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：Ocean-Ashley

校正：Ryan-Chopin

“Hate me or love me/that’s just the way I am” poster boy Charlie Puth croons on the opener to his second album ‘Voicenotes’. A clichéd sentiment, but one that rings true for the noveau-prince of pop. Cutting his teeth as a YouTube sensation and a protégé of Ellen DeGeneres (back in 2011 she signed him to her label after seeing him cover Adele), in 2015 Puth shot to the A List with his feature on the?Fast and Furious?soundtracking ‘See You Again’. What followed was his doo-wop flop of a debut album, ‘Nine Track Mind’, which seemed hurriedly rushed out to capitalise on his tweenage appeal. But critical acclaim (or lack thereof) aside, the record sold hundreds of thousands of copies, cementing Puth as a mainstay of pop.

斷眉在他的第二張專輯《Voicenotes》中唱到“Hate me or love me/that’s just the way I am”。歌曲里用爛了這種情緒，但對于這些流行音樂小說家來說又不可或缺。他的翻唱在YouTube 上小火時，初嘗甜頭（2011年 Ellen DeGeneres看完斷眉翻唱Adele的視頻后簽下他為自己廠牌的藝人）。2015年，斷眉憑借在《速度與激情》原聲帶中獻唱“See You Again”，當紅一時。接下來是他首張專輯《Nine Track Mind》的慘敗，這張專輯似乎過于利用了他的少年魅力。但撇開評論界的或貶或褒不談，這張唱片仍賣出了數(shù)十萬張，任鞏固了斷眉流行音樂前衛(wèi)的地位。

Now a few years on, Puth has returned for the follow-up to his hasty debut. On his second album he’s stepped away from the slushy love ballads,?revealing that this was due to?“people nudging [me] in a direction that I didn’t want to go in”. Instead he recounts being spurned by an older woman (‘BOY’), snogging somebody who isn’t his girlfriend (‘How Long’) and seducing a girl who already has a boyfriend (‘Empty Cups’). In short: Charlie’s all grown up.

幾年過去了，Charlie Puth在倉促出道之后又回來了。在他的第二張專輯中，他放棄了抒情情歌，透露這是因為“人們把(我)推到一個我不想去的方向”。相反，他講述了自己被一個年長的女人(“BOY”)拋棄，與一個不是女友的人接吻(“How Long”)，勾引一個已經(jīng)有男朋友的女孩(“Empty Cups”)。簡而言之:Charlie Puth已經(jīng)長大了。

Opening with the overdriven riffs of ‘The Way I Am’, in general ‘Voicenotes’ canters forward, barely stopping for breath. It’s a showcase of Puth’s songwriting skills which – although we knew they were there (he’s previously written for Jason Derulo and Liam Payne) – didn’t shine through on his debut. Sure, sometimes it verges into the sickly saccharine (‘Through It All’ nicks a piano line from Randy Newman and some Disney strings, and drops a sticky vocal line on top of them, and collab with American folk singer James Taylor ‘Change’ is a dreary cliché) but then there are the moments of pop brilliance.

開場曲“The Way I Am”中旋律似乎被過度渲染，但《Voicenotes》整張專輯的音律緩緩前進，幾乎可以讓聽眾一氣呵成聽完它。斷眉的歌曲創(chuàng)作技巧由此可現(xiàn)，況且他的能力本就不凡。而專輯里那些甜掉牙的歌曲也可有流行輝煌的時刻（“Through It All”褪去了Randy Newman的鋼琴調(diào)子和迪士尼風格的弦樂，而融合了斷眉獨特的聲線，但和美國民謠歌手James Taylor合作的“Change”就相對沉悶枯燥一些）。

‘Attention’ boasts a slinky ’80s funk bassline, which crisply punctuates Puth’s schmaltzy vocals, and the old-school R&B of sultry Kehlani duet ‘Done For Me’ make it a radio-ready bop. Throughout, sparkling production (done entirely by Puth himself) lifts tracks like ‘BOY’ and ‘Empty Cups’ from what could just be cut-and-dry pop hits, instead adding twinkling synths and bucketloads of bass.

“Attention”中流露出一款動感十足的80年代放克低音，清晰地突出了斷眉的歌唱技巧，與有著早期R&B風格的Kehlani合作的“Done For Me”也有席卷電臺的趨勢。斷眉自己完成的那些制作差強人意，如“BOY”和“Empty Cups”，他沒有使用大量的合成音效或者厚重的低音來填充這些歌曲。

On ‘Voicenotes’ Puth doesn’t always get it right; but for the most part he’s managed to shed his squeaky-clean reputation. After the beige offering of his debut, album two puts his stellar songwriting and cheeky lyrics front and centre, and in doing so, starts to carve him a place as a popstar in his own right.

《Voicenotes》里的斷眉進步空間還很大，但在很大程度上，他成功擺脫了自己清純男孩的人設(shè)。在他的首張專輯發(fā)行后，如果你仔細去體會他的歌詞，你會在第二張專輯中看到他不為人知的另一面。想成為流行巨星的他，如今，終于上道了。