[译]Rolling Stone滚石评No Doubt《Return Of Saturn》
The difference between obscurity and overexposure is only one video and a few million Total Request Live votes. After languishing for years on the Orange County, California, ska scene, No Doubt sold 15 million copies worldwide of their 1995 album, Tragic Kingdom, largely on the strength of a power ballad that resembled nothing else on the album. Along the way, the band lost an early member to suicide, forfeited Gwen Stefani’s keyboardist brother, Eric (who co-wrote “Don’t Speak”), to a Simpsons animating job, weathered a breakup between its famous singer and bassist Tony Kanal, and revived pop-y New Wave styles when grunge was king.
从默默无闻到过度曝光的区别仅在于一支mv与Total Request Live 百万级别的票数。在加州南部的橘子郡（老家）的ska舞台上沉寂多年后，No Doubt的专辑《Tragic Kingdom》横空出世，这张专辑的全球销量达到1500万张（截止当时），这很大程度上都归功于一首在专辑里卓尔不群且充满力量感的抒情曲。一路走来，这支乐队失去了1名因自杀身亡的早期成员，失去了主动离队的键盘手，也是鸡瘟的哥哥Eric（与鸡瘟一起写出了 “Don’t Speak”），后来为动画《辛普森一家》进行动画制作。期间乐队也经受住了主唱与贝斯手Tony Kanal的分手的打击，还在以垃圾摇滚为王道的时代下复兴了流行新浪潮风格。
Add the fact that ska has pranced back to cult status, and it would be understandable if No Doubt didn’t rise to the occasion of their sudden success. But Return of Saturn is a rare achievement: a superstar follow-up that not only betters its predecessor but also radically departs from it. If you liked Tragic Kingdom, you should love Return of Saturn. And if you didn’t, you should still love it.
外加ska风格跃返“邪教”地位的背景下，就算No Doubt没有一夜爆红那也是能理解的， 但《Return of Saturn》是一次罕见的成功：不仅是前作的更进一步，还是脱离了前者的框架，如果你喜欢前作《Tragic Kingdom》，你便会爱上《Return of Saturn》，如果不，那么你也会爱上《Return of Saturn》这张专辑的。
No Doubt’s roots range from reggae to Broadway; they’re a something-for-everybody band that has finally grasped the means to achieve that deceptively lightweight goal. Fueled by constant touring followed by failed studio sessions with Tragic Kingdom producer Matthew Wilder and more touring, Return of Saturn is a supremely confident concept album about insecurity. Like that “Don’t Speak” video in which No Doubt men battle with Stefani for the camera’s affections, the extraordinarily tight and authoritative instrumental performances insist this is a band record, one that rocks way harder than the production credit for Glen Ballard (the studio veteran behind Alanis Morissette) might imply. For her part, Stefani pulls a technicolor star turn full of unexpected depth and flattering self-deprecation. Both sides end up winning.
No Doubt的起源可从雷鬼扩展到百老汇风格，他们是那种很讨人喜的乐队，并实现了一个看似轻量级的目标。在不断巡回演出与之后与《Tragic Kingdom》制作人Matthew Wilder谈崩的推动下，《Return of Saturn》是张讲述不安全感且概念非常顶级的专辑。就像“Don’t Speak”mv中的男性成员对女性成员鸡瘟的焦点争论不断。特别紧凑而又严肃的器乐表现 体现出这是一张乐队专辑 一张比Glen Ballard（Alanis Morissette之后的元老人物）的作品还要更摇滚的制作也许能暗示什么。在鸡瘟的部分，她使得她扮演了一个色彩斑斓的明星角色 充满了意想不到的深度和谄媚的自嘲。鸡瘟与其他三位男性成员都赢了。
“Ex-Girlfriend” sets the tone. Punk, hip-hop and world beat collide as the mood swings from manic to meditative and back again. Stefani rap-speaks of a doomed, impulsive love, warbles a tricky bridge and spits out singalong choruses as rhythms shift and guitars roar. The unlikely combination jells so effortlessly, you miss its compressed complexity.
开场曲“Ex-Girlfriend”奠定了全专基调，朋克，嘻哈与世界节奏的碰撞 如同狂躁到沉思来回波动的心绪。鸡瘟说唱了一段命中注定且冲动的爱情故事，用颤音吟唱出了bridge部分，还在吉他轰炸，节奏变化下厉声高歌了几曲。这样不可能的组合如此轻松地结合在一起，是你错过了它被压缩的复杂性。
A second after “Ex-Girlfriend” ends with a whisper, a folk-guitar strum announces “Simple Kind of Life.” Like peak-era R.E.M., this symphonic rock ballad details the tension between a fantasy of romantic commitment and the reality of independence; it manages to be at once grand, fragile and very, very sad. By the time Stefani softly confesses, “I always thought I’d be a mom / Sometimes I wish for a mistake,” it’s clear this woman whom many desire but few regard as a serious artist has penned a song that can sit on the same shelf with the likes of Elliott Smith and Aimee Mann. Her cutesy vocal mannerisms are gone, replaced by a longing that haunts well after the final chorus fades.
在 “Ex-Girlfriend”以耳语结束的一秒后，一声民谣吉他的弹奏宣告着“Simple Kind of Life.”的到来，像顶峰时期的 R.E.M.这首交响乐似的摇滚抒情讲述了幻想中的浪漫承诺与独立现实间的紧张关系，它既伟大又脆弱且非常悲伤。随着鸡瘟的倾情坦白“I always thought I’d be a mom / Sometimes I wish for a mistake,”很明显这个万人崇拜的女人，但这个很少被视作严肃艺术家的女人写出了一首能让她与Elliott Smith， Aimee Mann这样的艺术家相提并论的歌曲。她那一贯矫揉造作的嗓音消失了，取而代之的是在演唱结束后的流连忘返，萦绕心头。
The improvements don’t end there. Two years spent writing, recording, trashing and rerecording Return of Saturn have paid off with a collection of uniformly well-crafted, vigorously performed tunes that run the gamut from grungy to giddy, playful to pensive. “Six Feet Under” and “Staring Problem” reference No Doubt’s Missing Persons-meets-Van Halen past, yet the results are less shrill, more self-aware. The domestic farce of “Bathwater” suggests the music-hall high jinks of their beloved 2-Tone ska heroes with some Gilbert and Sullivan slap-shtick thrown in, but it never drops the band’s signature blend of adrenaline and sugar.
专辑进步的地方不止于此。2年的创作，录制，废弃，重新录音的《Return of Saturn》以统一，精良，活力的曲调，全方面跨越垃圾摇滚至嘻哈，玩闹至忧郁，皆取得了卓越的成效。“Six Feet Under”与 “Staring Problem”参考了No Doubt的《Missing Persons》与《Van Halen》的过去，但制作出的成果却不那么刺耳，带有了更多自己的味道。“Bathwater”中的国内闹剧让人联想到他们挚爱的二音ska偶像在音乐厅的狂欢，卷入了Gilbert与Sullivan的闹剧，但却没有丧失乐队标志性的“腺上激素与甜糖”的美妙交融的风格。
The rest of Return of Saturn ventures even further away from familiar territory. “Artificial Sweetener” evokes Hole’s acrid admissions. “Comforting Lie” hints at a more melodic Korn with its fragmented, frustrated lyrics and variations between rigidity and catharsis. The propulsion fathered by bassist Kanal and drummer Adrian Young now matches any rap-metal rhythm section’s bluster. But it’s never showy, always supportive, and Tom Dumont’s guitar attack has similarly sharpened. At a time when chart bands risk few experiments, No Doubt present a kaleidoscope of vivid arrangements that can still kick butt.
《Return of Saturn》剩余的部分则大胆尝试了乐队不熟悉的领域，“Artificial Sweetener”让人想起霍尔辛辣的承认，“Comforting Lie”中沮丧的碎片化歌词，冷酷死板与疯狂发泄间的转变预示着一个更有旋律感的Korn乐队。贝斯手Tony Kanal与鼓手Adrian Young创造的推进力与说唱-金属节奏部分的咆哮相匹配。但绝不夺人眼目，永远是支撑歌曲的，还有Tom Dumont的吉他袭击变得尖锐。这次的“榜单常客乐队”尝试了点一些实验元素，No Doubt呈现了万花筒般生动形象的惊世骇俗的演绎。
Stefani matches the guys’ power with a serious restless streak, laying out her ongoing relationship with Bush’s Gavin Rossdale with humor and humility. “I’d put you on like a diamond,” she admits in “Too Late,” “so I can sparkle and be the envy of my friends.” Yet as she depicts it in “Suspension Without Suspense” and “Home Now,” their long-distance alliance breeds jealousy, loneliness and lingering uncertainty. Below its polished surfaces, Return of Saturn is bittersweetly conflicted; those contradictions underscore its purity of intent. No Doubt want to live up to their name and believe in themselves. Stefani’s inability to do just that enables her to finally transcend the band’s cartoon persona. No longer just a girl, this skanking flirt has finally grown into a woman.
鸡瘟的严肃且坐立不安的性格驾驭得了“男人”的力量，以诙谐谦逊的口吻展现出了她与Bush乐队的主唱Gavin Rossdale的如火如荼的爱情关系（当时），她在“Too Late,”坦白“I’d put you on like a diamond,” “so I can sparkle and be the envy of my friends.” 但她也在“Suspension Without Suspense”与 “Home Now,”中描述道他们的异地恋关系滋生出了嫉妒，孤独，挥之不去的不确定性。在光鲜亮丽的表面下的《Return of Saturn》是苦乐参半的矛盾，这些矛盾也正显现出了其意图的纯粹性。No Doubt想要名副其实自身的名声，且相信自己。鸡瘟对恋情关系的无能为力也使她终突破了乐队中的动画人设，不再只是一个女孩，这个令人厌烦的调情者终于成长为一个成熟的女人。
翻译人：我与UP主柏原Dellen
（超感谢他，有一句有疑惑的句子问了他惹❤）
