搬運自：網(wǎng)易云音樂專欄【Music Online Zine Courier】（在原文基礎(chǔ)上添加了英語原文與排版調(diào)整）

翻譯：Beans_Beans

The experimental music of SOPHIE relaxes into new forms on her debut album. It is sprawling and beautiful, while still keeping the disorienting, latex-pop feel of her fascinating production technique.

SOPHIE在她的首張專輯中為她的實驗音樂嘗試了全新的呈現(xiàn)方式。它宏偉而精美，迷人的制作技巧使人沉迷，保留了這份迷惑性的同時獨特的乳膠質(zhì)感也誘人至深。

Since 2013, SOPHIE has carved out aninstantly identifiable musical vernacular based on synthesized bubble sounds,brash treble, deep bass, and distended, anonymous vocals. Listening to early singles like "Lemonade" or "Vyzee" could be a disorienting (and thrilling)experience, because SOPHIE's music sounded like a latex-coated version of radio pop: It followed many of the same rules that governed the mainstream, but all the textures were too taut, too perfect, too unreal. But in the self-directedmusic video for "It's Okay to Cry," SOPHIE appeared in front of the lens of acamera and introduced an element of vulnerability to her work. Her own voiceappeared on that track, and though still digitally altered, it sounded tentative and cracked through with subtle flaws. Finally, one of the most intriguing new presences in experimental pop had fully materialized.

自2013年以來，SOPHIE憑借她在合成的氣泡音、粗獷的高音、深沉的低音和扭曲的匿名人聲的大膽發(fā)揮，刻畫出了一個極具識別度的音樂“方言”。聽早期的單曲，如“Lemonade”或 “Vyzee”，可能是一種令人迷失其中（也令人激動不已）的奇妙體驗，因為SOPHIE的音樂聽起來像有著乳膠質(zhì)地衣殼的電臺流行音樂：它遵循了許多與主流音樂相同的規(guī)則，但所有這些在她的筆下都變得緊繃、完美、不真實。在自導自演的“It's Okay to Cry”的MV中，SOPHIE出現(xiàn)在攝像機鏡頭前，為她的作品引入了一個全新的元素——“脆弱”。這首曲子完全使用了她自己的聲音，雖然是經(jīng)過數(shù)字處理的，但它聽起來仍是有試水性的，也帶有些許細微的瑕疵。最終為我們打造出實驗性流行音樂中最吸引人的全新存在之一。

SOPHIE's debut album, OIL OF EVERY PEARL's UN-INSIDES, adapts many of the technical strategies heard on her previous work to looser, more sprawling compositions. Instead of chaining together compact singles as on 2015's PRODUCT, the album builds and releases narrative ten/tions. Beat-heavy romps like "Ponyboy" and "Faceshopping" nestle together at the top of the tracklist after "It's Okay to Cry," giving way to celestial swells of synthesizer and voice. Where SOPHIE's early singles exhibited a keen feel foreconomy and a killer sense of humor, OIL makes a bid for transcendent beauty.

SOPHIE的首張專輯《OIL OFEVERY PEARL'S UN-INSIDES》將她之前作品中聽得到的許多技術(shù)策略改編為更寬松、更宏偉的形式。這張專輯沒有像2015年的《PRODUCT》那樣緊湊地把每一首單曲捆綁在一起，而是重構(gòu)并完全釋放了她的敘事張力。像“Ponyboy”和“Faceshopping”這樣有著節(jié)奏感厚重的玩鬧曲目，僅僅依偎在列表的開頭，在“It's Okay to Cry”之后，便讓位于合成器音效和宛如天籟般的人聲、占滿整個聲學空間。SOPHIE的早期單曲表現(xiàn)出敏銳的理性和致命的幽默感，而《OIL》則在追求超然世外的美。

One of the album's most astonishing tracks,"Is It Cold in the Water?" brings SOPHIE's music to a newly searching place."I'm freezing/I'm burning/I've left my home," a voice sings in breathy soprano. Cycling synthesizer chords build in volume throughout the verse and then drop away by the end of the first chorus. The voice sings the song's title, stretching out the word "cold" across a series of notes, as though it belonged to someone standing at the edge of the ocean, wondering if they should jump. It's the clearest image to arise from a SOPHIE song to date, and it sets the rest of the album in motion.

這張專輯中最令人驚嘆的歌曲之一是“Is It Cold in the Water?”，把SOPHIE的音樂帶到又一個新的探索領(lǐng)域?！癐'm freezing/I'm burning/I've left my home,”一個帶著喘息的女高音如此唱著。循環(huán)的合成器和弦在整個主歌段中逐增音量，隨即在第一個副歌段結(jié)束時漸漸減弱。這個聲音唱著歌曲的名字，把“cold”一詞擴展至一系列的音符上，就像站在海邊崖岸上的一人口中的呢喃，猶豫自己是否應(yīng)該縱身一跳。這是迄今為止SOPHIE歌曲中刻畫得最為清晰的畫面，也為專輯的其他部分的情感做了鋪墊。

The rotating chords continue into "Infatuation," a low-key number about admiring someone from afar, only now it's a processed human voice singing the notes instead of a synthesizer. Then the song structures to which SOPHIE had been beholden for most of her career dissolve. The abrasive, chaotic interlude "Not Okay" opens up into "Pretending," a six-minute ambient murk entirely unlike anything SOPHIE has puther name to before. Its formlessness, and the inclusion of stray, garbled voices towards the end suggests a primordial becoming, a vacancy from which structures can emerge. Out of the fog comes the refrain of the next song, gleefully repeated over handclaps that land on every beat: "Immaterial girls!/Immaterial boys!"

回旋的和弦來到“Infatuation”， 這首低調(diào)的歌曲再現(xiàn)了對遠方某人的愛慕之情，只是在這里用一個經(jīng)過處理的人聲演繹，而不僅僅是合成器。隨即，SOPHIE在她職業(yè)生涯的大部分時間里一直遵循的歌曲結(jié)構(gòu)法則在此擊破。粗糙、混亂的插曲“NotOkay”為“Pretending”拉開了序幕，這是一首長達6分鐘的環(huán)境雜音，完全不同于SOHPIE以前冠以她名字的任一作品。它的無定形，以及在接近尾聲時加入的雜亂無章的聲音，都在暗示著一種原初的形成，一種結(jié)構(gòu)所允許的缺陷。從迷霧中脫離出來，迎接我們的是下首歌開篇在每一個節(jié)拍上歡快地重復著的。

The transition from amorphous noise togiddy rallying cry ranks among OIL's most satisfying moments. Withself-affirming lyrics ("I can be anything I want") sung through elasticpitch-shifting software, "Immaterial" sits at the album's thematic core. It'sthe molecules of a Madonna song filtered through a new context, speaking to howdesire informs selfhood, how wanting to be something—a gender other than theone you were assigned at birth, say—is a big step in the process of becomingit. It may be the only step. "Immaterial" indulges desire the way the smartest pop songs can, by both inviting and challenging it. Its voices dance along irresistible melodies, and then they get distorted into impossible ones,twisted beyond their "natural" ranges into new, disarming shapes.

從無定形的噪音到使人目眩的集結(jié)號角的過渡是《OIL》最令人心滿意足的時刻之一。通過彈性的音高轉(zhuǎn)換軟件唱出的自我認同歌詞（“I can be anything I want”）可以看出，“Immaterial”是專輯主題的核心所在。它像是構(gòu)成麥當娜歌曲的分子之一，經(jīng)過一個全新背景的過濾，為我們講述了欲望是如何影響自我的，如何促使我們想要成為另一種存在的——比如說，成為與你出生時被分配的性別截然不同的另者——這是性別認同過程中的一個重要步驟，也可能是唯一的一步?！癐mmaterial”以最機智的方式在流行歌曲中放縱了欲望，接納它的同時也在克制。它的聲音隨著難以抗拒的旋律起舞，然后又被扭曲成不可思議的音律，超脫出它們所在的“自然”范圍之外，化身成新全新的、迷人的模樣。

"Immaterial," alongside OIL's storming, nine-minute conclusion "Whole New World:Pretend World," speaks to a conception of gender, being, and selfhood that feels increasingly resonant. By complicating the naturalness of the human voice and corrupting established pop structures, SOPHIE also complicates the supposed naturalness of gender, which has always been inextricable from music. Her work is a sphere where will andimpulse take priority over fate and legacy. Nothing is preordained; everythingis always in flux. When, on "Whole New World," the distorted, feminized voices that have become her trademark shout out the song's title one syllable at a time—"whole! new! world!"—it sounds almost like a manifesto, a politicaldemand. It sounds like the kind of phrase you'd shout in a crowd while clamoring for the freedom to be whatever it is you already are.

“Immaterial”，與《OIL》暴風雨般的九分鐘尾聲“Whole New World:Pretend World,”一起，講述了一個愈能引發(fā)共鳴的性別、存在和自我的概念。通過使人聲的自然性復雜化和破壞既定的流行音樂結(jié)構(gòu)，SOPHIE也同樣展現(xiàn)了性別的所謂自然性的復雜化，而這也一直是與音樂密不可分的。她的作品永遠存在于一個意志和沖動凌駕于命運和后果之上的領(lǐng)域。沒有什么是預(yù)設(shè)的——一切總遠處在變化之中。當在“Whole New World,”中，她標志性的扭曲的女性化聲音一次一個音節(jié)地喊出歌曲的標題——”whole! new! world!”——它聽起來幾乎像是一個宣言，一個政治要領(lǐng)；這聽起來就像你會在人群中高喊出的那種口號，為你擁有能夠成為任何你想要的模樣的自由而歡呼。