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：WhitneyL

校正：Nina Wang

The British band’s outrageous and eclectic third album attests to the worth of putting in an honest effort in the face of near-constant gloom.

這支英國樂隊的第三張專輯大膽而兼收并蓄，證明了在接連不斷的挫折面前，堅持不懈的可貴。

The 1975?dare to be too much. Led by frontman and lyricist Matty Healy, the quartet has made its name on an unruly brand of abundance throughout this decade: musically, referentially, emotionally, all of it. Did Healy pop pills, lick coke, and twirl a revolver before holding up a convenience store and getting shot in the torso—but ending up?totally fine!—in the video for early hit “Robbers”? He did. Did they lavish the title?I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it?upon their second album because it was the only thing grandiloquent enough to match the record’s fizzy mix of sunblast synths, plastic guitars, and millennial neuroses? Of course. And did they preface their new LP,?A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships, with a 24-page manifesto that includes manic scribbles (“THIS IDEA HAS BEEN DONE BEFORE”), a picture of Healy petting a dog whilst on the toilet, and a technophobic survey of our contemporary clusterfuck of an existence that concludes: “THE LEFT AND RIGHT GROW MORE APART BUT YOU CAN JUST CLICK ‘ADD TO CART.’” Yes, yes, and more yes. To infinity.

1975樂隊太牛b了。在主唱兼作詞人Matty Healy的帶領(lǐng)下，過去的10年中，這支四重奏樂隊以其桀驁不馴而聞名：音樂上、發(fā)展上、情感上，全都如此。在早期熱單“Robbers”的MV中，Healy在搶劫一家便利店并被擊中之前，是不是磕過藥、注射過麻醉劑、把玩左輪手槍？——最終的事實是，他什么事兒也沒有！為什么他們第二張專輯《I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it（我喜歡你睡覺的時候，因為你是如此美麗，卻又如此渾然不覺）》這個名字如此冗長？難不成是因為只有這樣華麗的名字才能配得上專輯中的混響、電音和狂熱？嗯，當然了。他們告訴他們的新合伙人，新專輯《A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships》的歌詞本是一份長達24頁的宣言,其中包括瘋狂的涂鴉(“THIS IDEA HAS BEEN DONE BEFORE”),Healy在廁所摸狗的照片, 以及一份對我們當代群體存在的科技恐懼癥的調(diào)查得出的現(xiàn)實:“左右兩派相去甚遠，但是，你可以點擊‘添加到購物車’?！彼麄儠f，是的，就是這樣！

Such a riot of excess may cause the casual observer to think:?Who the fuck do these guys think they are?!?This is reasonable. But it is also misguided. Because the 1975 are a thrillingly unreasonable band for unreasonable times. Healy is their generational mouthpiece—a guy who’s never met a contradiction he couldn’t fully inhabit, to arresting effect.

如此放縱的行為可能會讓別人想：這些家伙TM到底以為自己是誰？！這種想法確實有點道理，但在某些情況下也是一種誤導(dǎo)。因為1975是一個存在于不合理時期的不合理樂隊。Healy是他們這代人的代言人——他從來沒有遇到過他無法控制的矛盾，因此顯得引人注目。

The 29-year-old is a pop star who is both infatuated with and embarrassed by pop stardom. He will play his charismatic part onstage or in interviews and then immediately flog himself for doing so, as his incessant inner monologue does battle inside his skull. Five years ago, in an effort to quiet his brain buzz, he turned to heroin, and then to rehab, and is now a former addict who is wary of glamorizing the rock’n’roll clichés he’s lived through. He is constantly online and constantly alarmed by what that does to our sense of self, our humanity. He hates Trump but knows that talking about hating Trump is boring. He is the son of two British TV stars who, in his youth, was treated to regular family visits by the likes of?Sting; he also once?said, with a smile, that his “biggest fear” is “being Sting.” He’s an atheist who believes in a thing called love.

這位29歲的流行歌星既留戀自己流行歌星的身份，又為此感到尷尬。他會在舞臺上或采訪中扮演他魅力非凡的角色，然后又后悔做流行化的事，因為他頭腦中不斷進行內(nèi)心獨白。五年前，為了讓自己的大腦安靜下來，他開始吸食海*因，然后去了戒毒所，現(xiàn)在他作為一個前癮君子，小心翼翼地美化他經(jīng)歷過搖滾泛濫的時代。他不斷地上網(wǎng)，不斷地為這對我們的自我意識和人性的影響而擔憂。他討厭特朗普，但知道談?wù)撚憛捥乩势蘸軣o聊。他是兩位英國電視明星的兒子，在他年輕的時候，像Sting這樣大名鼎鼎的人經(jīng)常來家里看望他;他還曾笑著說，他“最大的恐懼”是“做Sting”。他是個無神論者，相信一種叫做愛的東西。

All of these curiosities play out spectacularly on?A Brief Inquiry. The album is similar to its predecessor in its boundless sense of style, swerving from Afrobeats to brushed-snare jazz balladry to one track that sounds like a trap remix of a?Bon Iver?ayahuasca trip. But whereas?I like it when you sleep?sometimes could be a tick too clever and unwieldy,?A Brief Inquiry, produced almost entirely by Healy and drummer George Daniel, is more purposeful. Take that Bon Iver-type freakout, “I Like America & America Likes Me,” where Healy’s voice is transformed into a smear of Auto-Tuned slogans, an adbot on the fritz. But listen closely and his bionic spasms start to sound like the meter readings of a society that’s moving too fast to process anything in a meaningful way. “Am I a liar?!/Will this help me lay down?!” Healy yelps, too harried to stop for answers, too wired to take a nap. It’s impossible to tell exactly where his actual voice ends and where the digitized effects take hold.

所有這些好奇心在《A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships》中都顯露無疑。這張專輯在風格上與它的前輩有相似之處，從非洲節(jié)拍到落入陷阱似沙沙聲的民謠，再轉(zhuǎn)向一首聽起來像是Bon Iver（美好冬季樂團）的迷幻trap混音。不過，這樣一來《I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it》便時而顯得過于巧妙，時而又顯得過于笨拙。而Healy和鼓手George Daniel所作的《A Brief Inquiry Into?Online Relationships》風格便更加鮮明。拿Bon Iver的迷幻混音來說，“I Like America & America Likes Me,（我愛美國，美國也愛我）”，Healy的聲音變成了一堆電音式的口號，就像一臺出了故障的機器。但仔細聽，他的聲音就像電表讀數(shù)那樣，速度之快就像這個快速發(fā)展的社會，身處其中的我們無法讓每一天都過得有意義。Healy尖叫道：“我是個騙子嗎？！這會助我躺下嗎？”。現(xiàn)代人忙到不能停不下來尋找答案，甚至興奮得睡不著覺。我們不能準確分辨出他的聲音在何處結(jié)束，數(shù)字音效在何處占到上風。

When it comes to the 1975’s more widescreen scope—filtering in culture’s ills along with personal ones—the album hits a daunting apex with “Love It If We Made It.” It is the rare Anthem for Our Time that actually gets the job done: This thing holds the mirror up to our collective faces so close you can see your breath on it. As gargantuan drums clear a path before him, Healy mimics the endless scroll, where dead refugees and dead rappers all slide by on the same timeline. He recasts one of the year’s most cursed tweets—“Thank you Kanye, very cool!”—into one of the year’s best lyrics, in turn laying bare Ye’s current fallen status as nothing more than mere flotsam for the churning news cycle. Healy repeats the track’s title for a vaguely optimistic hook, but his gasping delivery tells a different story. The song ends with staccato strings that recall a clock ruthlessly ticking down the seconds.

在過濾文化弊病和個人問題上，1975從更廣闊的視角出發(fā)，憑借“Love it If We Made it”一曲，讓這張專輯達到了令人生畏的頂點。這是一首少有的真正完成任務(wù)的時代贊歌：它把鏡子舉到我們所有人的面前，離我們?nèi)绱酥灾劣谀隳芨惺艿阶约旱暮粑?。當巨大的鼓聲為他開路時，Healy的歌唱彷佛是無窮無盡的時間軸，那些死去的難民和說唱歌手都這個時間軸上滑過。今年，他引用的一條最受批判的推文——“Thank you Kanye, very cool!（謝謝坎耶，那非?？幔。蔀榱私衲曜顑?yōu)秀的歌詞之一，赤裸裸地把Kanye目前的頹態(tài)比喻成新聞中反復(fù)出現(xiàn)的垃圾信息。Healy在副歌中輕松地重復(fù)著這首歌的標題，但他那喘息聲卻講述了另外一個完全不同的故事。這首歌以斷斷續(xù)續(xù)的弦音結(jié)尾，讓人不禁想到時間的流逝。

According to?A Brief Inquiry, if there is any sort of solution to our modern apocalyptic predicament, it involves stepping outside, risking a broken heart, and searching for connections beyond the screen. And yet, Healy is the first one to acknowledge that this is harder than ever to do: The album’s only marriage is presented as a cautionary tale, read by Siri, about a troll who falls in love with the internet. “The Man Who Married a Robot” acts as a sly sequel to “Fitter Happier,” Radiohead’s doomsaying, robo-voiced nightmare from?OK Computer. It sits atop a bed of treacly piano plinks, like a demented parody of a?Facebook commercial?that’s desperately trying to get you to log on again. In the end, the troll dies. The internet does not.

按《A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships》的說法，如果有什么方法可以解決我們現(xiàn)代生活中末日般的困境，那就是走出去，冒著心碎的風險，在屏幕之外尋找聯(lián)系。然而，Healy是第一個認識到這比以往任何時候更加困難的人：這張專輯中關(guān)于婚宴的歌曲是一個警示，用Siri的聲音講述了一個巨魔愛上互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的故事。“The Man Who Married a Robot（嫁給機器人的男人）”就像Radiohead的“Fitter Happier（更健康更快樂）”（Radiohead的《OK computer》中末日預(yù)言般的單曲）的續(xù)集。這首歌以甜蜜的鋼琴聲為旋律基調(diào)，模仿著迫切希望人們再次登陸的Facebook廣告。最后，巨魔死了，而互聯(lián)網(wǎng)卻沒有。

The members of the 1975 began playing together in their teens as an emo band, and they are still interested in wringing out unadulterated feeling from everything they touch. This is the thread that grounds even their most dubious dabblings, and makes their dilettantism amount to more than a series of stunts. At first, with its glistening synths and languid tempo, “I Couldn’t Be More in Love” seems like pure ’80s schmaltz, something that Michael Bolton could have cut between yacht rides. But instead of luxuriating in the musical ooze around him, Healy takes the slickness as a challenge and turns in his rawest performance on the entire album. Recorded the day before he entered rehab late last year, his vocals are frayed as he laments the end of a four-year relationship with the panic of a crashing pilot. When he howls, “What about?these feelings?I’ve got?” it sounds elemental, a refashioning of emo’s core into something jarring and new.

1975的成員們在十幾歲的時候就開始在emo樂隊一起玩音樂，至今他們?nèi)匀粯酚趶慕佑|到的一切中發(fā)掘最純粹的東西。這是他們成功的基礎(chǔ)，讓他們將業(yè)余愛好發(fā)展成實打?qū)嵉谋绢I(lǐng)?！癐 ?Couldn’t Be More in Love（我已經(jīng)愛到極限了）”開頭的空靈聲音和慵懶節(jié)奏，讓人感覺像是80年代的傷感的音樂，就好似 Michael Bolton可以用游艇自由馳騁。但是Healy并沒有淪陷于他周圍的音樂氛圍之中，而是把這種舒適當作一種挑戰(zhàn)，并且呈現(xiàn)出最為野性的表現(xiàn)。這首歌記錄了去年年底他進入康復(fù)中心前一天的感受。他嘆息四年戀情的結(jié)束，嗓音也因此變得有些沙啞。他吼道:“誰在乎我的感受呢？”這或許聽起來很幼稚，但卻是對emo式歌曲核心創(chuàng)作的重新塑造。

The album is bookended by a couple of songs that offer some hard-won comfort while nodding to the band’s hometown of Manchester and the lives they once led there. “Give Yourself a Try” is all pinched guitars and staticy drums, a salute to fellow Mancunians?Joy Division?and their singer, Ian Curtis, who killed himself at 23. On the song, Healy looks back at what he’s done, what he could have done better, and what he would do differently given the chance. He also mentions a 16-year-old 1975 fan who took her own life. “Won’t you give yourself a try?” he asks sweetly, over and over.

專輯中的幾首歌曲，傳遞了一份來之不易的慰藉，同時致敬樂隊的故鄉(xiāng)曼徹斯特以及在此的過往。“Give Yourself a Try（給你自己一個機會）”里充滿節(jié)奏緊湊的吉他聲和活力四射的鼓聲，致敬Joy Division樂隊和他們的主唱 Ian Curtis（23歲時自殺身亡）。在這首歌中，Healy回顧了自己的人生經(jīng)歷，一些他本可以做得更好的事情，以及如果有機會他會做出不同選擇的事情。他還提到了一位16歲的歌迷，她結(jié)束了自己的生命?！澳悴辉囋噯幔俊彼槐橛忠槐樘鹈鄣貑柕?。

A Brief Inquiry?ends with “I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes),” the most life-affirming 1975 song to date. Its familiar fist-pump theatrics bring to mind the Glastonbury-leveling power of another one of Manchester’s most imposing bands,?Oasis. But this is more than a tribute. Healy takes the broad ambition and jubilance of a classic Oasis song and turns it inward, with words that acknowledge the mettle it takes to simply get through the day—words that could only come from him. “There’s no point in buying concrete shoes/I’ll refuse,” he sings, resolute, before giving up one more plea: “If you can’t survive; just try.” Life becomes him.

專輯最后一曲是“I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)（我總是想死(有時候)）”，這是樂隊迄今為止創(chuàng)作的最認可生命價值的一首歌。熟悉的揮舞拳頭的姿勢讓人想起格拉斯頓伯音樂節(jié)中另一支來自曼徹斯特最威風的樂隊Oasis。但這不僅僅是一種致敬。Healy以O(shè)asis樂隊的一首經(jīng)典歌曲的宏圖和歡騰為主題，并將其內(nèi)化，用歌詞表達了度過每一天所需要的勇氣——這些話只可能出自他之口。“沒有必要買混凝土鞋/我會拒絕，”而在拒絕之前，他又堅決唱道:“如果活不下去，那就試試活著。”生命與他結(jié)伴而行。