翻譯：thesweetescape

A Buoyant Balancing Act Between the Political and Personal

一次平衡政治和個人生活的快意嘗試。

The rapper-singer continues to triangulate sociopolitical commentary and personal identity in consistently clever ways.

這位說唱歌手以一貫的聰慧做法將社會事件與個人認同感結(jié)合起來。

“I can’t please everyone,” taunts M.I.A. on “Beep,” a clattering, crowd-pleasing track from her uncommonly buoyant sixth studio album, Mata. Over on Twitter, the rapper-singer has resorted to old habits—namely, pissing people off with odious comparisons between conspiracy-monger Alex Jones and celebrities promoting Covid-19 vaccination.

“I can’t please everyone,”?M.I.A.在歌曲“Beep,” 中嘲諷道，一首擲地有聲的流行歌曲，收錄在她非同尋常的第六張專輯《MATA》。這位說唱歌手在推特平臺上恢復(fù)往昔火力全開的狀態(tài)——以陰謀論博主Alex Jones的觀點抨擊網(wǎng)友，批評其他宣傳yi苗的藝人。

On the one hand, we all achingly need to stop looking for, or at least expecting, moral and ethical leadership from pop culture figures (another lyric from “Beep” issues M.I.A.’s reminder of the same: “I’m not a politician and not U.N.”). On the other, M.I.A. has made doing this difficult, as her persona always been fiercely informed by her subversive, often radical politics.

一方面，我們極需停止尋找或期待能誕生一位混跡于流行樂壇的道德楷模。（歌曲“Beep”里的其他歌詞也表明了M.I.A.的立場“I’m not a politician and not U.N.”）另一方面，由于她顛覆性的、往往是激進的政治立場深度影響了她的藝術(shù)人格，這讓她很難做到這一點。

And then there’s the matter of M.I.A.’s music itself, which—since the release of her most divisive album to date, 2010’s Maya, effectively chased away fair-weather fans—has been mostly devoid of any friction, and usually all the better for it. Thankfully, Mata continues this trend, because much like 2016’s AIM, the album supplies both a steady stream of spartan, world music-infused beats and a procession of relentlessly catchy hooks and inventive melodies.

還有關(guān)于M.I.A.的音樂歷程——在2010年發(fā)行了她職業(yè)生涯至今最具爭議的專輯《Maya》后，嚇跑一大批玻璃心聽眾——這通常是好事。值得慶幸的是，《Mata》延續(xù)了這種犀利，很像2016年的專輯《AIM》，這張專輯同樣配有斯巴達式的世界音樂節(jié)拍，一系列抓耳hook和創(chuàng)意旋律。

The first few songs of Mata’s 33-minute set lean heavier on their unique production than they do on M.I.A.’s pop instincts. Sonic colossus “F.I.A.S.O.M. Pt. 1” (“Freedom Is a State of Mind”) gives “Born Free” a run for its money in terms of out-of-the-gate intensity, while “F.I.A.S.O.M. Pt. 2” calls back to the more collage-like detail of 2005’s Arular, and even musters a vocal house-adjacent charge thanks to the ferocious, belted hook from Tamil-Swiss singer Priya Ragu.

這張全場33分鐘的專輯最初的幾首歌曲獨具匠心的制作顯然蓋過了M.I.A.的流行嗅覺。氣勢磅礴的開場曲“F.I.A.S.O.M. Pt. 1” (“Freedom Is a?State of Mind”) 的爆炸前奏仿佛再現(xiàn)（2010年《Maya》專輯的歌曲）“Born Free”。第二首“F.I.A.S.O.M. Pt. 2” 夢回2005年專輯《Arular》拼貼畫式的制作細節(jié)，也還原出類似的聲音特質(zhì)，多虧泰米爾瑞士歌手Priya Ragu演繹的兇悍hook。

Capping off this early streak is “100% Sustainable,” a maverick stylistic exercise on the order of some of Maya’s most interesting tracks, but with that album’s divisive noise aesthetic traded for a disarming, holistic minimalism. Over nothing but reverb-drenched hand percussion and a field recording of Tamil choir singers, M.I.A. whispers a kind of braggadocio-imbued beat poetry that resonates with endearing amateur energy, until snatches of lyrics clue us into the more specifically gendered (“Sex is your scholarship”) and sociopolitical (“100% organic…no pestibeats”—as in “pesticides”) ambitions of the music.

歌曲“100% Sustainable”褪去早期風(fēng)格，是專輯里最特立獨行的歌曲，有趣的歌曲之一。在這首歌曲后，專輯分裂的噪音美學(xué)被超脫完美的極簡主義取代。在混響的手搖打擊樂和泰米爾唱詩班的現(xiàn)場錄音下，M.I.A.輕語說唱一段吹噓自我的節(jié)奏樂段，像是極具感染力的業(yè)余選手，但當(dāng)歌詞將我們引向性別話題上——?(“Sex is your scholarship”)和政治議題?(“100% organic…no pestibeats”—as in “pesticides”)她的音樂野心不可忽視。

Starting with the moombahton-influenced “Beep,” Mata burns bright with one pop banger after another: the glistening, vaguely Christian EDM of lead single “The One,” the gleefully sardonic self-worship of the reggaeton “Popular,” and the Tamil soundtrack-sampling bhangra of “Energy Freq.” There’s just the right balance here between new musical directions and a certain earned familiarity, from the rhythmic similarity between “Energy Freq” and Kala’s “Bird Flu,” to the way the looped, guitar sample from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’s “Maps” on “K.T.P. (Keep the Peace)” feels like a callback to M.I.A.’s classic flip of the Clash’s “Straight to Hell” on “Paper Planes.”

從受穆姆巴頓曲風(fēng)影響的歌曲“Beep”開始，《Mata》便接連出現(xiàn)好幾首流行爆曲：波光粼粼，還有點基督EDM曲風(fēng)的首單“The One”，戲謔諷刺自戀情節(jié)的雷鬼歌曲“Popular”,“還有泰米語演唱的（intro）采樣印度電影（Anandha Kummi）的彭中戈拉歌曲Energy Freq.”。在探索創(chuàng)新的同時也達到了糅合舊素材的平衡。從“Energy Freq”與《Kala》里的歌曲“Bird Flu”的熟悉韻律，到歌曲“K.T.P. ? (Keep the Peace)”中對Yeah Yeah Yeahs樂隊歌曲“Maps”重復(fù)吉他樂段的采樣，似乎再現(xiàn)M.I.A.在歌曲“Paper Planes”中對Clash樂隊歌曲“Straight to Hell” 的經(jīng)典采樣。

The last few M.I.A. albums all carved out some space for at least one or two marquee features, but Mata is almost entirely propelled by the strength of M.I.A.’s vocal dexterity and ingenuity, and her arsenal of earworm-worthy flows. (“Tribe,” featuring the late JuiceWRLD, was cut from Mata’s tracklist at the last minute, but you can and should seek it out on YouTube). The only credited feature this time comes on “Puththi,” M.I.A.’s collaboration with another Sri Lankan refugee, Navz-47. “It’s a Thamilan party!” coos M.I.A. on her verse, putting aside her latter-day tendency to build songs around a kind of cultural messiah-like persona (oftentimes tongue-in-cheek, to be fair), and rediscovering a bit of the communal fun of her early music.

前幾張M.I.A.的專輯都想打造出至少一兩首熱單曲目，但《Mata》幾乎完全依靠M.I.A.的精湛歌聲，深摯創(chuàng)意和個性抓耳的說唱驅(qū)動。（歌曲“Tribe”，feat.已故歌手juiceWRLD，最終還是在專輯發(fā)行前夕被刪除了，但你仍能在Youtube找到此曲）。這次專輯唯一的客座嘉賓為另一位斯里蘭卡難民歌手Navz-47，出現(xiàn)在歌曲“Puththi”，（歌詞）“It’s a Thamilan party!”?M.I.A.在她的唱段輕語道，拋棄了她后期打造文化救世主人格的歌曲模式（嚴格地說，通常是半開玩笑的），再次挖掘她出道初期做音樂的樂趣。

For an artist who’s weathered as many controversies as M.I.A. has, none of it speaks to the merits of her music. Mata is an album of exhilarating musical riches, triangulating sociopolitical commentary and personal identity in clever ways. Its songs offer savvy new articulations of the M.I.A. autobiography, collate various crises facing the world today into zen-like mantras, and advocate for a radical thinking that starts with a genuine sense of empathy.

對于一個像M.I.A.這樣飽受爭議的藝術(shù)家來說，這些都不能展現(xiàn)她獨具匠心的音樂。《Mata》是張內(nèi)容豐富精彩，以一貫的聰慧做法聯(lián)結(jié)社會事件與個人認同感的專輯。專輯里的歌曲是對M.I.A.生平事跡的另一種嶄新敘述，將當(dāng)今世界的不同危機整理成禪宗般的禱文，并倡導(dǎo)一種以赤誠共情為出發(fā)點的激進思維。