翻譯：Nomanlandever

The varied, some might say scattershot, production style of Kylie Minogue’s 2007 album?X?was lamented in these very pages, but like its predecessor, the underrated?Body Language, the album’s strength was the Aussie pop star’s willingness to toy with her sound. Without risks, there can be no rewards, and for every awkwardly forced attempt to mine stateside trends, like “Nu-Di-Ty,” there was a more successful genre experiment, like “Speakerphone.”

Kylie Minogue 2007年制作風格多樣的專輯《X》，可能有人會說是不用心的大雜燴風在這張專輯體現得淋漓盡致。之后幾年，我們對這張專輯報以遺憾之情，但就如它的前作《Body Language》，這張專輯的優(yōu)勢在于這位澳大利亞流行歌手愿意玩弄自己的聲音。沒有風險，就不可能有回報。對于每一個被迫笨拙地挖掘美國流行趨勢的嘗試，比如《Nu-Di-Ty》，都有一個更成功的試驗案例，比如《Speakerphone》。

Minogue’s?Aphrodite, however, is the sound of an artist playing it safe. It’s more stylistically coherent than the abovementioned albums, but it yields far fewer surprises. There’s no “Sensitized” or “Slow” here. Instead, we get an entire album’s worth of tracks like “Put Your Hands Up (If You Feel Love)” and “Too Much,” which could be described as “classic Kylie.” That will no doubt please longtime fans, but it also means?Aphrodite?is nothing more than just another Kylie Minogue album; it doesn’t add much to her otherwise diverse catalogue or push her forward in any meaningful way, as both?Body Language?and 1997’s?Impossible Princess?did. To quote “Better Than Today,” one of the new songs on the album: “What’s the point of living if you don’t take a chance?”

然而，《Aphrodite》則是一位謹慎行事的藝術家做出的音樂。它在風格上比上文提到的專輯更連貫，但它產生的驚喜少得多。專輯里沒有類似“Sensitized”或 “Slow”的歌曲。反而，我們在”Put Your Hands Up“和”Too Much“聽汲取到了整張專輯的價值，可以被歸類為”經典凱莉“，這無疑在老粉中很討喜。但，這也意味著《Arphrodite》只不過又是一張Kylie Minogue的平平無奇的專輯，它并沒有像《Body Language》和1997年的《Impossible Princess》那樣，為她原本多元化的歌唱生涯增添多少新內容，也沒有以任何有意義的方式推動她前進。引用專輯中的一首新歌《Better Than Today》中的歌詞：“What’s the point of living if you don’t take a chance?”

It took me a while to warm up to the simple pleasures of Minogue’s U.S. breakthrough,?Fever, and it’s possible the same could happen here: Lead single “All the Lovers” gets Better with each listen. Its anthemic hook, reminiscent of vintage Erasure and Pet Shop Boys, wafts past your ears like a summer breeze. But too much of?Aphrodite?is so lightweight and inconsequential that it’s liable to get whisked away and forgotten altogether. The entire album has the sonic consistency of cotton candy: It won’t exactly give you a headache, but it could leave you with a stomachache.

我花了一段時間才逐漸喜歡上Kylie Minogue打入美國市場的專輯《Fever》，在這里也可能發(fā)生同樣的事情：首單《All The Lover》隨著反復聆聽逐漸佳境。歌曲頌歌式的hook，讓人聯(lián)想到復古的Erasure和Pet Shop Boys，如同夏天的微風一樣吹拂過你的耳朵。但大多數《Aphrodite》的內容過于輕巧和無關緊要，它很容易被匆匆?guī)ё?，置之腦后。整張專輯就感覺像棉花糖:它不會讓你頭疼，但可能會讓你胃痛。

Aphrodite?was executive-produced by Stuart Price, the man behind Madonna’s celebrated opus?Confessions on an Dance Floor, and though the tracks he produced here stand out, the album is a reminder that Price hasn’t really done anything truly notable since his work with the Queen of Pop. Predictably, he continues to make subtle nods to dance hits past (“Closer” channels both Cerrone and Daft Punk), but his production style still feels cheap—and I’m not just talking about his fondness for artificial strings, exemplified on “Looking for an Angel” and “Illusion.” The slick, antiseptic quality of his songs is the total opposite of what’s required for an artist like Minogue, whose squeaky-clean voice begs to be dirtied up, not shellacked.

《Aphrodite》的執(zhí)行制作人是Stuart Price，他是Madonna代表作《Confessions on an Dance Floor》的制作人。盡管他在這張專輯中制作的歌曲很突出。但這張專輯提醒人們，自從與流行天后合作后，Stuart Price并沒有真正做過什么值得注意的事情?？深A見的是，他將繼續(xù)對過去的經典舞曲致敬（類似”Closer“受Cerrone和Daft Punk啟發(fā)），但他的制作風格仍然感覺很廉價——我說的不僅僅是他對人造和弦的喜愛，《Looking for a Angel》和《Illusion》就是典型的例子。他營造出的簡潔，平滑感，正是Kylie Minogu這類歌手需摒棄的，她干凈清脆的聲音需要被加工玷污，而不是Shellback化。