-翻譯：thesweetescape

No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani releases her first solo-- er, "collaborative"-- album Love Angel Music Baby, with assistance from Andre 3000, Dr. Dre, Eve, and the ubiquitous Linda Perry, among others.

No Doubt主唱Gwen Stefani的首張個(gè)人專輯——或者“合作”專輯——《Love Angel Music Baby》，制作陣容包括Andre 3000, Dr. Dre, Eve和無(wú)所不在的Linda Perry等合作者。

Gwen Stefani should stick to making bum flaps. Not quite a skirt, not quite a dish rag, the Stefani bum flap dangles off the guts of our divorced aunts and 12-year-old mall-slut daughters, the ones who steal Livestrong bracelets and dry-hump public schoolkids in Pac Sun dressing rooms. Bum flaps are these people's stars and stripes. Not all of us want to salute this flag, but it exists, and it gives America something else to believe in-- and it's not nearly as expensive as a valium addiction or Kaplan SAT course.

Gwen Stefani應(yīng)該堅(jiān)持做蓋臀口袋（bum flaps），而不是做出一條裙子，更不是做出一條抹布。這塊爛布吊在一群中年離異婦女的肚腩上 以及?那些12歲偷慈善機(jī)構(gòu)的手鐲，去商場(chǎng)勾引男人騙吃騙喝，在學(xué)校更衣室與其他同學(xué)干柴烈火的女孩的身上。蓋臀口袋（bum flaps）是這類人的特質(zhì)。盡管并不是所有人都想尊重這種服飾，但它的確給美國(guó)灌輸了一種信仰——并且遠(yuǎn)沒(méi)有安定藥成癮和SAT輔導(dǎo)的費(fèi)用那么貴。

As widely predicted, 35-year old singer/fashionista Stefani has temporarily given up No Doubt to fully embrace a high-pop lifestyle with nary a pierced tongue in-cheek. The metamorphosis began with her Eve and Dr. Dre collaboration on 2001's killer single "Let Me Blow Ya Mind", and is completed here with her solo debut?Love Angel Music Baby, a spineless, starfucked advertisement for her high-end clothing line.

正如大眾普遍預(yù)測(cè)的那樣，這位35歲的歌手/時(shí)裝設(shè)計(jì)師Gwen Stefani 暫緩No Doubt的組合事業(yè)，轉(zhuǎn)而高調(diào)投入鮮有尖銳的流行樂(lè)壇。這種轉(zhuǎn)變?cè)谒cEve，Dr.Dre 在2001年合作的熱門單曲"Let Me Blow Ya Mind"就開(kāi)始了，一直持續(xù)到她第一張單飛專輯《Love Angel Music Baby》的出爐，一張毫無(wú)骨氣的為自家高端服裝品牌（L.A.M.B）打廣告的專輯。

Obviously, we can't expect 12 more cuts as personal or urgent as debut single "What You Waiting For", Stefani's slick self-steeling kick in the pitch-corrected plaids, and one of the best electro songs this year-- especially when the pop star openly PRs that she didn't "really see [LAMB] as a 'solo' record in the typical sense... The idea was to be open and let my ego shut up and sit over in the corner and make something great based on a concept." If Stefani wants to sacrifice her identity, that's fine, but hot Christ, she's working with everyone from Andre 3000 to the Neptunes to New Order to Dr. Dre here. So why isn't?LAMB?bigger, better, faster, more? Is it the scourge of 4 Non Blondes' Linda Perry, who coaxed Stefani into finishing the solo project and all but forced her back into the studio because Perry reportedly only "had a brief window of time available"? What's going on?

顯然，我們不能指望專輯里收錄的十二首歌都能媲美首單"What You Waiting For"的激烈又獨(dú)具匠心的水準(zhǔn)，歌曲中，Gwen游刃有余地穿梭在精彩紛呈的音調(diào)中，也是今年最佳電子舞曲之一——尤其是這位流行歌手曾公開(kāi)表示：“自己并不將LAMB視作一張典型意義上的單飛專輯......初衷是敞開(kāi)心扉，淡化自我，靜坐在角落，嘗試根據(jù)某個(gè)概念構(gòu)思出不錯(cuò)的想法?！?如果Gwen Stefani想奉獻(xiàn)自我，沒(méi)關(guān)系，但是天哪，她跟所有人都合作了一遍，從Andre 3000到Neptunes到New Order再到Dr. Dre。所以，為什么LAMB不是一張更宏大，更優(yōu)秀，更飛速的專輯呢？罪魁禍?zhǔn)资? Non Blondes樂(lè)隊(duì)主唱Linda Perry嗎？她哄騙Gwen做單飛專輯，但又屢次逼迫Gwen重返錄音室，只因自己的工作檔期非常緊張？究竟發(fā)生了什么？

In fairness, one of the Andre tracks, "Bubble Pop Electric", isn't half-bad, a brave Prince-goes-Stray Cats doowop shuffle with a great hook and an Andre-as-Johnny Vulture gentleman boyfriend cameo. The track is silly and fun, and probably exactly what Stefani et al., wanted out of?LAMB. Which is what makes Andre's second contribution, "Long Way to Go", so perplexing: The maudlin MLK Jr. samples and the duet's pointed appeal to interracial dating ("We've got a long way to go!/ It's beyond Martin Luthur/ Upgrade computer") feel out of place on an otherwise carefree album boasting lines like, "You know you are my treasure chest," and, "We got hydroponic love/ And we smoke it."

有一說(shuō)一，由Andre 3000制作的歌曲"Bubble Pop Electric"還蠻不錯(cuò)的，一首異想天開(kāi)的Prince風(fēng)格強(qiáng)烈的doo-wop曳步舞曲，有著很棒的hook，其中Andre扮演男友角色Johnny Vulture。整首歌傻氣又不失趣味，應(yīng)該是Gwen等人真正想要在LAMB中做出的東西。而Andre在專輯里操刀的另一首歌"Long Way to Go"則令人費(fèi)解：一首采樣感人肺腑的馬丁路德金演講，呼吁種族平等的合唱曲（歌詞寫道：“We've got a long way to go!/ It's beyond Martin Luthur/ Upgrade computer”），在這張縱情聲色的專輯中則顯得不合時(shí)宜，像專輯其他歌詞則唱道（“Luxurious”）"You know you are my treasure chest," 和"We got hydroponic love/ And we smoke it."。

And another thing about Stefani's treasure chests-- not to mention, "We climbed all the way from the bottom to the top"; the Eve- and Dre- and Tevye-powered camp-hop "Rich Girl"; "I only want to fly first class desires (you're my limousine)"; "We're luxurious like Egyptian cotton"; "If I was a wealthy girl/ I'd get me four Harajuku girls to inspire me"; the unintentionally offensive orientalist fetishism, "Now we get to lay back"; "Ch-Ching Ch-Ching-- we're loaded and we're not going to blow it"; the soulless Nellee Hooper 90s R&B; vanity affair "Luxurious"; and the rest of?LAMB's zombied buy-LAMB-clothing mantras and transparent Hollywood Dream bullshit-- the Joker's free-money parade through Gotham City was a much more entertaining display of wealth, and he had Prince, not just Wendy & Lisa.

而Gwen另一首拜金歌曲——更不用說(shuō)，（歌詞）"We climbed all the way from the bottom to the top"的Eve，Dr.Dre,電影《屋頂上的提琴手》強(qiáng)勢(shì)攜手的坎普嘻哈歌曲“Rich Girl”。（歌曲“Luxurious”歌詞）"I only want to fly first class desires (you're my limousine)";?"We're luxurious like Egyptian cotton"; （歌曲“Rich Girl”歌詞）"If I was a wealthy girl/ I'd get me four Harajuku girls to inspire me"; 一些不經(jīng)意間流露出的東方戀物癖，（歌曲“Luxurious”歌詞）?"Now?we?get to lay?back"; "Ch-Ching Ch-Ching-- we're loaded and we're not going to blow it";?呆板的90年代Nellee Hooper式的R&B歌曲“Luxurious”。專輯的其他歌曲則盡是時(shí)裝同名品牌廣告曲和毫不遮掩的好萊塢逐夢(mèng)糞曲——小丑在哥譚市肆無(wú)忌憚的零元購(gòu)游行是一種更有趣的炫富形式，而且他坐擁Prince，而不只是Wendy & Lisa組合。

Elsewhere on?LAMB, the Neptunes shit out a Queen pastiche called "Hollaback Girl", which has about as much club potential as a 13-year old with a milk moustache and his dad's ID. For "The Real Thing", co-producers and co-players New Order unbizarrify, unlove, and untriangulate "Bizarre Love Triangle" just enough that the millions of people who heard about New Order on?Karaoke Revolution?won't notice the similarities right away. Seriously, anyone remotely involved with "The Real Thing" should find a stray dog and let it bite him.

專輯其他地方，the Neptunes仿造Queen樂(lè)隊(duì)風(fēng)格的歌曲“Hollaback Girl”，與留著牛奶胡子，偷拿他爸身份證的13歲頑童有著相似的俱樂(lè)部潛力。而歌曲"The Real Thing"是一首既不怪誕，更冰冷和簡(jiǎn)化版的New Order歌曲"Bizarre?Love Triangle"，恰到好處地讓數(shù)百萬(wàn)人在唱卡拉OK時(shí)不會(huì)立馬察覺(jué)到兩首歌的雷同之處。講真，每個(gè)參與做出?"The Real Thing"的人都值得被流浪狗圍追堵截。

So, final tally:?LAMB?has one mega-hit, one okay song, three stillborns, and seven full-fledged embarrassments. For Stefani, fashion has officially come first; to her credit, these songs are the slickest, shiniest, bum-flappiest failures of the year.

所以最終結(jié)論是：專輯LAMB有一首超級(jí)熱單，一首還可以的歌，三首不盡人意的歌，以及其余七首徹頭徹尾的尷尬過(guò)場(chǎng)曲。對(duì)Gwen Stefani來(lái)說(shuō)，時(shí)尚絕對(duì)是第一位；也多虧了Gwen，這些歌是本年度最技藝精湛，最光彩，最不個(gè)性的失敗作品。