搬運(yùn)自：網(wǎng)易云音樂專欄【Music Online Zine Courier】（在原文基礎(chǔ)上添加了英語原文與排版調(diào)整）

翻譯：豆目豆科

On the heart-racing first single from their sixth album,?WE, Arcade Fire sound alive for the first time in years.

在他們第六張專輯《WE》的第一支單曲中，拱廊之火的聲音令人心潮澎湃，這也是他們多年來第一次聽起來如此活力四射。

I didn’t much care for?Arcade Fire’s last album, 2017’s?Everything Now, a dreary experiment that idled around in spoken word and “infinite content.” But let’s not dwell on that when there’s “The Lightning I, II,” a full-throated, table-clearing reset from the band’s?forthcoming album?WE.?Produced by?Nigel Godrich?alongside founding members and lead singers Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, the seven-song, 40-minute record is conceptually split into two halves: The first—called “I”—concerns our personal anxieties, while the second—called “WE”—concerns community and art and love and what we can all accomplish together. Now, Arcade Fire have never sounded great on paper—they’re an indie rock collective who dress like thrift-store vagabonds and one of them plays the hurdy-gurdy!—but “The Lightning I, II” is the sound of a great Arcade Fire song, one that makes the band come alive for the first time in years.

我（Jeremy D. Larson）不太喜歡拱廊之火的上一張專輯，即17年的《Everything Now》——一次無聊沉悶的實(shí)驗(yàn)，在朗讀和“無盡文本”之中閑逛。但是，如今有了“The Lightning I, II”時(shí)，我們就無需糾結(jié)這一問題，樂隊(duì)即將發(fā)行的專輯《WE》中的一首情緒飽滿而清澈的回血之歌。由Nigel Godrich與創(chuàng)始成員兼主唱Win Butler和Régine Chassagne共同制作，這張七首歌、40分鐘的唱片在概念上分為兩部分：第一部分——"I"——聚焦于我們的個(gè)體焦慮；而第二部分——"WE"——轉(zhuǎn)而心系社區(qū)、藝術(shù)和愛，以及那些我們能夠共同完成的事情。如今，拱廊之火甚至不再有拿得出手的成果——僅僅是一個(gè)獨(dú)立的搖滾團(tuán)體，穿著像一元店里的流浪漢，其中一個(gè)人還會(huì)彈手搖風(fēng)琴！——但“The Lightning I, II”依舊有著拱廊之火創(chuàng)作出的偉大歌曲的聲音，它使樂隊(duì)多年來第一次變得生動(dòng)起來。

It appears on the second half of?WE, the everybody-together side, a mode that this band have always excelled in. What begins like an introductory hymn revs up into their most heart-racing tempo since “Month of May” over a decade ago. The clammy synth-disco of the previous two albums is replaced by drum sticks hitting drum heads and Chassagne’s bright piano, stretching the sound of the band back to its full width. Most blessedly, there is some actual and wonderful singing from Butler and Chassagne about never quitting on each other and waiting for light and the lightning—big broad things about which to feel things broadly. There’s a sense that after Arcade Fire steered away from shout-choruses and earnest sing-a-longs—those musty relics of aughts indie rock—they’ve found their way back home, sounding fearless and genuine once again.

這首歌出現(xiàn)在《WE》的后半部分，也就是“WE”的部分，也正是樂隊(duì)一直以來擅長(zhǎng)的主題。歌曲開始就像一首引言式的贊美詩(shī)，隨后漸漸攀升直至他們自十年前的“Month of May”以來最令人心動(dòng)的節(jié)奏。前兩張專輯中粘膩密集的合成器+迪斯科組合被鼓棒敲擊鼓頭和Chassagne明亮的琴音所取代，將樂隊(duì)的聲音重新拉回至它的極限廣度。最值得慶幸的是，Butler和Chassagne唱出的那些真實(shí)而美妙的歌聲，“永不放棄彼此”、“等待光芒與閃電”——這些本就曠闊宏偉的事，也同樣令人深感不凡。這會(huì)給我一種錯(cuò)覺，在拱廊之火遠(yuǎn)離大喊大叫的合唱和認(rèn)真歌唱——那些上世紀(jì)獨(dú)立搖滾的陳舊遺物——之后，他們已經(jīng)找到了重歸故里的道路，又一次創(chuàng)作出無畏而真誠(chéng)的音樂。