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

翻譯：Jayleen Zhao

校對(duì)：Whitney.L

推送：Lynn Liu

The first posthumous album from Mac Miller plays like a companion piece to?Swimming.?It’s an optimistic epilogue to the life of an aspirational artist.

Mac Miller的首張遺作專輯就像是《Swimming》的姊妹篇?！禖ircles》是這位有抱負(fù)的藝術(shù)家人生的一個(gè)樂觀尾聲。

Mac Miller’s death from an accidental drug overdose sent ripples across?the rap community he helped cultivate. He was a kind-hearted collaborator and invested heavily in others’ growth, but his musical arc was left unfinished. In August of 2018, he put out?Swimming, an album that was like a quantum leap in self-discovery. Then, a month later, at 26, he was gone, unable to realize that potential. Now there’s?Circles, a posthumously released?Swimming?companion piece that gives his years of work a bit of closure. It’s the culmination of a career spent improving, a fitting epilogue to an aspirational life.

Mac Miller因服藥過量意外身亡，此事在得益于他培養(yǎng)幫助的說唱界引起了軒然大波。他是一個(gè)熱心友好的合作者，在他人音樂道路的成長(zhǎng)中傾注了大量心血，但自己的音樂軌跡卻沒有完成。2018年8月，他推出了《Swimming》這張專輯，這是他在自我發(fā)現(xiàn)過程中的一次巨大飛躍。然而一個(gè)月后，26歲的他還沒來得及意識(shí)到自己的潛力就離開了?，F(xiàn)在有了新?！禖ircles》，這是他去世后發(fā)布的《Swimming》姊妹專輯，有點(diǎn)像在為他多年音樂工作畫上句號(hào)。這是他在職業(yè)生涯中不斷進(jìn)步的結(jié)果，也是他理想生活的尾聲。

Miller had worked closely on early versions of these songs with composer-producer?Jon Brion, who was committed to finishing the album after Miller’s death. It’s unclear how deep Miller was into the process at the time of his passing, but this sounds like a completed work, or as complete as it can be. “This is a complicated process that has no right answer. No clear path,” his family?wrote in a letter?on his Instagram. “We simply know that it was important to Malcolm for the world to hear it.”

Miller曾與作曲家兼制作人Jon Biron密切合作，共同創(chuàng)作這些歌曲的早期版本，Brion在Miller去世后致力于完成這張專輯。目前尚不清楚Miller去世前參與了多少專輯創(chuàng)作，但是里面的歌曲聽起來像是一部完成了的作品，或者說是盡可能完成的作品?！斑@是一個(gè)復(fù)雜的過程，沒有正確的答案。沒有明確的路徑?！彼募胰嗽谒腎nstagram上寫信道：“我們只知道，對(duì)Malcolm來說，讓全世界都聽到他的歌十分重要?！?/p>

If?Swimming?wasn’t Miller’s best album, it was certainly the one where he came into his own as an artist. There are moments on 2015’s?GO:OD AM?where his rapping is sharpest, 2014’s?Faces?accommodated his most ambitious ideas, and 2016’s?The Divine Feminine?is his most diverse and complete project, a testament to the community of musicians he’d established around him. But?Swimming?hinted at an artist who’d finally cleared his mind and found his footing.?Circles?provides some resolution and helps finish Miller’s final thoughts.

如果說《Swimming》不是Miller最好的專輯，那它無疑是使他成為藝術(shù)家的最佳專輯。2015年的專輯《GO:OD AM》創(chuàng)作于他說唱風(fēng)格最鮮明的時(shí)刻，2014年的《Faces》包含了他最雄心勃勃的想法，而2016年的《The Divine Feminine》則是他最多樣化、最完整的作品，是他在自己周圍建立的音樂人群體的見證。但《Swimming》則暗示了這位藝術(shù)家終于理清了思路，找到了自己的立足點(diǎn)?！禖ircles》提供了一些解決方案，幫助完成Miller最后的想法。

Miller seemed to envision?Circles?as the completion of a loop. “My god, it go on and on/Just like a circle, I go back to where I’m from,” he rapped on?Swimming?closer “So It Goes.” That record was about being fine on the surface while struggling with anxiety; this one is about knowing there’s something to be done about it. Both records are about working through depression, how the bad days are long and the good days feel fleeting, but the tone is more optimistic here. The imagery of a cluttered mind is a near-constant in Miller’s final songs. On the plucked single “Good News,” he likens the recovery process to spring cleaning, which feels fitting for someone looking to hit the refresh button. “Sometimes I get lonely/Not when I’m alone/But it’s more when I’m standin’ in crowds that I’m feelin’ the most on my own,” he raps on “Surf,” a poignant realization for someone who spent his last years surrounded by throngs of fans. But it comes with an epiphany, a sort of thesis for the album: “And I know that somebody knows me/I know somewhere, there’s home/I’m startin’ to see that all I have to do is get up and go.”

Miller似乎把《Circles》想象成一個(gè)循環(huán)的完成?！拔业奶?，他不停持續(xù)/就像一個(gè)圈，我回到了我原來的地方?！彼凇禨wimming》中的最后一首歌“So it goes”中唱到。歌詞表面上歲月靜好，但實(shí)際上卻是在與焦慮作斗爭(zhēng);他知道要做些什么。這兩張唱片都是關(guān)于如何克服抑郁的，糟糕的日子多么漫長(zhǎng)，而美好的日子卻轉(zhuǎn)瞬即逝，但這里的語調(diào)聽起來更樂觀。在Miller的最后幾首歌曲中，混亂的頭腦幾乎是一個(gè)永恒不變的意象。在這首撥弦演奏的單曲“Good News”中，他把恢復(fù)過程比作春季大掃除，對(duì)那些總想點(diǎn)刷新鍵的人來說很合適?！坝袝r(shí)我感到孤獨(dú)/并不是只身一人的時(shí)候/而是當(dāng)我矗立在人群央時(shí)，我越是感到孤不可耐，”他在“Surf”中唱到，對(duì)于一個(gè)在粉絲的簇?fù)碇卸冗^最后幾年的人來說，這是一種深刻的體會(huì)。但它伴隨著一種頓悟，也是專輯的主題:“我知道有人會(huì)懂我/我知道有個(gè)地方叫做家/我逐漸明了我所需要做的便是打包走人?！?/p>

Circles?never really opens up into a full-fledged rap album, content to push back and forth between lo-fi beat music and singer-songwriter indie folk, working almost entirely with live arrangements. After doing his most-ever singing on?Swimming, he crosses a threshold into doing almost no rapping on?Circles. That was the entire idea: two albums bringing balance to each other. The few songs that do have raps in them display his love of the form and improvement as a writer. On “Hand Me Downs,” he raps about moving carelessly and stumbling through the same patterns. “Hands,” the only full rap song, works through negativity while displaying the subtly knotty lyricism he fell in love with as a teenager.

《Circles》并不是一張成熟的說唱專輯，內(nèi)容主要是在低保真節(jié)奏音樂和創(chuàng)作型歌手的獨(dú)立民謠之間來回切換，歌曲基本完全是現(xiàn)場(chǎng)直出，未加修飾。在完成了他在《Swimming》中最精彩的說唱后，他跨過了一個(gè)門檻，在《Circles》中幾乎沒有說唱部分。這就體現(xiàn)出了完整的理念:兩張專輯互相平衡。為數(shù)不多的幾首包含說唱的歌曲顯示了他對(duì)說唱形式的熱愛和創(chuàng)作方面的的進(jìn)步。在“Hand Me Downs”中，他講述了自己在相同境況下漫不經(jīng)心地游蕩，跌跌撞撞地生活的經(jīng)歷?！癏ands”是唯一一首完整的饒舌歌曲，從消極中表現(xiàn)出他在青少年時(shí)期愛上的那種微妙復(fù)雜的抒情風(fēng)格。

Miller was always trying to balance being the guy who?started Facebook’s first Big L fan page?with his love for the nakedness of 1970’s?John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. He didn’t live long enough to get to really reconcile those sides of himself, but as halves of a complete work,?Swimming?and?Circles?come the closest. Together, they establish the rapper-producer as comfortable in his skin, no longer out to prove to naysayers he could bar out. These are mellow, relaxed songs in search of that exact state of being. “‘Fore I start to think about the future/First can I please get through a day/Without any complications,” he sings on “Complicated.” It’s more Plastic Ono Band than?Lifestylez ov da Poor & dangerous—lots of guitars, some keys, light bass, the occasional synth line—but not beholden to any one sound.

Miller一直在努力平衡自己，他創(chuàng)建了Facebook上第一個(gè)Big L的粉絲頁面，同時(shí)又愛著上世紀(jì)70年代《John Lennon /Plastic Ono Band》的悲傷。他離開的太早以至于無法真正調(diào)和自己的這兩個(gè)方面，但作為一個(gè)完整作品的兩部分，《Swimming》和《Circles》是最接近的。這兩張專輯說明了說唱制作人Miller足夠了解自己，他不用再向那些唱反調(diào)的人證明他可以走出來。這些柔和、輕松的歌曲是為了尋找那種確切的存在狀態(tài)。他在“Complicated”中唱道:“在我開始考慮未來之前/首先，問能否好好的過完一天？/在沒有任何煩惱糾纏的情況下”這首歌比起B(yǎng)ig L的《Lifestylez ov da Poor & dangers》更有Plastic Ono Band的風(fēng)格—大量的吉他配樂，幾個(gè)音階，輕低音，偶爾使用合成器—但并不受制于任何一種聲音。

The chill-out aesthetic won’t come as a surprise to those familiar with Mac Miller’s?Space Migration Tour, which transformed the songs in his catalog with warm?Internet-laced grooves from their days futzing with electronica and experimental jazz. He was a huge rap nerd but he also loved the prospect of playing with a live band. These songs feel like an attempt to smooth down his interests into something comprehensive, and Brion seems like the perfect person to usher them to completion. He serves as a co-producer on most songs, an additional producer on all the others, and his work makes the songs shapelier without compromising Miller’s vision for them.

對(duì)于那些熟悉Mac Miller太空之旅巡演的人來說，這種令人松弛的審美不會(huì)讓他們感到意外。Miller的太空之旅巡演讓他的歌曲與溫暖的網(wǎng)絡(luò)音樂融合在了一起，不再是過去那種電子樂和實(shí)驗(yàn)性爵士樂的混音。他是一個(gè)說唱高手，但他也喜歡與現(xiàn)場(chǎng)樂隊(duì)合作。這些歌曲給人的感覺像是試圖把他的興趣平鋪成某種綜合的東西，而Brion又是完成它們的完美人選。他參與了專輯中大多數(shù)歌曲的制作，并且也為專輯中其他歌曲出謀劃策，使其在不改變Miller原本版本的情況下使歌曲更富神韻。

When a young rapper dies too soon, fans start listening to their music much more closely, combing over their lyrics to find the writing on the wall. With Miller, you don’t have to dive too deeply. “God Speed” is rife with thoughts about going down a destructive path and on “Brand Name,” he wrote a disclaimer that proved?tragically prescient: “To everyone who sell me drugs/Don’t mix it with that bullshit, I’m hopin’ not to join the 27 Club.” But?Circles?dispels any sense of fatalism in his music. He was still idealistic; in these songs, he is searching for a way to break the cycle, a way forward. It’s only appropriate that Mac Miller’s final musical act be one of self-reformation.

在一位年輕的說唱歌手英年早逝后，歌迷們開始更仔細(xì)地聽他們的音樂，梳理他們的歌詞，尋找他們消亡厄運(yùn)的征兆。與Miller相伴，你不必潛得太深。專輯《GO:OD AM》中的”God Speed “充斥著關(guān)于走上毀滅之路的想法，歌曲“Brand Name”中他唱到“賣貨給哥的家伙們/別摻些雜物進(jìn)去，哥才不想英年早逝加入27俱樂部”，Miller與整個(gè)世界作對(duì)，事實(shí)證明他有著悲劇性的先見之明。但《Circles》驅(qū)散了他音樂中宿命論的感覺。Miller仍然是理想主義者;在這些歌曲中，他在尋找一種打破這種循環(huán)的方式，一種前進(jìn)的方式。將Mac Miller最后的音樂表演視為自我改造，實(shí)在是再合適不過的了。