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：Peter D

審譯：Lynn Liu

排版：Ryan-Chopin

Ghosteen?is overwhelming by design. After two?studio?albums?that were sprawling in scope but concise in form,?Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds’ new?double album?serves as the heavenly epilogue, with the 62-year-old songwriter’s writing at its most hallucinogenic and emotionally piercing. It’s music that demands attention, space, time. The 12-minute title track—one of two lengthy concluding songs that Cave describes as “parents” to the preceding eight songs’ “children”—is its most stunning composition.

歌曲“Ghosteen”蓄意給人以難以抗拒之感。Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds在發(fā)行了兩張內(nèi)容蔓延開來卻又形式精簡的專輯之后，他們的最新雙碟專輯就如同神圣莊嚴(yán)的尾聲，而其中這位62歲的創(chuàng)作人更是帶來了他最具致幻感受同時也最刻骨銘心的作品。這是需要集中注意、需要空間、需要時間的音樂。這首12分鐘的專輯同名曲目——同時也是被Cave稱作“父母”的兩首極長的專輯收尾曲目之一，前8首歌也相對應(yīng)地被稱作“孩子”——便是專輯中光芒最奪目的一首作品。

Fitting for a pair who have found a prolific part-time job scoring films, Cave and longtime collaborator Warren Ellis tell an entire story with the arrangement: part ambient, part piano ballad, part psychedelic prog showstopper. Accompanied by strings and bells and sci-fi synths, its sweeping rise and fall is structured to take your breath away. Cave’s narrative is just as transportive. His voice is weary—as old as he has ever sounded—and his visions come in disorienting bursts. At one point, he diverts to an?Inland Empire-style?fairytale-turned-nightmare, where a family of bears “age a lifetime” as they watch TV together. Elsewhere, he sings about hope and hopelessness, about dancing in joy and washing the clothes of people we’ve lost. “Love’s like that, you know,” he observes.

與Dave和他的長期合作伙伴Warren Wills這對高產(chǎn)的業(yè)余電影配樂師的身份相稱的一點(diǎn)就是，他們利用專輯編排結(jié)構(gòu)講述了一個完整的故事：一部分氛圍樂，一部分鋼琴民謠，一部分精彩絕倫的前衛(wèi)迷幻搖滾。伴隨著弦樂、鈴聲和電子合成器，波瀾起伏的結(jié)構(gòu)讓人嘆為觀止。Cave的敘事有著極佳的表達(dá)效果。他的聲音聽上去十分疲憊——正如他一直以來聽上去的那么老——而他刻畫的意象則會突然迸現(xiàn)。在某一刻，他開始轉(zhuǎn)而描述一個《內(nèi)陸帝國》風(fēng)格（譯者注：實驗驚悚電影）的童話式噩夢場景，一家熊“一輩子”坐在一塊兒看著電視。除此之外，他還歌唱著失望與絕望，唱著在歡愉中跳舞和為我們失去了的人洗衣服。他評論到：“愛正是如此，你知道的。”

Compared to Cave’s other recent epics, like 2013’s “Higgs Boson Blues” and “Jubilee Street,” this song doesn’t find catharsis in the Bad Seeds’ ragged, dramatic crescendos. Instead, its climax arrives with a surreal chorus, where Cave’s voice gets coated in effects that feel jarringly inorganic—a dash of CGI from an artist more interested in?stark documentary?as of late. It’s the loudest the album really gets, though the fanfare doesn’t last long. The music slows down, the key changes back to a minor one, and the dream—a glowing figure dancing in his palm—fades away, leaving a deep void at the song’s core. “There’s nothing wrong with loving something you can’t hold in your hand,” Cave sings later, as he gestures toward a world filled with both love and pain. In his recent work, he’s come startlingly close to summoning both with each breath.

相比起Cave其他近期的史詩般的佳作，比如2013年的“Higgs Boson Blues”和“Jubilee Street”，這首歌里并沒有在Bad Seeds樂隊那粗糙又戲劇化的漸強(qiáng)音中瘋狂宣泄。相反的，它的高潮伴隨著夢幻般的副歌出現(xiàn)，其中Cave的聲音經(jīng)過重重處理變得刺耳到幾乎不像是人聲——像是一個對簡陋直接的紀(jì)錄片更感興趣的藝術(shù)家最近突然用上了計算機(jī)圖像合成技術(shù)。這是整張專輯真正最大聲的地方，雖然這段喧囂也并沒持續(xù)多長時間。音樂又漸漸慢下來，音調(diào)也重新變低，而那個夢——那發(fā)著微光在他的手心中舞蹈的人形——也逐漸消逝，在歌曲的核心留下深深的空白。“愛上一個無法把握在手心的人并沒有什么錯，”Cave稍后唱到，一邊指向了一個愛與痛苦并存的世界。更令人稱奇的是，在他最近的作品中，他已經(jīng)幾乎能夠在一呼一吸間同時召出二者。