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：Winnie-Hess

校正：Ryan-Chopin

75分

Justin Timberlake has built a career — several careers, really — on making it all look easy. Where other superstars take care to show at least an occasional flash of fallibility, the struggle and sweat behind the hits, he glides through every stadium tour and SNL skit with the serene gleam of a born showman. It’s brought him to a place at the top of the pyramid that few ever get to see the view from, a multihyphenate whose music and movies and Jimmy Fallon comedy bits have made him not just a brand name but a sort of falsettoed mascot for American pop culture supremacy.

賈老板在各個領(lǐng)域都已取得一番成就，成功得似乎輕而易舉。當其他巨星小心翼翼、害怕犯錯，且為了一首熱榜歌曲付出艱辛的努力和汗水的時候，他卻在演唱會和SNL（“周末夜現(xiàn)場”）上大放光彩，像是天生閃耀的娛樂家。這讓他在少數(shù)人能企及的金字塔頂端占了一席之地，他的音樂、電影和與Jimmy Fallon的喜劇表演不僅讓他成為了一個響亮的品牌，還是美國現(xiàn)今流行文化的代表人物之一。月初時，他在一分鐘的小視頻中透露了有關(guān)自己第五張專輯的消息，給人感覺他的又一次轉(zhuǎn)型十分不易。

So when he dropped the news of his fifth solo studio album in a minute-long promotional video earlier this month, the vision it presented felt like a hard swerve toward something new: Gazing soulfully from a series of slow-pan landscapes (rural roadways, galloping horses, sun spilling through corn stalks), Timberlake, in his Navajo blankets and craggy beard, appeared to be Bon Iver-ing himself right before our eyes. Forget everything you thought you knew, the clip seemed to say, about the Tiger Beat pinup of *NSYNC or the slick lothario SexyBacking in a Gucci suit; here’s the real Tennessee kid, a rustic, contemplative Man of the Woods.

賈老板披著他納瓦霍毛毯，留著毛糙的胡子，深情凝視著一系列冷清和緩的景象（鄉(xiāng)村小道、飛馳的馬、陽光從玉米稈透出），我們似乎在他身上看到了Bon Iver的影子。這段視頻似乎是在讓我們忘記我們自以為知道關(guān)于他曾經(jīng)的一切——《Tiger Beat》上超級男孩（*NSYNC）的海報亦或是穿著Gucci西裝的社會小青年。如今這呈現(xiàn)出來的才是真正的田納西州的孩子，一個普普通通的人。

Then came the lead single, “Filthy,” and it was…not woodsy. Over squelched synths and a panting electro-boogie beat, he crooned about swagger and 6 a.m. ragers and asked (rhetorically? hopefully), “Whatcha gonna do with all that meat?” The internet, as it does, took note of the dissonance; was New Justin actually just Old Justin, with a thin whiff of campfire smoke? After all, nearly every track was co-credited to longtime collaborators Timbaland, Danja, and the Neptunes, whose work has always fallen firmly in his sweet spot: ergonomic R&B with one foot in wriggling retro funk and one in the future.

? 關(guān)于主打歌“Filthy”，它的風(fēng)格好像和上述描述有點不搭。在咯吱咯吱的合成器和令人氣喘的電搖節(jié)拍中，他大搖大擺地唱歌，像是在清晨六點就開始作樂，絲毫不夸張地問著：你想怎么面對這些肉體呢？而網(wǎng)民們也注意到了這里有帶點情色意味的歌詞。轉(zhuǎn)型后的賈老板是否只是帶著一些煙火氣的原配賈老板呢？畢竟，幾乎每首歌曲都是由長期合作的Timbaland, Danja, 和the Neptunes聯(lián)手打造的，他們的作品一直堅定在他們最擅長的位置：一只腳在復(fù)古搖滾中，一只腳踏進未來來探索新音樂。

Whatever all the sheepskin and heritage talk promised — a manifesto on manhood, marriage, and intimacy; a megastar stripped back to his roots — isn’t really what Woods delivers. Instead it’s a grab bag of styles and sonic mood boards: “Supplies,” a skittering, country-grammared come-on, uses survivalism as a pickup line (if you need a generator, girl, just ask); the guitar-fuzzed strut “Sauce” wouldn’t feel wrong on a ’90s Lenny Kravitz B side; “Montana” sounds less like a day on the ranch than a night at the Roxbury, or at least the after-party. He finds worthy counterparts on the dreamy Alicia Keys duet “Morning Light” and scruffy back-porch rambler “Say Something,” with Nashville outlaw Chris Stapleton. But several cameos from his actress wife Jessica Biel and their toddler son mostly serve to reinforce his domestic bliss; milk for breakfast and champagne in the afternoon, no spilled Lemonade. Even the tender “Flannel” feels less confessional than laid-bare ballads like 2006’s “LoveStoned/I Think She Knows” or 2013’s “Mirrors.” What’s strangest, maybe, is that almost nothing on Woods nods to the evolution of pop music in the five years since he last released a record. Once an artist who reshaped the contours of the Hot 100, Timberlake now seems content to ride out his own scenic route, as blithe and unknowable as he’s ever been. B

不管一切古老的故事和傳說都流傳下了什么——一份關(guān)于男子氣概、婚姻和親密關(guān)系的宣言，或是一位巨星褪去光環(huán)回歸了初心——這都不是《Man of the Woods》所要表達的。相反，它只是風(fēng)格和音效的“雜燴”：

“Supplies”用一種輕巧的鄉(xiāng)村風(fēng)格做誘餌，用生存主義作為搭訕的前提（如果你需要一個能生育的人，一個女孩兒，盡管要就可以了，她們就像是你的“Supplies”供給品一樣）。

吉他聲模糊不清的“Sauce”像是更適合90年代的Lenny Kravitz。“Montana”聽起來不像是在大牧場的一天，反倒是像在羅克斯伯里的一晚，也可能是在余興派對呢。

他在與Alicia Keys合作的“Morning Light”和納什維爾的村夫Chris Stapleton“Say Something”中找到了適合自己的音樂。

而他的演員妻子Jessica Biel和他們蹣跚學(xué)步的兒子出現(xiàn)在專輯中，主要是為了增強他的家庭幸福感，一副“早餐喝牛奶，下午喝香檳，檸檬水也不錯”的家庭場景。

即使是柔和的“Flannel”也不像2006年發(fā)行的“LoveStoned/I Think She Knows”和2013年發(fā)行的“Mirrors”那樣意義明確的抒情曲一樣，明顯缺乏懺悔意味。

或許最奇怪的是，自他上次發(fā)布唱片的五年時間以來，這張專輯幾乎沒有能與當今流行音樂發(fā)展相媲美的東西。作為曾經(jīng)在“Hot 100”榜上風(fēng)生水起的藝人，賈老板現(xiàn)在似乎滿足于走屬于自己風(fēng)格的路線，無憂無慮，我們永遠猜不透。