搬運(yùn)自：微信公眾號(hào)【評(píng)論搬一堆】（在原文基礎(chǔ)上添加了英語(yǔ)原文與排版調(diào)整）

翻譯：Ryan-Chopin/Whitney.L

審譯：Lynn Liu

排版：SpencerC

Long before she had firsthand experience with pop music’s star-making assembly line,?songwriting camps, and royalty splits, 14-year-old?Charli XCX?thought that people made music because they were brainwashed by robots. “Who writes the songs/The machines do,” she sings with bug-eyed terror on her unreleased 2008 debut,?14. The lyrics are a little ridiculous, but Charli wasn’t exactly?wrong?in the assumption that there are complex mechanisms lurking behind most chart-topping songs. She witnessed them in the 2010s, after she signed to a major label and began penning hits for?Icona Pop?and?Iggy Azalea, content to give her most straightforward pop songs to others. On her own albums, whether the gothic?True Romance, the punky?Sucker, or the avant-garde?Pop 2, she subverted mainstream pop conventions, projecting the image of a rave-happy club kid. Always at Charli’s core was the contradiction of loving pop music, yet needing to rebel against the pop machine.

在流行音樂(lè)產(chǎn)業(yè)的造星流水線、歌曲創(chuàng)作訓(xùn)練營(yíng)和版稅分割等出現(xiàn)之前很久，當(dāng)然，14歲的Charli XCX也還未經(jīng)歷這些，但當(dāng)時(shí)她就已經(jīng)認(rèn)為人們創(chuàng)作音樂(lè)是因?yàn)楸粰C(jī)器人洗腦了。“誰(shuí)寫(xiě)的歌/機(jī)器人寫(xiě)的，”仿佛她瞪著眼珠子，一股駭人樣唱著，這首歌來(lái)自她在2008年未發(fā)行的首張專輯。這首歌的歌詞有點(diǎn)可笑，當(dāng)時(shí)Charli認(rèn)為：大多數(shù)排行榜冠軍歌曲背后都隱藏著復(fù)雜的機(jī)械痕跡，但在這一點(diǎn)上她不是完全錯(cuò)的。她后來(lái)簽約一家大唱片公司，并在2010年代見(jiàn)證了她以前以為的這一切。她為Icona Pop和Iggy Azalea創(chuàng)作出了熱門(mén)歌曲，能把她最直白的流行歌曲帶給別人也令她十分滿足。在她自己的專輯中，無(wú)論是哥特式的《True Romance》，朋克風(fēng)的《Sucker》，還是前衛(wèi)的《Pop 2》，她都顛覆了主流流行音樂(lè)的常態(tài)，展現(xiàn)了一個(gè)瘋狂快樂(lè)的俱樂(lè)部孩子的形象。Charli始終是忠愛(ài)著流行音樂(lè)，但又內(nèi)心矛盾，想要抹去流行樂(lè)的機(jī)械痕跡。

Her third studio album,?Charli,?invites back many of?Pop 2’s contributors, as if hoping to recapture its predecessor’s magic. But the record feels conflicted about its intentions. Take?Lizzo-featuring “Blame It On Your Love,” a reworking of?Pop 2’s transcendent “Track 10” that loses its impact by trading dial-up screeches for a widely appealing, Stargate-produced EDM drop and a dembow-inflected groove. This and the frivolous yet fun chart-pop song “1999” (featuring?Troye Sivan) don’t jell with the rest of?Charli’s warped club tracks and intimate ballads. Like many self-titled albums, it’s a reflection of the artist: in Charli’s case, one who wants to veer down experimental, transgressive, and queer pathways but?constantly contemplates?what it would be like to fully enter the mainstream.

她的第三張錄音室專輯《Charli》邀請(qǐng)了許多《Pop 2》時(shí)期的合作者，似乎是希望重現(xiàn)前一張專輯的魔力，但這張唱片給人的感覺(jué)恰恰相反。以與Lizzo合作的“Blame It On Your Love”為例，這是在嘗試著對(duì)《Pop 2》中卓越的“Track 10”再造，相比后者的那種引人注目的“Stargate”式EDM節(jié)奏和“Dembow”影響下的律動(dòng)感，前者中的撥號(hào)刺啦聲便削弱了該曲的魔力。這首歌，以及Charli與Troye Sivan合作的輕浮而有趣的流行歌曲“1999”，與這張專輯里其他扭曲的俱樂(lè)部歌曲和抒情曲格格不入。許多以藝術(shù)家自己名字命名的專輯一樣都是藝術(shù)家自身的一種映襯:在Charli的專輯中，她想要轉(zhuǎn)向越軌且古怪的實(shí)驗(yàn)性流行樂(lè)，但又不斷地想著要是這些歌能全部進(jìn)入主流音樂(lè)圈又會(huì)是什么樣子。

Much of?Charli’s sound is an extension of the corrosive electronics on?Pop 2, with producer?A. G. Cook?at the helm of both. He and his PC Music cohorts (Planet 1999, umru) embrace the synthetic and shiny: Glossy, arena-sized ’80s rock drums, rippling power synths, squeaky J-pop arrangements, and the relentlessly positive sound of Swedish Eurodance are repurposed and exaggerated, evoking the eerie sheen of a?hyper-realistic 3D render. On “Shake It,” Charli’s voice is manipulated to sound like bubbling water, before the track is infiltrated by a small army of collaborators including?Big Freedia,?CupcakKe, Pabllo Vittar, and?Brooke Candy, like a futuristic remake of?Busta Rhymes’ infamous posse cut “Touch It (Remix).” The beat sounds like someone furiously clanging on boiler room pipes, transforming a nasty strip club track into a soundtrack for mutiny. The credits for “Click,” which ends with a montage of jagged and distorted?SOPHIE-like sounds not dissimilar to farts, name?100 gecs’ Dylan Brady as responsible for “harsh noise.” Compared to the bouncy electro-pop of “1999” or the trop-pop production of “Warm” (featuring?Haim), these moments provide a thrilling adrenaline rush.

這張專輯由制作人A. G. Cook掌舵，其大部分音效是延伸了《Pop 2》的電子音樂(lè)。他和他的電腦音樂(lè)伙伴們運(yùn)用了很多合成音效：出彩的80年代體育場(chǎng)搖滾鼓聲、波紋狀的合成音、吱吱作響的日本流行音樂(lè)以及瑞典風(fēng)歐陸舞曲中那歡快積極的聲音被重新編排和放大，泛起了超現(xiàn)實(shí)主義3D渲染的怪異光澤。在“Shake It”中，Charli的唱腔一開(kāi)始像冒泡的水，后來(lái)就被合作者們——Big Freedia、CupcakKe、Pabllo Vittar和Brooke Candy——所滲透覆蓋，這首歌就像Busta Rhymes那首混音版“Touch It”的未來(lái)重制版。其節(jié)奏聽(tīng)起來(lái)像有人在猛敲鍋爐房的水管，把一個(gè)世俗的脫衣舞俱樂(lè)部音樂(lè)變成了適合反叛現(xiàn)場(chǎng)的配樂(lè)?！癈lick”里參差扭曲的SOPHIE式聲音蒙混在一起，這聽(tīng)起來(lái)和放屁沒(méi)什么不同，而合作創(chuàng)作者Dylan Brady被認(rèn)為是“刺耳噪音”的罪魁禍?zhǔn)?。與“1999”充滿活力的電子流行樂(lè)或熱帶風(fēng)流行樂(lè)作品“Warm”（與Haim合作）相比，以上歌曲都會(huì)讓人腎上腺素激增。

Charli’s crisp writing mirrors the vivid production. On “Click,” she turns herself into an onomatopoeic sound effect. The sensory details of “Next Level Charli” establish a scene in seconds: “I go speeding on the highway/Flame burning/Tire screech.” Charli credits Max Martin with teaching her the technique, commonly used by Swedish songwriters, of using words’ natural melody to create catchiness, instead of intentionally rhyming. Lifting the most effective ideas from different schools of production, she’s able to construct her own mutant strain of pop.

Charli新奇的作詞帶來(lái)了生動(dòng)的音樂(lè)作品。在“Click”里，她將自己處理成了擬聲效果?！癗ext Level Charli”帶來(lái)的感官細(xì)節(jié)在幾秒鐘內(nèi)就能映入聽(tīng)眾眼簾:“我在高速公路上超速行駛/大火熊熊燃燒/輪胎發(fā)出尖細(xì)的聲音?！盋harli感謝Max Martin教會(huì)了她這種瑞典創(chuàng)作人常用的技巧，即用單詞的本身發(fā)音來(lái)創(chuàng)造朗朗上口的效果，而不是刻意押韻。她從不同的制作流派中汲取了那些最有效的創(chuàng)意，從而構(gòu)建自己的獨(dú)特怪異的流行樂(lè)。

The album’s most potent song is the synth-pop anthem “Gone,” which blends vulnerability with outré sound. Through gritted teeth, Charli describes a party full of people who make her feel alone: “I feel so unstable/Fucking hate these people,” she sings, using the image of ice melting in her fist to illustrate her sense of panic-inducing isolation. In response, Hélo?se Letissier of?Christine and the Queens?poses questions that are somehow relatable in their absurdity: “Am I a smoke?/Am I the sun?/Who decides?” Letissier’s abstractions are the foil to Charli’s concrete lyrics: The former evokes the spiraling crisis of the mind, the latter the blood-boiling anger that rises in the body.

這張專輯中節(jié)奏感最強(qiáng)的歌曲是合成器流行歌曲”Gone”，它將無(wú)力感與荒誕怪異的聲音融合在一起。Charli咬緊牙關(guān)，道出了雖然身處人潮之中，仍然心感孤單，她這樣唱到:“I feel so unstable/Fucking hate these people（深感危機(jī)四伏/我討厭這些庸人?！彼匀^中融化的冰來(lái)形象的表述自己內(nèi)心那種驚恐與落寞。作為回應(yīng)，Christine and the Queens，也就是Heloise Letissier，提出了一些在某種程度上與他們這樣荒誕做法有關(guān)的問(wèn)題:“Am I a smoke?/Am I the sun?/Who decides?（我的選擇我的個(gè)性誰(shuí)都無(wú)法決定）”Letissier抽象的表達(dá)是在襯托Charli直白的歌詞:前者喚起了螺旋式上升的精神緊繃感，后者則激起了沸騰的怒火。

Together, Charli and Letissier reach a cathartic breaking point, a rattling breakdown filled with frosty percussion, dramatic synth stabs, and stuttering vocal chops. In a recent?i-D?interview, Letissier asserts that Charli’s musical aesthetic, which she describes as a “hybrid” of club experimentation and earworm pop, is “deeply queer.” But in “Gone,” Charli invites another hypothesis for why her music has become so beloved by the?LGBTQ+ community: Her ability to evocate a profound sense of unbelonging. When “Gone” explodes, it sounds like two people shattering the box that confined them.

由此，伴隨著冰冷的打擊樂(lè)、戲劇性的合成器穿刺音以及斷斷續(xù)續(xù)的人聲，Charli和Letissier一起達(dá)到了宣泄的臨界點(diǎn)。在最近的一次i-D采訪中，Letissier稱Charli的歌曲風(fēng)格是舞曲和流行樂(lè)的“結(jié)合”，是“十分怪異的”。但在“Gone”中，Charli提出了另一種說(shuō)法，來(lái)解釋為什么她的音樂(lè)如此受到LGBTQ+群體的喜愛(ài):她能夠喚起一種深刻的歸屬感。當(dāng)“Gone”達(dá)到高潮處時(shí)，聽(tīng)起來(lái)像是兩個(gè)人打破了禁錮他們的牢籠。

Charli’s goal is self-examination—a new step for Charli, who’s better known for her?up-tempo?hedonistic?bangers?than her emotional deep cuts. Throughout the album, she pinpoints the source of her anxieties, investigating her relationships with substances, with her romantic partner, and with herself. She does this with heart-wrenching specificity on the ballad “Thoughts,” when, in a drugged-out stupor, she wonders if her friends are genuine. And on the electro-bop “February 2017,” featuring?Clairo?and?Yaeji, she recaptures “Track 10”’s candor. “Sorry ’bout Grammy night/Was lying on my mind/Was in a different place/Tortured and drifting by,” she sings to her partner. So when “Official” arrives, it feels breathtakingly hopeful, as Charli sings of the little details (breakfast in bed, a magical kiss) that make her love real.?Charli?uncovers a singer-songwriter unafraid to display the cracks in her facade, crafting a striking portrait of what happens when a robot glitches.

Charli這樣做的目的是自我反省——這對(duì)Charli來(lái)說(shuō)是新的一步，享樂(lè)主義式的快節(jié)奏音樂(lè)，使她廣為人知，而非她那些傷痕累累的感情生活。在整張專輯中，她找到了自己焦慮的根源，從她與物質(zhì)、與親密伴侶以及與自己的關(guān)系中找尋蛛絲馬跡。她在這首歌謠“Thoughts”中，以一種令人感到心碎的方式做到了這一點(diǎn)。在電子波普單曲“February 2017”中，Clairo和Yaeji參與其中，再現(xiàn)了“Track 10”的坦率?！癝orry ’bout Grammy night/Was lying on my mind/Was in a different place/Tortured and drifting by（格萊美之夜，也只能說(shuō)對(duì)不起/難道我喪心病狂了嗎/仿佛置身幻境/受盡折磨，如一葉孤舟在海中漂泊），”她唱給她的合作伙伴。所以單曲“Official”來(lái)臨之時(shí)，Charli吟唱著那些使她愛(ài)情變得觸手可及的小細(xì)節(jié)(床上的早餐，一個(gè)令人難以忘懷的吻)時(shí)，她給人以無(wú)限的希望。Charli向人們展露了一位創(chuàng)作型歌手不懼正面展現(xiàn)自己的歌喉，描繪了當(dāng)沒(méi)有電音、合成器節(jié)拍時(shí)，她本來(lái)的令人驚艷的音色。