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

翻譯：Peter D

審譯：Ryan-Chopin

排版：Ryan-Chopin

Bon Iver?has always been?Justin Vernon’s escape route. After retreating to the woods of Wisconsin to record?For Emma, Forever Ago, he drew a surrealist roadmap of the United States on?Bon Iver, depicting a fantastical world where the lived, the dreamed, and desired coexisted. When this invented land?felt oppressive and the anxiety of facing it too overwhelming, Vernon retreated again and burrowed within himself, pulverizing his voice with machines to create?22, A Million, a record that dramatized the fracturing of the self.

Bon Iver樂隊一直是Justin Vernon逃避現(xiàn)實的避風港。在隱居到威斯康星州的叢林中錄制完《For Emma, Forever Ago》之后，他又在《Bon Iver》中繪制了一幅美國的超現(xiàn)實主義地圖，圖中描繪的是一個生命、夢想和欲望共存的幻想世界。這片他創(chuàng)造出的國度曾讓人感到壓抑，面對它產(chǎn)生的焦慮又讓人無法承受，于是Vernon再次隱居起來，深入挖掘了自己，用機器把自己的聲音碾碎，創(chuàng)作出了《22, A Million》這樣一張戲劇性展現(xiàn)了自身分崩離析的專輯。

There’s no more hiding on?i,i. Justin Vernon takes the Bon Iver sound and reassembles it like a cubist collage, with his voice right out front. All the familiar elements are here—impressionist swells of sound, impenetrable-yet-tender lyrics, mesmerizing studio tricks—and they are buoyed by Vernon’s supple baritone, the instrument he knows how to manipulate best. Acoustic guitar, horns, and piano return to prominence alongside the jittery electronics and synths that Vernon has lately favored. But the mood he conjures with these elements feels new. These songs don’t swallow you whole with grandeur; they look outward, leaving some room for the rest of the world.

在《i,i》中他終于不再躲藏。Justin Vernon拾起了Bon Iver之聲并像立體派拼貼畫一樣把它重新組裝了起來，還把自己的嗓音擺上臺前。所有熟悉的元素都在這兒了——印象派的聲音浪涌、高深莫測卻不失溫柔的歌詞、讓人著迷的錄音室技巧——而這一切又被Vernon靈活柔韌的男中音和他最熟練的樂器共同升華。不插電吉他、小號和鋼琴都回歸主要角色，加入Vernon最近愛上的跳動的電子樂器和合成器。而他用這些元素創(chuàng)造奇跡時的個人情緒似乎煥然一新了。這些歌并沒有用宏偉把你整個人淹沒，它們心向遠方，為剩下的世界留下了空間。

The lyrics find Vernon locating peace within the ordinary and everyday. “I like you/And that ain’t nothing new,” he sings simply on “iMi.” Later, on “RABi,” he observes, “Well, it’s all just scared of dying.” These things don’t always merit saying out loud, but Vernon seems to be singing them to rediscover their meaning, and the music feels equally straightforward and searching. Songs like “Marion” and “Holyfields,” are uncharacteristically unadorned, even compared to the?For Emma?and?Blood Bank?era, when Vernon was at least joined by his own echoes. Here, he sounds completely exposed.

在歌詞中我們可以看到，Vernon把平安放在了平凡的每一天里?！癐 like you/And that ain’t nothing new（我喜歡你/這也不是什么新鮮事），”他在“iMi”中簡單唱到。稍后，他在“RABi”中評論到：“Well, it’s all just scared of dying.（好吧，不過都是對死亡的畏懼。）”這些事并不總是值得大聲唱出來，但Vernon這么唱似乎是為了重新發(fā)現(xiàn)它們的意味，而音樂聽上去既直截了當，值得深挖細究。像是“Marion”和“Holyfields”甚至和《For Emma》與《Blood Bank》時期比起來都顯得異乎尋常得樸素，那時期Vernon好歹還加入了自己的回聲。而在這兒，他的聲音完全赤裸裸地呈現(xiàn)了出來。

Still, there are plenty of invited guests to provide cover, or at least offer their company.?James Blake,?Moses Sumney, and?Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner, among others, pop up throughout. Even?Young Thug?collaborator Wheezy has composing and production credits. Vernon sampled the voices of others on?22, A Million, but in that context they felt more like dolls he’d animated than human beings. The guests on?i,i,?meanwhile, are allowed to breathe.?Bruce Hornsby?might sing only one line on the single “U (Man Like),” but his presence is enlivening. It’s less lonely to have friends nearby.

當然還是有很多藝人被邀請來翻唱一些小樣，或者至少來做個伴。James Blake, Moses Sumney和Wye Oak樂隊的Jenn Wasner以及一些其他人也一直有出現(xiàn)。甚至Young Thug的合作伙伴Wheezy都在作曲和制作名單上。Vernon在《22, A Million》中采樣了他人的聲音，但放在其中聽上去更像是他制作的玩偶而非活生生的人。而在《i,i》中，這些嘉賓終于被允許喘口氣了。Bruce Hornsby可能只是在單曲“U (Man Like)”中唱了短短一句，但他的出現(xiàn)顯然為歌曲注入不少活力。有幾個朋友在一旁作伴顯然就沒那么孤獨了。

Vernon himself sings with more texture and conviction than ever before. He’s shifted fully from vessel to commander, steering the music instead of seeping into it. A song like “Naeem” is filled with production flourishes—a soft backing choir, faint samples, the sort of military drums favored on?Bon Iver’s “Perth”—yet it all serves to highlight the booming sound of Vernon’s voice, bellowing in his natural range. The lyrics to “Naeem” are dizzying and, at points, indecipherable (“I fall off a bass boat/And the concrete’s very slow”), but he isn’t hiding behind them. It’s more like Vernon is suggesting that only feeling can offer truth. On “Naeem,” he sings, “Tell them I’ll be passing on/Tell them we’re young mastodons,” dragging his words in the second line until you can almost hear him choking up. Like all the best moments in his catalog, it is inexplicably touching.

Vernon自己的演唱也比以往帶上了更多的和諧與信念。他已經(jīng)徹底從一艘輪船轉變成了輪船指揮官，他輕易地駕馭著音樂，而不再是浸潤其中?！癗aeem”這樣一首歌在制作上充滿了精彩的修飾——溫柔的和聲，微弱的采樣，還有在《Bon Iver》里的“Perth”中倍受喜愛的軍鼓——但這一切都是為了襯托Vernon自己有力的嗓音，他在自己天生的廣闊音域中嘶吼?！癗aeem”中的歌詞可能有點讓人困惑，甚至可以說是沒法破解（“I fall off a bass boat/And the concrete’s very slow”），但他并不是要躲藏在這些歌詞背后。這更像是Vernon在暗示只有去切實感覺才能說出真相。他在“Naeem”中唱到“Tell them I’ll be passing on/Tell them we’re young mastodons（告訴他們我終將離開/告訴他們我們也不過是年輕的乳齒象），”（譯者注：乳齒象為已滅絕物種）他艱難地唱著第二句中的詞，你幾乎能聽到他唱到哽咽。就像他的目錄中最好的評論那樣，這有種讓人難以言說的感動。

i,i?is often about trying to reconnect with some idea of a true self, even as you move forward. Vernon writes of scars and things lost: “You were young when you were gave it,” he sings on “We,” a line that speaks to his ability to summon powerful elegiac feelings with a few simple words. “Hey, Ma,” immediately one of the best songs in the Bon Iver catalog, is rousing and explicitly sentimental. “Full time you talk your money up/While it’s living in a coal mine,” Vernon belts, but his voice is too earthy to sound hateful. Instead, it’s like he’s offering absolution, promising that something as simple as a call to your mom is enough to make up for avarice or bluster.

《i,i》總是試圖重新與真實的自我等想法共鳴，即使你已經(jīng)向前看了。Vernon寫下過往的傷疤，寫下遺失的事物：“You were young when you were gave it（你得到時還很年輕），”他在“We”中這樣唱到，這句詞展現(xiàn)了他那用簡簡單單的幾句詞就能喚起強烈哀愁之情的能力?！癏ey, Ma”這首立刻成為了Bon Iver目錄中最好的歌曲之一，激勵人心，直抒胸臆?！癋ull time you talk your money up/While it’s living in a coal mine（你一直滔滔不絕地講著金錢/那是住在煤礦里的時候），” Vernon憤憤地抨擊，但他的聲音實在太接地氣，完全不能讓人感受到仇恨。相反，這聽上去就像是他在散布寬恕，保證像是給母親打個電話這樣簡單的行動就能彌補貪婪或是威嚇行為。

At first glance, the tracklist for?i,i?is as bewildering as the symbol-laden?22, A Million. Upon listening, though, you realize that many of these are probably mondegreens and homonyms, cheeky nods to how hard it is to understand Bon Iver’s lyrics. “Jelmore,” for instance, is a fragment of what it sounds like when Vernon sings, “Well angel morning sivanna.” And the title for the closing “RABi” comes from the couplet, “I could prophet/I could rob I, however.” There are plenty of interpretive possibilities available in those words, but none of them are as enticing as their sheer sound. The music is also not as mysterious as the songs’ monikers suggest. There’s an overwhelming calmness and pleasantness to?i,i, and “RABi” is one of the most easygoing of the bunch. “Sunlight feels good now don’t it,” Vernon sings. There’s no great symbolism in the track, no yearning, no enveloping echoes. What emerges is a solace that has eluded Vernon on past Bon Iver releases. “I don’t have a leaving plan,” he sings, maybe because there’s nowhere else he needs to go.

第一眼看上去，《i,i》的曲目列表就和是滿是符號的《22, A Million》一樣讓人摸不著頭腦。但在聆聽過后，你就會發(fā)現(xiàn)這其中很大一部分可能其實是誤聽或是同音詞，這時你就會厚著臉皮贊同Bon Iver的歌詞實在是難懂。比如“Jelmore”其實是Vernon唱“Well angel morning sivanna”這一句時的一個片段。結尾的“RABi”的標題則來自于該對句“I could prophet/I could rob I, however.”對于歌詞，可能的解釋有很多種，但沒有一種比得上它們本身的聲音來得迷人。音樂本身也并不像它們的名字那般神秘?！秈,i》中有一股幾乎難以承受的平靜與愉悅，而“RABi”可能是這一堆歌中最慵懶的了。“Sunlight feels good now don’t it（陽光現(xiàn)在讓人感覺棒極了，不是嗎），” Vernon唱到。這首歌中沒有什么象征手法，沒有渴望，沒有包藏的寓意。浮現(xiàn)出的是一份Vernon在以往的Bon Iver作品中一直去逃避的慰藉?！癐 don’t have a leaving plan（我沒有離開的計劃），”他唱到，這可能也是因為他沒必要再逃到哪里去了。