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：WhitneyL? ??

校正：Ryan-Chopin

The mystical grandeur of?Golden Hour?creates a magnetic effect as Kacey Musgraves sings simply about the world as if she’s the first person to notice, and you’re the first one she’s telling.

神秘的《Golden Hour(黃金時刻)》創(chuàng)造了一種磁力效應(yīng)，就像Kacey Musgraves所唱的那樣，若她是第一個探索世界的人，你將是她訴說世界的第一個人。

Kacey Musgraves’ third album goes down so smoothly that it might not even scan as a total reinvention. Throughout the songs on?Golden Hour, the East Texas singer-songwriter is radiant, awestruck, taking the scenic route to the bar just for the hell of it. After Musgraves’ previous two albums, which felt like they were cut from the same home-sewn flannel cloth, she now ventures beyond the front-porch hum of country music. The new Kacey Musgraves needs strings, vocoders, disco beats. And if this sounds like a left turn for the lovable cynic who once characterized the world as an absurd?beauty contest, a?vicious cycle, a?bad party, and a toxic?boys’ club, well, that’s kinda the point.

Kacey Musgraves的第三張專輯制作進(jìn)展得太過順利，以至于很難被視為全新的創(chuàng)作。在《Golden Hour(黃金時刻)》整張專輯中，這位來自東德克薩斯的創(chuàng)作型歌手光芒四射，令人眼前一亮。Musgraves之前的兩張專輯曲風(fēng)相似，平平無奇。但是如今，她儼然已經(jīng)步入了鄉(xiāng)村音樂的前沿。全新的Kacey Musgraves需要弦樂、鼓點和迪斯科節(jié)奏。這聽起來就像她曾把世界視為一場荒謬的選美比賽、一個惡性循環(huán)、一場瘋狂的派對或是一個壞男孩俱樂部，現(xiàn)在卻突然變得憤世嫉俗。

Since her last proper album, 2015’s?Pageant Material, the now 29-year-old singer-songwriter has changed her perspective. There was a spirited?Christmas record, a creatively charged?acid trip, and a rustic country?wedding. It’s like Musgraves’ life was given the season-finale treatment: a series of climactic turns that left her standing misty-eyed on a cliffside, bellowing “I get it!” at the sunrise. She’s updated her music accordingly. On?Golden Hour, everything sprawls and swells and gushes, a gaping sky that makes the sonic landscapes of her previous albums feel like mere set dressing. For these songs of hope and wonder, she nods to meticulous folk epics like?Beck’s?Sea Change, or?Sufjan Stevens’?Seven Swans?if it was re-cut for an IMAX screen. She’s settled on enlightenment as a new resting state.

回望她的上一張專輯《Pageant Material（填充材料）》，自2015年發(fā)布到現(xiàn)在，這位29歲的創(chuàng)作型歌手已改變了她的視角。她的這張新專輯中有令人振奮的圣誕歌曲，充滿創(chuàng)意的迷幻之旅，還有淳樸的鄉(xiāng)村婚禮。這就像Musgraves的生活被賦予了一場季終性的治療，一系列洶涌的海浪退去之后，日出之時，讓站在懸崖邊的她淚眼朦朧，咆哮著喊道"我懂了!”。由此，她對她的音樂做出了改變。在《黃金時刻》中，一切都是無章可循、跌宕起伏、噴涌而出的，如此多變的風(fēng)格將她之前的專輯變得就像陪襯一樣。這些充滿著希望和奇跡的歌曲，是她向Beck的“Sea Change(海的變化)”、Sufjan Stevens的“Seven Swans（七只天鵝）”等民間史詩型歌曲的致敬。開悟成為了她的一種新的休息狀態(tài)。

The result is Musgraves’ most accessible record and her most ambitious, a magnetic, comfortable culmination of her pop and country instincts. While dynamic enough to house both the stirring, alone-at-the-piano fragment “Mother” and a full-on country-disco kiss-off in “High Horse,”?Golden Hour?is alluringly cohesive, both lyrically and musically. In “Wonder Woman,” she confronts a partner’s unrealistic expectations and gives a simple counter: “All I need’s a place to land.” Throughout these songs, she finds one.

這使得《黃金時刻》成為Musgraves最成功的唱片，并且這成為她流行和鄉(xiāng)村樂最具野心、最具吸引力、最舒暢的頂峰。《黃金時刻》足以容納那激動人心的獨奏鋼琴曲“Mother（母親）”和充滿鄉(xiāng)村節(jié)奏情調(diào)的“High Horse（傲慢的態(tài)度）”，《黃金時刻》在歌詞和音樂上都極具吸引力。在“Wonder Woman（神奇女俠）”中，面對伴侶不切實際的期望，她給出了一個簡單的回答:“我只需要一個落腳的地方?！痹谶@些歌曲中，她確實找到了。

Despite the grandeur of its music,?Golden Hour?offers Musgraves’ most understated songwriting, a refreshing evolution as stars like?Justin Timberlake?and?Lady Gaga?accidentally turn Americana-pop into grim satire. In the stunning single “Space Cowboy,” she weaves in at least a dozen genre tropes without drawing any attention to them. Instead, you’re left dazzled by the way her bold, drawling voice can cut through simple ideas—“Sunsets fade/And love does too”—like she’s the first person to notice, and you’re the first one she’s telling.

盡管《黃金時刻》的音樂氣勢宏大，但它卻包含了Musgraves輕描淡寫般的創(chuàng)作，這是一種令人耳目一新的改變，正如Justin Timberlake和Lady Gaga等明星意外地將美國流行音樂變成了冷酷的諷刺。在令人驚艷的單曲“Space Cowboy（太空牛仔）”中，她巧妙地編織了至少十幾種風(fēng)格的比喻。然而，她那大膽、拖沓的聲音卻能穿透簡單的思想——“日落消逝，愛也如此”——讓你受到最原始的沖擊。就像文中開頭所說的那樣，若她是第一個探索世界的人，你將是她訴說世界的第一個人。

Sometimes, that familiarity belies the complexity of these songs. Tracks like “Love Is a Wild Thing” and “Oh, What a World” swirl around the positive messages in their titles in a state of euphoria. Musgraves includes precious few of the subtle details that made her 2013 breakthrough,?Same Trailer Different Park, feel so instantly familiar. On a previous record, she might have provided a tour of the neighborhood that landlocks the star-crossed home-bodies in “Lonely Weekend,” or cracked a stoner joke about the “plants that grow and open your mind” in “Oh, What a World.” In the places where you’d expect Musgraves to land her punches, she sometimes offers just a wistful sigh.

而有時，這種隨意性掩蓋了這些歌曲的復(fù)雜性。就像“Love Is a Wild Thing（愛是一件瘋狂的事）”和“Oh, What a World（哦，多么美妙的世界）”這樣的歌曲在歡快的節(jié)奏中，圍繞著標(biāo)題傳達(dá)出了一種積極向上信息。Musgraves在這張專輯中所運用到的精妙的細(xì)節(jié)與她在2013年做出的突破，《Same Trailer Different Park（同樣的拖車在不同的公園）》這張專輯中有驚人的相似。在之前的專輯中，她可能會在“Lonely Weekend（孤獨的周末）”中讓那些不幸的大男子主義的男人滾去別的地方，或者在“Oh, What a World（哦，多么美妙的世界）”中開一個關(guān)于“這些植物能開拓和開發(fā)你的思維”的玩笑。在你以為Musgraves會出手的地方，她有時只是發(fā)出一聲沉默的嘆息。

But if the tension in her earlier work came from her sharp observations and underdog spirit, there’s something more complicated at play here. “Is there a word for the way that I’m feeling tonight,” she asks in “Happy & Sad,” attempting to pinpoint the creeping melancholy undercutting an otherwise blissful evening.?Golden Hour?is an album-length ode to not having the right words, to being overcome by the moment and surrendering to it.

但如果說她早期作品中的緊張感來自她敏銳的觀察力和受壓迫者的精神，那么這里還有更復(fù)雜的東西在起著作用。她在“Happy & Sad（快樂和悲傷）”中問道:“有什么詞可以形容我今晚的感受嗎?”?，試圖在指出，令人毛骨悚然的憂郁正在破壞這個原本幸福的夜晚。《黃金時刻》是一張沒有合適的頌詞的頌歌，但是卻能被它那些瞬間所折服。

Musgraves’ songwriting melts seamlessly between celebration—in heart-eyed-emoji anthems like “Butterflies” and “Velvet Elvis”—and elegies for when those feelings start to dim. The cinematic arrangements rarely distinguish between those two modes, coating the album in a pristine, sepia glow that makes tales of solitude like “Lonely Weekend” seem downright inviting. There’s a subtle awareness throughout these songs of what happens as soon as the golden hour ends, how quickly that burst of light can fade without a trace. In the title track, Musgraves compares her contentment to a temporary trick of the light: “All that I know,” she admits, “Is you caught me at the right time.”

Musgraves的歌曲創(chuàng)作在慶祝和哀嘆之間無縫融合：用類似“Butterflies”和“Velvet Elvis”這樣的表情符號唱出贊歌；當(dāng)這種感覺開始黯淡時，哀歌就會響起。而專輯內(nèi)頁攝影很少將兩者區(qū)分，只是涂上了一層質(zhì)樸的褐色，讓“Lonely Weekend（孤獨的周末）”這樣孤獨的故事顯得格外誘人。在這些歌曲中，有一種微妙的聯(lián)系，那就是當(dāng)黃金時刻結(jié)束時，那束光會迅速地消失得無影無蹤。在主打歌中，Musgraves把她的滿意度比作光的瞬間:“我所知道的，”她說道，“就是你在合適的時間遇到了我?！?/p>

Less concerned with outside forces than internal balance,?Golden Hour?stands as an assured, artful snapshot of a particular rush of feelings, but its wisdom speaks volumes to Musgraves’ ongoing evolution. “If you’re ever gonna find a silver lining,” she sang in the first track on her major label debut, “It’s gotta be a cloudy day.” Even then, she suspected that ecstasy is most rewarding when it’s hard-won. On?Golden Hour, she wears the sunlight well.

相對于外部力量，《黃金時刻》更關(guān)注內(nèi)部平衡，它是對某種特定的情感的一種可靠、技巧性的抓拍，但它的智慧充分說明了Musgraves正在不斷的提升。“如果你想找到一線希望，”她在首張專輯的第一首歌曲中唱道，“那一定是陰天?！奔幢闳绱?，她還是在期望，在某些困難的時候，奇跡仍然是存在的。在這《黃金時刻》，她就是最閃耀的光芒。