% that bitch, even when I’m crying, crazy”—Trainor is left constantly placating: for hesitating to take a compliment, for daring to get drunk, for being both too much and too little. This is self-flagellation disguised as motivation, a Peloton instructor prompting you to pedal faster until you hurl.

《Treat Myself》这张专辑很多观点都来自于女性的双重性。比起运用比喻手法，她的歌词非常直白。“Blink”这首歌中写道“I’m crazy but I’m sweet（我疯狂但也甜蜜）”。“Evil Twin”是一首更为直白的道歉：她邪恶疯狂的一面使她“make my bad decisions, but I’m innocent（虽然我做错一堆事，但我很冤）”。当Lizzo和其他流行歌手利用女权的商业化，去展现女性不羁难以接近的一面时，正如歌词“100% that bitch, even when I’m crying, crazy（我100%是狠角。即使我哭态疯狂）”所唱，Trainor则继续扮演着柔弱的一面：不敢得到赞扬，不敢喝醉，不论多或少。这种伪装成动力的自我鞭策就像是Peloton的教练一直催促你蹬踏板直到你吐了为止。

Confusing production choices make the album even more exhausting. “Nice to Meet Ya”, the most tolerable track, is engineered to be a banger, with tingling drums and a mediocre Nicki Minaj verse, but its whisper of a chorus is harsh and irritating. “Wave” starts off with panoramic piano and titanic vocals before a gaudy EDM pulse kicks in, turning it into something like a Cascada remix for a middle school dance in a sweaty gym. Trainor relies on ostentatious background vocals throughout, which oscillate between gospel-inflected harmonies and cartoonish carols. (She’s said they were inspired by visits to Kanye West’s Sunday Services.) Droning “dum dum dum”s grate against bass drops; choruses droop under the weight of so many voices. “I miss the way we used to funk,” Trainor chirps over “Disney on Ice”–meets–disco beats, in “Funk,” a song so charmed by its ability to substitute “Fuck” for “funk” that it repeats the sentence six times in the first twenty seconds.

The oddest moment on the album is the song “Genetics,” which seems designed to provoke controversy. “How you get that bod? Is it from God?” Trainor trills alongside The Pussycat Dolls, then spells out the titular word like a cheerleader for eugenics. It’s especially jarring after a string of songs about how earnestly Trainor is working to improve herself (including “Workin’ on It,” a muted song that seems genuinely well-intentioned). You want to root for her throughout the record, hearing her croon about lost love and never being asked to dance; you want her to love herself for something other than the sake of attracting someone. Aiming to uplift women is an obvious good. But maybe true empowerment means we can demand more from those who claim to speak for us.

令人迷惑的歌曲选择让这张专辑的听众很疲惫。“Nice to Meet Ya”是其中最能接受的一首。强烈的鼓点和Nicki Minaj的部分让这首歌有了一点爆点，但是副歌的口哨声刺耳令人恼火。“Wave（海浪）”这首歌的前奏都是钢琴，强烈的声乐在一个停顿之后引入了花哨的EDM。这首歌就好像是Cascada在充满汗臭的体育馆为了中学的舞蹈混音一样。Trainor贯穿全曲夸张的背景音在福音曲调和声与卡通颂歌之间摇摆。（她说灵感来自于Kanye West的演唱会Sunday Services）。“Dum Dum Dum”的嗡嗡声与低音贝斯相互摩擦，副歌被如此多的音效盖住。在“I miss the way we used to funk”这首歌中，她将迪士尼冰上嘉年华和迪斯科的节奏融入放克中，这首歌吸引人的地方就在于用funk代替了Fuck。这句歌词在前二十秒内重复了六次。

最奇怪的歌曲是专辑中的“Genetics”，这首歌好像是为了引发争议而作。“How you get that bod? Is it from God?（你的身材为何如此完美？是上天的赏赐么？）”伴随着The Pussycat Dolls的声音，Trainor就像是优学生的啦啦队长一样拼写出了这个单词。尤其是在一连串都是关于Trainor认真努力提高自己的歌曲中（包括“Workin’ on It”这一首看似包含善意却表意不明确的歌曲）这首歌显得格格不入。听众想要通过这张专辑支持她，听她失恋和从未被邀请共舞的故事；想要让她不因去为了得到别人的关注这个原因去爱自己。鼓励女性固然是好的，但是真正的女权可能意味这我们可以要求那些为我们发声的人做到更多。