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：BigFudge

校正：Ryan-Chopin

聽著保羅五年來的第一張唱片，宛如搭上了一列宇宙列車，行李里裝滿了呆萌的小黃歌與對和平的希望，但這仍是一張經(jīng)典的保羅專輯。

Make a list of all the songwriters who were composing great tunes in 1958. Now make an overlapping list of the ones who are still writing brilliant songs in 2018. Your list reads: Paul McCartney. Sixty years after “Love Me Do,” his legend already inviolable, Macca keeps adding new gems to his songbook, with nothing to prove except he’s the only genius who can do this.?Egypt Station, his first in five years, is a deeply eccentric song cycle in the?Ram?mode, made with pop savant Greg Kurstin. The past fifteen years have been a glorious time to be a Paul fanatic—the man has been on a songwriting roll, ever since the 2005 Nigel Godrich jam?Chaos and Creation in the Backyard. (And oh yeah—in his spare time, he happens to be still the greatest live performer on earth.)

請你先列出1958年時創(chuàng)作出優(yōu)質(zhì)歌曲的作曲人；然后，再列出來2018年仍在堅持創(chuàng)作優(yōu)質(zhì)歌曲的作曲人；再比較一下兩張名單吧。在這兩張名單上都出現(xiàn)的名字只有一個：保羅·麥卡特尼(Paul McCartney)。在《Love Me Do[i]》發(fā)行60年后，他已是樂壇不朽的傳奇。但保羅仍在堅持創(chuàng)作新的作品，這證明了自己是獨一無二的天才?！禘gypt Station》是保羅五年以來的第一張專輯。他與流行樂大神格雷格·庫斯汀(Greg Kurstin)攜手打造了這張專輯，一首首新奇的歌曲不斷循環(huán)，仿佛開啟了當(dāng)年的《Ram》[ii]模式。過去這十五年，保羅的粉絲們非常開心：自2005年他與奈杰爾·古德里奇(Nigel Godrich)攜手打造了《Chaos and Creation in the Backyard》之后，保羅的寫歌勢頭變得高漲起來。（順便提一下，他在寫歌創(chuàng)作領(lǐng)域之余，還是世上最偉大的現(xiàn)場表演者）

[i] 《Love Me Do》是英國搖滾樂隊The Beatles的第一首單曲，發(fā)行于1962年10月5日，之后歌曲被收錄至The Beatles的第一張專輯《Please Please Me》。最初專輯在英國發(fā)行時，在榜單上排到了第17。1982年歌曲被重新發(fā)行并且達到了第4的位置。

[ii] 《RAM》是保羅·麥卡特尼和琳達·麥卡特尼的一張音樂專輯。發(fā)行于1971年，麥卡特尼夫妻二人完成了整張專輯。

Egypt Station?flows as a unit, structured like a long ride on a cosmic train, beginning and ending with ambient railway-station noise. It comes five years after 2013’s?New, where he stepped out with the psychedelic nugget “Queenie Eye,” one of his funniest and weirdest ever. (Real talk: “Queenie Eye” would have been a top 5 song on?Magical Mystery Tour.) These days, he’s not on any kind of assembly line—he only makes albums when he’s got enough worthy songs saved up, which is why his recent work has been top-notch. On?Egypt Station, he mixes pastoral acoustic reveries like “Confidante” with intimate piano confessions like “Do It Now.”

《Egypt Station》是一整篇流暢的樂章，宛如宇宙列車上的一次長途旅行，起始與結(jié)束之處皆為車站的背景聲。五年前的2013年，他以一首迷幻藥般的“奎尼之眼(Queenie Eye)”踏出以前的條框，推出了《New》這張唱片，這可謂他最有趣、最古怪的一張專輯了。（說實話，“奎尼之眼(Queenie Eye)”簡直可以在披頭士當(dāng)年的《魔幻之旅(Magical Mystery Tour)[i]》里排進前五）這幾年，保羅可不是音樂工業(yè)流水線包裝出來的產(chǎn)品，他只在積累了足夠多的好歌之后再發(fā)專輯，因此他近來的作品都具有極高的水準(zhǔn)?！禘gypt Station》中既有“Confidante”這樣的田園幻想，也有像“Do It Now”這樣的甜蜜鋼琴告白。

[i] 奇幻之旅（英語：Magical Mystery Tour）是英國搖滾樂隊披頭士于美國發(fā)行的第13張錄音室專輯，是披頭士電視電影《奇幻之旅》的原聲帶。1967年11月27日由Capitol唱片發(fā)行。盡管《奇幻之旅》電影接受媒體的廣泛批評，原聲歌曲專輯卻獲得商業(yè)上的成功，更被提名一項格萊美獎。

Macca spends most of the album singing in character, voicing sentiments people don’t usually expect from this guy. Case in point: “I Don’t Know,” a ballad of mid-life doubt. (“I got crows out my window, dogs at my door / I don’t think I can take any more.”) He’s also picked up a knack for silly sex songs like “Come On To Me” or the ridiculous “Fuh You,” which basically serves as a sequel to his 1971 shagathon “Hi, Hi, Hi.” With the Romantic Beatle slavering “I just wanna fuh you,” it makes “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?” sound subtle.

在這張專輯的大部分歌曲里，保羅似乎都在扮演另一個角色，表達著一些私人化感情，也絕對不是聽眾們非常熟悉的那個保羅。一個例子便是以中年迷茫為主題的“I Don’t Know”。 (烏鴉在窗外，吠犬在門外，自己卻仿佛無法呼吸“I got crows out my window, dogs at my door / I don’t think I can take any more.”)他還學(xué)會了寫像“Come On To Me”這樣呆萌的小黃歌，還有一曲“Fuh You”，基本上就是1971年那首“Hi, Hi, Hi”的續(xù)集。這位浪漫的前披頭士成員仿佛流著口水，唱著“我想與你（嗶嗶）(I just wanna fuh you)”這樣“躍躍欲試”的歌詞，真是讓“Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?”都顯得端莊含蓄。

This album’s masterpiece: “Dominoes,” one of those Paul creations that feels both emotionally direct yet playfully enigmatic. An eerie acoustic guitar hook, worthy of the White Album, builds for almost five minutes, complete with an old-school backwards guitar solo and the disarming farewell line, “It’s been a blast.” It aims for sonic territory someplace where “Too Many People” meets “You Won’t See Me,” yet it ends up somewhere different entirely. “Dominoes” is one of his toughest solo moments ever—it has the unmistakable McCartney touch everybody else keeps failing to copy, yet it feels totally fresh and new.

本專的最佳是“Dominoes”，這首歌完美地融合了赤裸裸的情感與戲謔式的神秘感。原聲吉他近五分鐘的抓耳獨奏，詭異又神秘，再加上舊派的彈奏技巧與解人戒心的結(jié)束詞“真是一場狂歡 (It’s been a blast.)”，這首歌簡直配得上披頭士的那張同名專輯[i]。它本來向著“Too Many People”和“You Won’t See Me”的交叉風(fēng)格前進，卻到了完全不同的目的地?！?strong>Dominoes”是麥卡特尼最棒的獨奏作品之一：它有著他人無法模仿的麥卡特尼本色，卻又非常新穎有趣。

[i] 《The Beatles》，又名《The White Album》，是披頭士在1968年發(fā)行的第九張專輯。這是一張雙CD專輯。這張專輯是披頭士頂峰之作，它在各個方面都相當(dāng)前衛(wèi)，卻同時兼顧了可聽性。它將試驗、旋律、溫潤、動人等特質(zhì)融為一體。整體制作水平頂尖卓越，列儂跟麥卡特尼的詞曲創(chuàng)作表現(xiàn)并臻高峰。

All?Egypt Station?has that playful spirit. “Back In Brazil” is a surprisingly successful electro-samba detour, while “Do It Now” expresses the same sentiment as his classic John Lennon elegy “Here Today,” as an older-and-wiser Paul reflects on the kind of emotional resolutions you seek when you realize how short life is. “Happy With You” is a sober folk oddity: “I sat around all day, I used to get stoned / I liked to get wasted but these days I don’t.” Even the timely anti-Trump protest “Despite Repeated Warnings” is a 7-minute mini-suite in the style of “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey”: even when he’s pissed off about political apocalypse, Paul gonna Paul. As he always should. And as?Egypt Station?suggests, as he always will.

整張《Egypt Station》都有著這種戲謔式的精神?！?strong>Back In Brazil”是一首令人驚喜的電子桑巴，“Do It Now”與那首紀(jì)念列儂的歌曲“Here Today”類似，年長睿智的保羅正在思考：當(dāng)你意識到生命是多么短暫的時候，你會尋求什么樣的情感寄托?！?strong>Happy With You”是一曲理智的另類抒情曲，“曾經(jīng)的我天天嗑藥，現(xiàn)在的我宛如新人(I sat around all day, I used to get stoned / I liked to get wasted but these days I don’t.)”。即使像“Despite Repeated Warnings”這樣極合時宜的反特朗普抗議,也算是長達7分鐘的“Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey[i]”翻版。即使他對現(xiàn)今的政治危機多么氣憤，保羅還是他自己，他也理應(yīng)如此。而我們從《Egypt Station》可以看出，他永遠(yuǎn)會是惟一的那個保羅。

[i] “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey”是保羅·麥卡特尼和琳達·麥卡特尼合作的《RAM》專輯中的一首歌曲，于1971年9月作為單曲發(fā)行，于1971年9月曾在Billboard榜上登頂。