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：Julie.L

校正：Alice Song

After steadily charting nine Number One hits since 2008, anthem-roarer?Katy Perry?is stumbling through the fog and strobes of a less bombastic pop universe. Fourth album?Witness?surfs on gentler throbs of house music and lets ballads smush into art-pop soup. It’s all a perfect fit for a Hot 100 dominated by the subtle, nuanced, EDM-informed music of artists like Halsey, Camila Cabello and Troye Sivan. But subtle and nuanced was never the calling card of the artist behind songs like “I Kissed a Girl.” Perry has replaced the eye of the tiger with the heart of a contemporary night owl, making an album of mostly moody, dreamy, reserved music – and one double-entendre-filled, AC/DC-ready food fight in “Bon Appetit.” In turn, a pop icon blends into the rest of the radio.

自2008年以來，?Katy Perry平平穩(wěn)穩(wěn)地獲得了九個冠軍單曲，如今，她正跌跌撞撞地穿過過迷霧和喧囂，度過一個不那么浮夸的流行音樂世界時代。第四張專輯《Witness》以更輕柔的浩室音樂，將抒情曲風(fēng)融入藝術(shù)流行音樂。熱門單曲100強(qiáng)非這些歌曲莫屬，原因是這樣包含溫和EDM元素的歌曲在熱門單曲100強(qiáng)中正顯大勢，Halsey, Camila Cabello和Troye Sivan等歌手的曲風(fēng)便是如此。但是淡雅、溫和這些詞絕對不是能用來描述她的作品的（比如“I Kissed a Girl”）。Katy Perry如今用夜貓子的心取代了老虎的眼睛，制作了一張曲風(fēng)大部分都是情緒化、夢幻、內(nèi)斂的專輯，其中還有一首充滿了“雙關(guān)”的單曲“Bon Appetit”。巨星必須接受時間的考驗，但這位流行偶像的作品正漸趨平凡。

Working with super-producer Max Martin and a list of modern cool kids (Duke Dumont, Jack Garratt, Corin Roddick of synth-pop band Purity Ring),?Witness?is a mish-mash of electronic-leaning pop: the currently trendy revival of British 2-step (“Witness”), a dancehall/disco smash-up (“Chained to the Rhythm”), fake Sam Smith (“Save as Draft”) and a look back on vintage early-Nineties house music (“Swish”) that jacks the same Roland Clark sample that Fatboy Slim did in 2000. Throughout, Perry is less like the so-unusual, candy-coated Cyndi Lauper of “Teenage Dream,” and is more an anonymous disco crooner, a breathy moderator leading us through passionate but muted songs of longing and empowerment.

其專輯制作人包括金牌制作人Max Martin以及一群當(dāng)代的酷小孩?(Duke Dumont, Jack?Garratt, 合成流行樂隊Purity Ring的Corin Roddick),《Witness》這張專輯是個偏電音風(fēng)的大雜燴:里面有對正流行的英國兩步舞曲的復(fù)興(“Witness”)，迪斯科舞廳大掃蕩(“Chained to the Rhythm”),偽Sam Smith 風(fēng)(“Save as Draft”)，以及模仿了Fatboy Slim在2000年出的Roland Clark小樣，對九十年代初期浩室音樂的懷舊演繹(“Swish”)。Katy Perry一直不大像“Teenage Dream”般的Cyndi Lauper那樣與眾不同、甜美可愛，而是更像是一個不出名的迪斯科情歌手，一個有血有肉的調(diào)解者，帶領(lǐng)我們領(lǐng)略剛?cè)岵?jì)的歌曲。

A brassy voice that once held long notes and sang lines like “I am a champion” is now devoured in effects and reverb, rarely reaching the excited joy of punkier electronic-poppers like Robyn, Charli XCX or even recent singles from Lorde. The exceptions are “Roulette,” an explosive EDM Eurythmics update (produced by Martin and Shellback), and the gospel-choir-assisted “Pendulum,” which brings a vintage Perry vocal performance to some late-Eighties filigrees by Kanye producer Jeff Bhasker. But her advice in that song doubles as a criticism: “Don’t try and reinvent your wheel/’Cause you’re too original.”

她曾經(jīng)能拖長音，有著能大唱“I am a champion”的粗獷嗓音，如今卻被各式音效和混響層層包裝，即便如此也很少能像Robyn、Charli?XCX，甚至是Lorde最近的單曲那樣令電子樂愛好者們興奮不已。而“Roulette”和?“Pendulum” 是個例外。勢頭大旺的EDM樂團(tuán)Eurythmics為“Roulette”注入新鮮血液（由Martin和Shellback制作），“Pendulum” 在福音唱詩班的配合下，為聽眾帶來了Katy Perry曾經(jīng)的聲音，以及由Kanye的制作人Jeff Bhasker帶來的80年代后期的元素。但她在那首歌中的暗示同時也是一種批評:“不要試圖打破常規(guī)/因為你太與眾不同。”