搬運(yùn)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：Alice Gu/Wendy Lee

審譯：Lynn Liu

排版：Ryan-Chopin

After two hit records,?Taylor Swift?decided that her third would be longer and more personal, and she would write it entirely by herself, no co-writers. The songs would concern major events in her life, many of which occurred in the public eye. The lyrics would take the form of letters, direct addresses, one-on-one conversations where she always got the last word. She wanted to use her newfound wisdom to reflect on her parents, her dreams, and how it felt to stand on stage and notice a bigger crowd every night, shouting the words back at her. The working title was?Enchanted, though she didn’t always feel that way. After 2008’s massively successful?Fearless, Swift wrestled with her outsider persona and sudden celebrity, and the dissonance weighed heavily on her relationships. But she was learning fast.

前兩張專輯大賣后，Taylor Swift決定把她的第三張專輯做成內(nèi)容更多，也更富有個(gè)人特色的一張專輯。她決心要獨(dú)立創(chuàng)作這張專輯，不需要任何人的協(xié)助。專輯中歌曲的內(nèi)容將與她的個(gè)人經(jīng)歷息息相關(guān)，其中有不少故事是眾所周知的。歌詞的形式也有所變化，有的是書信；有的是對某人的直接宣告；有的是一段兩人間的對話，最終以她的話結(jié)尾。她希望自己的新智慧能夠幫助自己冷靜地思考，回想父母親人，審視自己的初心，并且學(xué)會自如地站在臺上演唱，面對越來越多瘋狂互動的粉絲。這張專輯最初被命名為《Enchanted（著迷）》，但這并不是她的真實(shí)感受。2008年發(fā)行的《Fearless》大獲成功后，Swift與一直籠罩她的“不被看好”的陰影與突如其來的名氣做了一番纏斗。她的感情生活也不太順利。不過，她在迅速地成長。

Swift was 20 when the album, eventually titled?Speak Now, came out and sold over a million copies in its first week—a record high in 2010. She had, and would continue to have, bigger hits, but these songs were breakthroughs in their own right. Co-produced by Nathan Chapman, the album is patiently sequenced; the average song length is just under five minutes, giving Swift enough time to pace her hooks—which had never been bigger—and her lyrics, which had never sounded more careful or wise. It’s an album focused on growing up, something she was learning would often be confusing, sad, and uncomfortable. It’s her most unabashedly transitional work: between adolescence and adulthood, innocence and understanding, country and pop. She was at a crossroads, and she was feeling lucky.

2010年，當(dāng)這張最終被命名為《Speak Now（愛的告白）》發(fā)行并創(chuàng)下在第一個(gè)星期就賣出上百萬張的紀(jì)錄時(shí)，Swift剛滿20歲。彼時(shí)，她已經(jīng)取得了一些成績，并將在未來再創(chuàng)輝煌。但這張專輯中的歌曲也以極高的質(zhì)量造就了她創(chuàng)作中的大突破。這張專輯由Nathan Chapman參與制作，歌曲順序經(jīng)過仔細(xì)調(diào)整。每首歌的平均長度剛好接近5分鐘，讓Swift有充足的時(shí)間調(diào)整節(jié)奏，使她的音樂比以往更加攝人心魄；她的歌詞也經(jīng)過仔細(xì)打磨，聽起來比以往更加充滿哲理智慧。這張專輯的主題是成長——她漸漸發(fā)現(xiàn)這是一段充滿迷茫，悲傷和不安的旅程。這是她最為大膽的過渡期作品——從少年到成年，從純真到復(fù)雜，從鄉(xiāng)村到流行。她正站在人生的十字路口，感到自己還是很幸運(yùn)。

Swift had already become known for her intimate and intense relationship with fans. On these songs, she took a more authoritative role. There’s “Sparks Fly,” an early song that developed a big reputation after a live acoustic version circulated online. It appears here with all its fireworks and rain-soaked drama, a call to arms for people who’d been following since the beginning. There’s also “Never Grow Up,” a quiet acoustic ballad that draws the clearest line to her old material. Only now, Swift is wistful and sentimental, sounding far older than her years as she urges girls younger than her to savor every moment: “I just realized everything I have is someday gonna be gone,” she sings softly. It’s a heavy thought for a young songwriter, and the key word is?just. As in, this is all happening right?now, and if I don’t document it, it may disappear.

Swift與粉絲親密熱情的關(guān)系已經(jīng)廣為人知。在演唱這張專輯的歌曲時(shí)，她采取了更權(quán)威的一種做法。專輯中包括“Sparks Fly（火花飛濺）”——這是一首她的早期經(jīng)典，演唱會原聲版本在網(wǎng)上流傳后大受追捧。這首歌在演唱會上再次響起時(shí)，舞臺被絢麗的焰火照亮，并上演了一場暴雨中的約會戲，完全引爆了已然沉浸其中的觀眾們的激情。還有一首歌是“Never Grow Up（不要長大）”，這是一首安靜自然的原聲民謠，與她之前的作品最為相似。不過現(xiàn)在的她顯得更加傷感而深沉，用與她年齡不符的長者口吻催促那些比她年輕的女孩兒珍惜生活中的每一個(gè)時(shí)刻：“我才意識到，我擁有的一切總有一天都要溜走。”（歌詞來源于網(wǎng)易云）她柔聲唱道。這句歌詞對于一位年輕歌曲作者來說略顯沉重，特別是“才”這個(gè)字，好像是在說：如果我不及時(shí)銘記當(dāng)下的一切，它們就會化為烏有。

Here is where Taylor Swift found a lasting source of inspiration: the inevitable rise and fall of life and love, recast as emotional emergency. In the past, she had written sweet, airtight story-songs by turning the characters in her life into archetypes—nice guys, popular girls. Now she was dealing with a more complicated set of characters, so she adjusted her scale accordingly. “Dear John” and “The Story of Us” are likely about the same older musician. One is a crushing six-minute ballad about a famous guitarist emotionally manipulating a teenage songwriter. The other is a comic send-up of the night they ran into each other backstage at an awards show after the romance ended. The magic is how she wrings their hyperspecificity for universal truths—the older musician could be the sophomore jerk from the football team; the CMA Awards could be an after-school assembly. The message was clear: Swift was moving on, but she wasn’t leaving you behind.

在這張專輯的創(chuàng)作過程中，Taylor Swift發(fā)現(xiàn)了一個(gè)永不枯竭的靈感之源——生活和愛情不可避免的起起落落，一次又一次感情危機(jī)的洗禮。過去，她寫的歌曲風(fēng)格甜膩，故事線封閉，把她生活中的人物描寫成了扁平的模型——體貼的男孩和受歡迎的女孩?，F(xiàn)在，她創(chuàng)作了一系列更加復(fù)雜的角色，也相應(yīng)對曲子中的音階進(jìn)行了調(diào)整?！癉ear John（分手信）”和“The Story of Us（我們的故事）”的內(nèi)容可能都與一位年長的音樂人有關(guān)。前者是一段令人心碎的歌謠，內(nèi)容是一位已成名的吉他手玩弄了一位少年歌手的感情。后者描寫了一幕滑稽的諷刺劇，展現(xiàn)了兩人分手后，一次頒獎演出時(shí)在后臺偶遇的場景。這首歌曲的魅力在于，它巧妙地將他們之間發(fā)生的這段特殊的故事推及到了普遍存在的現(xiàn)象——這位年長的音樂人也可以是一個(gè)足球隊(duì)的大二渣男；美國鄉(xiāng)村音樂協(xié)會獎的頒獎現(xiàn)場也可以是一次課后集會。歌曲傳達(dá)的信息清晰無比：Swift已經(jīng)翻開了新的一頁，但她卻沒有完全忘記你。

And while it’s no great revelation that the mechanics of high school don’t end after graduation, Swift was not content to simply reapply old morals to new stories. So many of these songs rely on the tension of hindsight—a perspective she always longed for but never wielded quite so artfully. Hear how regretful and apologetic she sounds in “Back to December,” the increasing desperation in each chorus of “Last Kiss.” Even “Innocent,” her much-anticipated response to Kanye West stealing her mic at the 2009 VMAs, takes a nurturing approach as she guides her tormentor through his old ambitions and career highs, asking how close he is to the man he dreamed of becoming. (After all, she acknowledges, public adoration can be a fickle thing, and one day, it might be her wondering what went wrong.) She affirms in the chorus, “You’re still an innocent.” It’s a strange, writerly phrase that she must realize sounds phonetically identical to “You’re stealing innocence”—a particularly Swiftian way to accuse and forgive in the same breath.

雖然歌手們的新專輯常常陷入“換湯不換藥”的死循環(huán)，Swift卻不愿受到自己過去風(fēng)格的影響。專輯中很多歌曲都表達(dá)了一種事后頓悟的蒼涼感——這是一個(gè)她一直希望嘗試，卻從未如此成功地使用過的角度?！癇ack to December（重返十二月）”中的歌聲充滿了后悔和歉意；“Last Kiss（最后一吻）”中的副歌將絕望的氣氛推向高潮。即使是在2009年MTV音樂錄像帶大獎頒獎典禮上，Kanye West在眾目睽睽之下?lián)屪吡怂柠溈?，所有人都在期待看到她的反?yīng)，她卻在在“Innocent（無辜者）”中以一種語重心長的教育口吻，引導(dǎo)這個(gè)給她帶來痛苦的人回顧了他自己過去的雄心壯志和事業(yè)巔峰，追問他離自己的夢想還有多遠(yuǎn)。（畢竟她也明白，觀眾的喜好是變幻無常的，可能有一天她也會站在臺下，不甘心地問著“為什么”。）她在副歌中唱道“你尚還是無辜者”——這個(gè)句子寫出來有點(diǎn)怪怪的，她也一定意識到這句話聽起來很像“你傷害了無辜者”——把控訴和原諒一起表達(dá)，典型的Swift派作風(fēng)。

On?Speak Now, the way things sounded became just as important as what they meant. Swift was honing her skills as a pop songwriter, imagining a future where “country” was a biographical detail as opposed to an accurate descriptor of her music. Her arrangements were louder—an anxious string section tugging its collar through “Haunted,” a harmony-layered coda unfolding at the end of “Enchanted.” “better Than Revenge” is a pop-punk bloodletting that owes its existence to Paramore, and it foreshadows the work to come: “I Knew You Were Trouble,” “Bad Blood.” Taking aim at a budding actress now dating her ex, it’s fascinating for how wildly Swift changes her perspective while maintaining focus: burning holes in her enemy’s eyes during the verses, pleading to her ex that “she’s not what you think” during each chorus, acknowledging the power and futility of her own response (“She thinks I’m psycho ’cuz I like to rhyme her name with things”). You imagine her singing it, barging into a crowded room while everyone covers their mouth and avoids eye contact.

《Speak Now》整個(gè)專輯聽起來的感覺和它要傳達(dá)的意義變得一樣重要。因?yàn)镾wift正不斷磨礪自己作詞作曲的技巧，想象未來“鄉(xiāng)村”只是一個(gè)記錄的細(xì)節(jié)，完全不能準(zhǔn)確描述她的音樂。她的詞曲編排就證明了一切——“Haunted（迷惑）”中不安的弦樂貫穿整首歌，引領(lǐng)著歌曲的走向；“Enchanted（著迷）”的尾聲，層次分明，非常和諧動聽。“better Than Revenge（好過報(bào)復(fù)）”用流行朋克描寫了一個(gè)血拼事件，它也預(yù)示著后面作品的到來：“I Knew You Were Trouble（我知道你是大麻煩）”，“Bad Blood(敵對)”。將矛頭指向一個(gè)和自己前任約會的新演員，Swift 極致變換角度，卻都圍繞一個(gè)中心展開：在主歌里讓對手的眼中燃燒怒火，在每個(gè)副歌中向前任宣告：“她不是你想的這樣。”彰顯了本人“回懟”的力量和無謂。（“她說我有精神病，因?yàn)槲蚁矚g把她的名字和其他東西押韻”）你可以想象，她唱著歌闖進(jìn)擁擠的房間，每個(gè)人都捂著嘴躲過她的眼睛的畫面。

It’s the cathartic freakout during an otherwise elegant party, full of personal revelation. She has a moment of ecstasy in “Mine,” where she and a new love vow to “never make my parents’ mistakes,” which is precisely what you do at your first hint of independence and stability. In “Mean,” she puts her personal life on the backburner to deal with the people antagonizing her professionally. Its lyrics are proud and snappy, as banjos pluck around her like sarcastic bluebirds on her shoulders. “One day I’ll be living in a big ol’ city,” she promises a man who tore her down in reviews. Does it actually hurt a critic to know that the artist will always be more powerful and rich? Probably not, but it’s not really for him anyway—Swift already got what she wanted. In “Ours,” a bonus track as good as any song she’s ever written, she sums it up with a smile that you can hear in her voice: “Don’t you worry your pretty little mind/People throw rocks at things that shine.” She knew she was approaching her supernova phase.

在另一個(gè)金曲中，又是一次興奮的情感宣泄，創(chuàng)作靈感源于自己一段已經(jīng)分手的戀情。在“Mine(我的)”中，她度過一段極其快樂的時(shí)光，她和新戀人發(fā)誓 “永遠(yuǎn)不會犯我父母犯過的錯(cuò)”，就像在我們剛剛萌生獨(dú)立意識之時(shí)，也會這樣承諾。在歌里，她把個(gè)人生活看得不那么重要，重點(diǎn)是回?fù)裟切ｉT針對她的人。“Mine”歌詞高傲直爽，旋律朗朗上口，當(dāng)班卓琴彈起之時(shí)，有如諷刺的藍(lán)知更鳥（注：bluebird是代表幸福的意象）盤繞于肩。“總有一天，我會住進(jìn)豪華的都市！”針對一個(gè)在評論中撕她的人，她如是回?fù)簟Ｖ浪囆g(shù)家總是那么有權(quán)有錢，真的會傷害評論者嗎？不一定吧，又沒有針對他一個(gè)人——Swift 已經(jīng)得到了她想要的。在特別收錄“Ours(我們的)”里，我們似乎可以從她的聲音中看到，她面帶微笑，做出精辟總結(jié)：“別擔(dān)心你那顆美麗的心，有些人就是看不慣別人比他好。”?她知道自己越來越接近超級新星。

The ensuing tour was a blockbuster moment she had been preparing for. The intricate, explosive set design involved a full band, dancers, actors portraying the characters in her songs. There were fireworks, a massive bell she hurled herself at during “Haunted,” and a Shakespearean veranda that soared over the audience during “Love Story.” It was a little ridiculous. But for all the fans in attendance, this was how they always saw her: a superhero borne from their subconscious, someone larger than life and unafraid to look absurd. For the rest of the world, it was Swift’s reintroduction: Drop everything now—I have arrived. It’s the character she’d play for the rest of her career.

接下來讓我們走進(jìn)一個(gè)她籌備很久的演唱會。演唱會可謂轟動一時(shí)。舞臺設(shè)計(jì)極為復(fù)雜也極其新穎，包括完整的樂隊(duì)、伴舞和演員，刻畫著歌曲中的人物。還有煙花，大鐘，她伴著“Haunted”的伴奏音樂，親自敲這個(gè)大鐘。在唱“Love Story(愛情故事)”時(shí)，一個(gè)莎士比亞時(shí)代風(fēng)格的游廊舞臺升過觀眾頭頂，Swift就在舞臺的頂端彈著琴演唱，看著有些不可思議。所有粉絲悉數(shù)到場。這是粉絲眼中的她：是他們潛意識中的英雄，掌控自己的生活，不懼別人眼中的自己。對于整個(gè)世界而言，這是Swift的重新定位：拋下一切吧——我來了！這也是在她余下的生涯中，她要扮演的角色。

The concerts would begin with a recitation over the loudspeakers, a piece that also appears in the album’s liner notes. “Real life is a funny thing, you know,” it began. “There is a time for silence. There is a time for waiting your turn. But if you know how you feel, and you so clearly know what you need to say, you’ll know it.” It reads as inspirational but, in retrospect, it was also a warning: Things won’t stay the same forever. Life can be jarring, full of little interruptions. You won’t be prepared for everything. Near the end of the show, Swift introduced a heartland anthem called “Long Live,” tearfully confiding that it was written for all her fans, her whole band, and the team behind her. “It was the end of a decade,” she sings, “But the start of an age.” The young crowd roars, as if in anticipation.

This was all ahead of Swift as the album was nearing completion. Late in the process, she was out to lunch with mentor Scott Borchetta—among the first industry people to take notice of her in Nashville, offering a deal with his fledgling label Big Machine. By the end of the decade, he’d be just another on her long list of friends-turned-enemies. But for now, he was a confidant. She played him songs from the new record and discussed her plans for the rollout. She was excited. Borchetta was, too. But the working title didn’t seem right.?Enchanted? He thought of princesses, fairytales, childhood. The old Taylor. This seemed different. Maybe she felt miffed by someone second-guessing her vision; maybe she was grateful to be challenged. After all, this music was precisely about these moments when your fantasies no longer apply to reality, when you have to grow up and make a choice and live with it on your own. She excused herself for a moment, and when she returned, she had a better idea.

演唱會伊始，揚(yáng)聲器播放出一段朗誦，和專輯封套的說明文字一樣。它開始了：“真實(shí)的生活是很有趣的，總有一段時(shí)間要沉默下來，總有一段時(shí)間要等待你的回歸，如果你知道自己感受如何，也清楚地知道該說些什么，那么，你就懂得了生活的含義?！边@一段話啟人心智似又追憶過往，的確也是也是警示：萬物并非一成不變。生活也會起起伏伏，總會有各樣的小障礙。也并非一切都會是萬事俱備。演唱會接近尾聲，Swift最受矚目的金曲“Long Live(不朽)”壓軸登場，她含淚吐露這首歌寫給她的粉絲、她的樂隊(duì)和背后支持她的團(tuán)隊(duì)?！?strong>這是一個(gè)時(shí)代的結(jié)束，”她唱著，“卻是一個(gè)世紀(jì)的開端。”全場的年輕觀眾沸騰了，好似期許著未來。

這是專輯接近完成時(shí)發(fā)生的花絮：后期制作中，她和唱片公司總裁Scott Borchetta 出去吃飯，他是在Nashville最早被注意到的業(yè)內(nèi)人士之一，從前邀Swift 和他的新唱片公司Big Machine簽約。十年唱片合約即將到期，到時(shí)他也會變成Swift友轉(zhuǎn)敵清單中的一個(gè)。但現(xiàn)在他們還是密友。Swift給他播放新唱片中的歌，和他討論新專輯發(fā)行的計(jì)劃。她和Borchetta都異常興奮。但他對這個(gè)暫定名稱似乎不太滿意，“著迷”？他想到了公主、童話、童年和之前的同名專輯《Taylor Swift(泰勒·斯威夫特) 》，不過這些和新唱片都不太一樣。可能她有些生氣，因?yàn)閯e人事后反對她的構(gòu)想，也可能她欣然接受了質(zhì)疑?？傊?，音樂準(zhǔn)確描繪了當(dāng)幻想屈服于現(xiàn)實(shí)之時(shí)，當(dāng)我們必須成長，為自己的選擇負(fù)責(zé)之時(shí)，我們要經(jīng)歷的各種時(shí)刻。她離席了一會，回來時(shí)已經(jīng)有了更好的想法。