翻譯：Vivian

審譯：Ryan-Chopin

排版：Ryan-Chopin

Toward the end of her turgid seventh album,?Unapologetic,?Rihanna?sings a grim rhetorical: "What's love without tragedy?" But the real question that she and her songwriters seem to be posing on?Unapologetic?is, "Who is Rihanna without?Chris Brown?" The album is designed to engage our perception of Rihanna the Pop Star and Rihanna the Victim, and the source of its fascination is the dissonance between the two. Its narrative, about a woman's miserable obsession with a man we know to be her abuser, flouts expectation of the traditional survivor's tale; we want to see a woman learn from that pain and leave it, not rut in it.

在她第七張專輯<Unapologetic＞的結(jié)尾，Rihanna嚴肅地反問：“不以悲劇收場的愛情又是什么？”然而，她和她的創(chuàng)作者真正關(guān)心的問題是：“在和Chris Brown的關(guān)系外，Rihanna是一個什么樣的人？”這張專輯意圖挑戰(zhàn)我們對于作為明星和受害者的Rihanna抱有的固有觀念，而這兩種身份的矛盾正是專輯的魅力所在。它講述了一個關(guān)于“愛上施暴者”的悲劇故事，卻顛覆了人們對于傳統(tǒng)受害者敘事的期待。我們想看到一位女性從痛苦中獲得成長并離開，而不是深陷其中。

It was already difficult to separate Rihanna the pop icon, whom we think we know from her glamorous image and her songs, from the "real" Rihanna, whom we think know from the bruised "Robyn F." of her?2009 LAPD police report.?Unapologetic?courts this confusion. We see the singer as self-possessed ("Good Girl Gone Bad"), a superstar isolated by her fame ("A Girl Like Me") who is full of Sexual brio ("Rude Boy"). This constructed image of power doesn't jibe with her purported rekindling with Chris Brown, who is most notable for Top 40 R&B diarrheatics, a decent MJ impression, and, infamously, beating the living shit out of Rihanna.

我們很難區(qū)分Rihanna的兩種身份：她既是作品背后那個光鮮亮麗的流行明星，又是那個“歌手外殼下”的她——那個在2009洛杉磯警局報道中傷橫累累的“Robyn F”。<Unapologetic>招致了這種困惑。我們看到的是一個鎮(zhèn)定自若的歌手(<Good Girl Gone Bad>),一個被名利孤立?(<A Girl Like Me>)卻充滿性能量的巨星(<Rude Boy>)。那個充滿力量的她并不應(yīng)該與Chris Brown重歸于好。后者創(chuàng)作過排行榜前40的R&B口水歌，舉辦過Michael Jackson的致敬表演，因嚴重家暴Rihanna而臭名昭著。

Much has been made of the couple's duet, "Nobody's Business", which is, unfortunately, one of?Unapologetic's high points. They pledge their eternal fealty, suck face in a Lexus, and let the world know that the love between them ain't nobody's business but theirs.?MYOB?is a tall order when your boyfriend once had to do an apology tour that included a stop on "Larry King Live" with his mom. The song's upbeat tempo makes it a shoe-in single with cross-platform playlists in its sights; she wants everyone to get the memo. But ultimately, it's a bubbly pop tune that conjures up historical memory of women defending men who have hurt them.

這對情侶的二重奏"Nobody's Business”傳達了很多信息。不幸的是，這也是專輯最精彩的部分之一。他們對彼此永表忠誠，在雷克薩斯里卿卿我我，告昭世界他們的愛情與旁人無關(guān)。當你的男友需要在演唱會上向公眾道歉，并與母親一同站在“Larry King Live”的舞臺上時，當事者希望不讓別人插手是困難的。歡快的節(jié)奏是這首單曲的閃光點，這使它能夠在不同平臺進行播放。Rihanna想讓所有人都接收到她的“指令”?？墒堑筋^來，這首活潑的流行小調(diào)也只讓人想到了被害女性為男性施暴者辯護的事實。

The rest of the album is a synth-pop slog that plays like the companion piece of?Nan Goldin's "The Ballad of Sexual Dependency". She's frozen in a relationship with a bad person and tangled in a toxic situation that feels out of her control (SOUNDS FUN, RIRI!)-- themes that are mirrored in?Unapologetic's surplus of minor-key treacle. The perfunctory Ibiza thump of "Right Now" reflects badly on both her and producer David Guetta while "Fresh Off the Runway" is capitalist braggadocio (nonsense grade) so static it borders on unmusical. The Auto-Tune on?Future's "Loveeeeeee Song" feature calls to a mind a dog vomiting while Rihanna, in turn, sounds like she's been roused from a medicated slumber.

剩下的專輯是用合成器流行樂喊出的口號，像是為攝影家Nan Goldin的影集<The Ballad of Sexual Dependency>進行配樂。她在和惡人開展的關(guān)系中寸步難行，眼前糾結(jié)的壞形式讓她感到失控（Riri,這聽起來不妙！)。<Unapologetic>中過多的小調(diào)顫音反映了這些主題。粗糙的舞曲“Right Now”讓她和制作人David Guetta顯得非常難堪，而“Fresh Off the Runway”則是對資本主義（廢話一般）的自吹自擂，它是如此缺乏變化，無音樂性可言。自動調(diào)音的“Loveeeeeee Song”加入了一條狗對人類的呼喊，而Rihanna聽起來像是剛從藥物的影響中睡醒。

Rihanna's stature has been built on undeniable singles like "We Found Love" and "The Only Girl in the World", but tracks of this caliber are nowhere to be found. Lead single?"Diamonds"?mixes simile, cliché, and metaphor, serving as a potent reminder that someone thought this was the best the album had to offer.?Oú est ma?"Umbrella"? On "Pour It Up", she sounds alternately robotic and narcotized as she sings about how she's so rich she can pay for a $100 valet service and a night at the strip club and doesn't need friends. Plaintive piano ballad "Stay" is Rihanna inhabiting the post-Florence pop landscape, all chiaroscuro and natural voice. It is pretty.

“We Found Love”和“The Only Girl in the World”等單曲對Rihanna天后地位的建立功不可沒，但這樣高質(zhì)量的單曲已無跡可尋。主打歌“Diamonds”糅合了明喻、隱喻和陳詞濫調(diào)，仿佛在鞏固人們對于專輯最佳的印象。我的“Umbrella/雨傘”在哪里？在“Pour It Up/傾盆而下”中，她描述著自己紙醉金迷的生活：使用一百美金的泊車服務(wù)，在脫衣舞俱樂部一夜春宵，不需要任何朋友。她的聲音聽起來既機械化又愚鈍。民謠“Stay”是Rihanna對樂隊Florence and the Machine的模仿，未經(jīng)處理的原聲若隱若現(xiàn)，甚是美麗。

The album closes with songs that are more potently disturbing than the attention-grabbing "Nobody's Business". With production from The-Dream and Carlos McKinney, Rihanna devotes nearly seven minutes-- a pop aeon-- to "Love Without Tragedy/Mother Mary", where she sings, "Who knew the course of this one drive/ Injured us fatally/ You took the best years of my life/ I took the best years of your life/ Felt like love struck me in the night/ I pray that love don't strike twice," over a riff that copies from the police's "Message in a Bottle". It then becomes a florid song suite, mixing prayer and star-is-born autobiography. "Let's live in the moment/ As long we got each other…" she sings, pausing before the stunning "I'm prepared to die in the moment." It's a curious choice of words in a song that seems to address her life in the long shadow of her abuse: she told police that Chris Brown said he was going to kill her during the beating. The tracks that follow, "Lost in Paradise" and the awful "Get It Over With", further underscore any concern one might have for the pop star's romantic choices.

專輯末尾的歌曲比引人注目的“Nobody’s Business”更加令人不安。在制作團隊The-Dream和Carlos McKinney的協(xié)助下，Rihanna用沒完沒了的七分鐘演唱了“Love Without Tragedy/Mother Mary”。在police的單曲“Message in a Bottle”的吉他獨奏伴奏下，她唱到：“Who knew the course of this one drive/ Injured us fatally/ You took the best years of my life/ I took the best years of your life/ Felt like love struck me in the night/ I pray that love don't strike twice?(誰知這夜飛馳路程上/你我注定心碎/你擁有我最好的年華/我擁有你最美的青春/愛情在這夜里想刺刀搬鋒利/我祈禱不要再次心碎)”接下來的詞曲開始變得花哨，祈禱中混合著自己的明星歷程。?"Let's live in the moment/ As long we got each other…（讓我們活在當下/只要彼此相愛）”她唱到，聲音卻突然停止，直到那句漂亮的?"I'm prepared to die in the moment（我已準備好在此刻死去）”。這首回應(yīng)暴力陰影的歌曲配上了異樣的歌詞：她曾經(jīng)告訴過警察Chris Brown在打她時說要殺死她。其后的兩首單曲“Lost in Paradise”和“Get It Over With”讓人不禁更加擔心她對伴侶的選擇。

It's difficult to understand why Rihanna expects her fans to hang in this dark space with her (and Chris Brown). The album is unapologetic but it's also airless, nearly hookless, and exudes a deep melancholy. Given these qualities, it's hard not to wonder where else the album might have gone. Would it fare better if the topics were the same, but set to songs as combustible as "Don't Stop the Music"? If her pain and shame and can't-quit-you-babe motif was delivered with some humor? If she kept her personal drama to herself and sang about rolling fat joints on her bodyguard's head and did more duetting with the dude from Coldplay?

我們很難理解為什么Rihanna期待粉絲和她(與Chris Brown)一同在黑暗中游蕩。這張專輯拒絕道歉，卻顯得有氣無力，幾乎缺乏亮點，基調(diào)滲透著至深的憂郁。這些特點不禁讓人想象專輯本可能呈現(xiàn)的另一番面貌。如果專輯的主題不發(fā)生變化，“Don’t Stop the Music”一樣火爆的單曲是否能提升專輯質(zhì)量？要是她用幽默的手法描述痛苦、恥辱和“我不能離開你”的主旨呢？再或者她不把私人恩怨公之于眾，而只是歌唱自己貼身保鏢頭頂滾動的脂肪，和那個Coldplay里的家伙（指主唱Chris）多來點二重唱呢？

On one hand, it's tempting to give Rihanna props for broadcasting her all-too-real shortcomings. She's quite a distance from the tidy narrative we'd like, the one where she's learned from her pain and is back to doing diva triumph club stomp in the shadow of Beyoncé.?Unapologetic?rubs our faces in the inconvenient, messy truth of Rihanna's life which, even if it were done well, would be hard to celebrate as a success. But the measurable failure is the album's music. On a track-by-track basis, the songs make for dull labor, not worth our time and not befitting Rihanna's talent.

一方面來講，我們很想贊美Rihanna對自己真實缺陷的毫不遮掩。她并沒有如我們期待的那樣跨出痛苦，繼續(xù)在Beyonce的陰影下做一個昂首挺胸的天后。<Unapologetic>讓我們直面了Rihanna那麻煩的壞生活。就算專輯獲得了成功，對她而言，這也很難算是一場值得慶賀的勝利。然而，專輯最大的敗筆還是音樂本身。一首首單曲只是乏味的勞動產(chǎn)物，它們不值得我們花時間聽，也不匹配Rihanna的才能。