搬運自：微信公眾號【評論搬一堆】（在原文基礎(chǔ)上添加了英語原文與排版調(diào)整）?

翻譯：Simon Joanne

審譯：Lynn Liu

排版：Ryan-Chopin

Before picking up a guitar for 2014’s?Bury Me at Makeout Creek,?Mitski?Miyawaki’s instrument of choice was the piano. She played it on the?two?records?she created as a studio composition major in college, where she was backed by a gigantic student orchestra. Once again behind the keys, her fifth album,?Be the Cowboy, displays Mitski’s knowledge of song structure and her ability to bend any idea to her will. These 14 complex compositions warp the pop textbook into something more knotty and internal, creating a unique zone where the 27-year-old thrives: She’s never sounded so large, even in the record’s quietest moments.

在2014年的《Bury Me at Makeout Creek（把我埋在Makeout Creek）》中，Mitski Miyawaki彈起了吉他，而在此之前，她常用的樂器是鋼琴。曾在在大學(xué)期間主修過錄音室作曲專業(yè)的她，在兩張原創(chuàng)唱片中彈奏過鋼琴，而在這兩張專輯中，她都有一支龐大的管弦樂團(tuán)作為支撐。再一次，在這些音符的背后，《Be the Cowboy（成為牛仔）》這張專輯展現(xiàn)了Mitski對于歌曲結(jié)構(gòu)的掌握與將想法付諸實踐的能力。這14首復(fù)雜的歌曲完全完全打破了流行歌曲教科書中的傳統(tǒng)結(jié)構(gòu)，讓它變得更加難以理清、難以讀懂，就此創(chuàng)造出這位27歲歌手在其中茁壯成長的一片獨特天地：哪怕是在專輯中最安靜的時刻，Mitski的聲音依舊宏大無比。

In this way,?Be the Cowboy?radiates assurance. Whereas 2016’s?Puberty 2?was drenched in distortion, here, Mitski and her longtime producer Patrick Hyland avoid the sound almost entirely. When the fuzzy drone does appear, it is purposeful, like on opener “Geyser,” where it interrupts a haze of organ and strings to announce a violent eruption of desire. Without the guitar and?her typically doubled vocals, she allows herself to crack; for the first time, she seems fully content with the vulnerability.

就這樣，這張專輯散發(fā)著自信。Mitski在2016年的專輯幾乎整個浸潤在了扭曲之中，但是在這張《Be the Cowboy》中Mitski和她長期合作的制作人Patrick Hyland則完全避開了這種傾向。當(dāng)然，無序雜音的出現(xiàn)也是有目的的，就像在開場曲“Geyser”里面的嗡嗡聲在管風(fēng)琴演奏的朦朧感中突現(xiàn)并打破和諧，這則宣代表了強烈欲望的爆發(fā)。沒有了吉他和她經(jīng)典的疊加人聲，她終于能夠讓自己去打破；她似乎第一次完全對自己的脆弱感到滿足。

Mitski is a peerless excavator of her own anxieties, infatuations, and ugliness and she examines them all through the lens of fame. She appears on the record’s cover wearing a white floral swim cap and heavy lipstick, a pair of tweezers honing in on a stray eyelash, symbolizing both a desire for control and the acknowledgment that such concerns can ultimately be futile. At the end of the?video?for the disco-pop banger “Nobody,” the camera pans back to reveal her to be another performer under the studio lights. She’s candid about how making music can be as depleting as it is fulfilling. “I gave too much of my heart tonight/Can you come to where I’m staying and/Make some extra love/That I can save till to tomorrow’s show,” she pleads on the jagged “Remember My Name.”

在挖掘自己的焦慮、迷戀和丑陋上，Mitski做的異常到位，她用名氣這只鏡頭來審視這一切。在專輯封面上，Mitski戴著布滿白色花紋的泳帽，睫毛上停著一支被他人手拿住的鑷子，這個畫面象征著對控制權(quán)的渴望和對努力最終可能付之東流的擔(dān)憂。在專輯中迪斯科樂隊流行曲“Nobody”的音樂錄像帶的最后，鏡頭向后移動，展現(xiàn)出Mitski其實也只是在搭建的攝影棚下的另一個表演者。她很坦誠地表示：創(chuàng)作音樂既能帶來滿足也會消耗身心。“I gave too much of my heart tonight/Can you come to where I’m staying and/Make some extra love/That I can save till to tomorrow’s show（我今晚付出了太多真心，你能來我住處嗎？再給我些額外的溫暖，好讓我留到明天）”她在“Remember My Name”中懇求道。

And with fame comes a fantastic loneliness.?Be the Cowboy?delves into that harrowing moment in the vanity mirror when you realize what others see does not match your reflection. How can they think you are so big when you are actually so small? The solitude inside “Nobody” feels so comically inescapable that it is almost worth celebrating; she rolls the word around in her mouth, relishing the universe of possibilities within its emptiness. On the jangly and vaguely country “Lonesome Love,” Mitski slyly delivers the record’s heaviest hitting line: “Cause nobody butters me up like you, and/Nobody fucks me like me.” Even if Mitski channels an exaggerated aspect of herself or performing a character—in?interviews?she has described a woman whose icy exterior hides the vast cosmos of her internal passions—she commits herself to capture the truth of each role.

名聲大了孤獨自然就會隨之而來。《Be The Cowboy》所探索的，正是你坐在梳妝鏡前看著自己的倒影，想起他人看到的你并不像你看到的一樣時產(chǎn)生的痛苦。當(dāng)你實際上很渺小的時候，別人又怎么能覺得你很大呢？“Nobody”這首歌中的孤獨感讓人無法逃避，荒唐到讓人想要因此慶祝，她滿嘴重復(fù)著這個詞，品味著無數(shù)可能性與空洞組成的世界。在這首鏗鏘而朦朧的鄉(xiāng)村曲風(fēng)歌曲“Lonesome Love”中，Mitski悄悄地藏下了整張專輯中最沉重的歌詞：“Cause nobody butters me up like you, and/Nobody fucks me like me（因為沒有人能像你那樣拍我馬屁，也沒有人比我更能滿足我自己）”。即使Mitski是在通過一種夸張的方式來表現(xiàn)自己或者是在扮演某一角色——在一次采訪中她描述了一個外表冷漠而內(nèi)心宇宙始終充滿熱情的女人——她向自己承諾要抓住每一個角色的真相。

But these complexities only emphasize the point Mitski returns to on each of her records: love is manifold. Romance is all consuming and breathtaking; intimacy can be a cycle of toxic stillness.?Be the Cowboy?is a definitive statement on the myth of perfection. She can stretch to the heavens and sink into the ground. She can be everything at once, again and again. “I thought I’d traveled a long way/But I had circled the same old sin,” she gravely bellows on “A Horse Named Cold Air.” To the two elderly subjects of the devastating closer “Two Slow Dancers,” all those complexities can be relieved beneath the glow of a disco ball. In the album’s last breaths, the spotlight slowly fades from Mitski. She might be exhausted, but she is insatiable.

但是這些復(fù)雜性全都只是在強調(diào)Mitski在每一張專輯中都會回到的點上：愛是分很多種的。浪漫既耗人心力又讓人沉醉其中；親密關(guān)系也能演化成一種停滯不前的惡性循環(huán)。《Be The Cowboy》是對完美這一傳說的最終聲明。她可以升入天空再墜入地中。她可以在一瞬間變成任何事物，循環(huán)往復(fù)?！癐 thought I’d traveled a long way/But I had circled the same old sin（我以為自己已經(jīng)走過了很長一段旅途，誰知道我只是在重復(fù)我原舊的罪過）”她在“A Horse Named Cold Air”中大聲叫道。在那首令人震驚的收尾曲“Two Slow Dancers”中，兩個年長的主角所有的復(fù)雜都能在迪斯科球的燈光下得到緩解。在專輯中最后一次喘息中，Mitski身上被打上的光漸漸熄掉。她也許已經(jīng)筋疲力盡，也可能尚不滿足。