翻譯：thesweetescape

Charli XCX’s latest mixtape is a vision of what pop music could be, the sound of an eclectic, hyperreal future where romantic love is fun but fucked and partying is an emotional refuge.

Charli XCX的最新混音帶呈現(xiàn)出未來流行樂的無限可能，兼收并蓄的大膽嘗試，在超現(xiàn)實(shí)的hyper音樂世界中，熱戀的浪漫無處可尋，去他的尋歡作樂成為情感的庇護(hù)所。

Maybe some people look at?Sophia, the world’s first robotic citizen, and feel optimistic about the endless horizon of potential, both technological and human; I look at Sophia and feel an unsettling sadness. There is something profoundly tragic in her existence, a sense of uncanny?anti-natalism?that triggers a strange empathy for those who also did not ask to be born. Sophia has sharp cheekbones and golden eyes, molded in the likeness of Audrey Hepburn. Her bald head opens at the back to unveil a disturbing metal cap that hides the whirring mechanics within her skull. Through knee-jerk millennial instinct, that vulnerable bald skull always flashes me back to those?unforgettable photos?of?Britney Spears?at the gas station in 2007—head freshly shaved, eyes blank and wild, umbrella wielded as a machete. It is the image of a woman who has decided to finish the job the world started: complete disassembly.

也許有些人正關(guān)注著世界上第一位機(jī)器人公民索菲亞，并對未來科技與人類間的無限潛力感到樂觀。但當(dāng)我看向索菲亞，只感到隱隱不安的悲哀：她的問世極具悲傷色彩，一種不可思議的反出生主義，讓我對那些后悔出生在這個世界的人群抱以奇怪的同情。索菲亞的顴骨很尖，以奧黛麗赫本為模板鑄造的金色眼睛。她令人惶恐的光頭形象，后腦頭骨內(nèi)部裝有透明金屬帽遮蓋的旋轉(zhuǎn)機(jī)械裝置。出于千禧一代的本能反應(yīng)，那禿頂腦袋總讓我不斷閃回2007年時的Britney Spears在加油站留下的難以忘懷的照片——剛剃過光頭，眼神茫然而瘋狂，把雨傘當(dāng)作砍刀揮舞。這是一個女人終究被周遭世界侵蝕的畫面：徹底的精神崩潰。

Charli XCX?knows this trope—the glitched-out femmebot, programmed for love—all too well. She grew up on Britney and the?Spice Girls, then joined Myspace and catapulted into the brash, neon-tinted world of bloghouse and?Hype Machine?electro. After spending her early teens performing in big sunglasses and blonde wigs at DIY London raves, she signed to Asylum Records at 18 to live her pop star dreams. With the massive success of?Icona Pop’s “I Love It” and?Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” (both co-written by Charli) alongside her first solo hit, “Boom Clap,” her mainstream crossover seemed like a given, ready whenever she was. Instead, she doubled down on the?weirdo Tumblr-core mixtapes?she used to?release for free, linking with post-post-modern bubblegum bass crew PC Music to try and figure out exactly what kind of artist she wanted to be. “Go fuck your prototype/I’m an upgrade of your stereotype,” Charli purrs on “Femmebot,” a cut off her latest tape,?Pop 2, before her humanoid vocals stutter and short-circuit. Or as?Robyn?put it seven years prior:?“Fembots have feelings, too.”

Charli XCX對這個概念再熟悉不過了——為愛而生的故障女機(jī)器人——同時她也是從小聽Britney Spears和Spice Girls的歌曲長大的藝人，在Myspace平臺創(chuàng)建賬號，扎入艷麗霓虹燈式的bloghouse曲風(fēng)和在Hype Machine上流行的電子曲風(fēng)。青少年時期的Charli XCX戴著大墨鏡和金色假發(fā)在自己舉辦的倫敦銳舞派對上表演，在18歲時與Asylum唱片公司簽約，追求自己的流行歌星夢。隨著Icona Pop的《I Love It》和Iggy Azalea的《Fancy》取得巨大成功（這兩首歌都有Charli參與創(chuàng)作），還有她的首支個人熱單《Boom Clap》，轉(zhuǎn)型主流似乎是順理成章，只看她自己意愿的事。然而，她卻全身心投入針對Tumblr核心用戶免費(fèi)發(fā)行的另類混音帶的制作工作中，與后后現(xiàn)代泡泡糖貝斯團(tuán)隊(duì)PC Music合作，探索自己未來應(yīng)該成為什么樣的藝術(shù)家。（歌詞）?“Go fuck your prototype/I’m an upgrade of your stereotype,” Charli XCX在歌曲“Femmebot”中低音唱道，一段收錄在混音帶《Pop 2》的歌詞?；蛟S正如Robyn七年前（在歌曲"Fembot")里的歌詞那樣“Fembots have feelings, too.”（機(jī)器姬也有情感）。

Pop 2—the best full-length work of both Charli and PC Music’s respective careers—is the antidote to the overwhelming monotony of the 2017 pop charts. It’s Charli’s second mixtape of 2017, which, calling your project a “mixtape” is a pretty negligible move these days, especially if you’re putting it up for sale. But for Charli, who’s been expressing herself in the format since before it was cool, there’s a meaningful distinction: albums mean compromise; mixtapes mean total creative freedom. As streaming services render organic music discovery obsolete, and as major label A&R decisions feel increasingly like a demented cross-promotional Mad-Lib of someone who has heard approximately four rap songs, Pop 2’s sprawling, thoughtful mass of guests—from Brazilian drag queen/vocalist Pabllo Vittar, to Estonian emcee Tommy Cash, to Hollyweird-via-Cologne pop conceptualist Kim Petras—put me on to no less than five artists I’d never heard of before. Because Pop 2’s not really about Charli XCX, Pop Star Extraordinaire; it’s an uninhibited, anti-algorithm vision of what pop music could be.

《Pop 2》是Charli XCX也是PC Music廠牌發(fā)行過最好的完整作品——是應(yīng)對2017年流行單曲異常單調(diào)乏味的解藥。這是Charli XCX在同年發(fā)行的第二張混音帶，如今，濫發(fā)的“混音帶”相當(dāng)微不足道，尤其是以此噱頭宣傳。但對Charli XCX，這個早就開始做混音帶探索自我的女人，這具有深厚意義：專輯寓意著妥協(xié);混音帶則寓意著完全的創(chuàng)作自由。隨著流媒體的興起，傳統(tǒng)的星探逐漸淘汰，廠牌的A&R部門（唱片公司里負(fù)責(zé)發(fā)掘、訓(xùn)練歌手或藝人的一個部門）的決策越來越像一個只聽過大概四首說唱歌曲也能完成填字游戲的癲狂閑雜人員?！禤op 2》的眾多且考慮周到的客座嘉賓——從巴西變裝皇后/歌手Pabllo Vittar，到愛沙尼亞主持人Tommy Cash，再到來自德國科隆立志進(jìn)軍好萊塢的怪誕流行概念家Kim petras——讓我認(rèn)識了至少5位我從未聽說過的藝術(shù)家。《Pop 2》并非全部聚焦于Charli XCX這位非同尋常的流行巨星；這是張不加拘束，打破常規(guī)，暢想未來音樂的專輯。

It’s not just the guest roster that sets?Pop 2?so apart from the mainstream pop landscape, it’s the way these voices are integrated, making its 10 tracks feel less like a cool-kid curation project and more like a popping afterparty you’ve stumbled into. On “Out of My Head”—the kind of song that makes you want to slam a Strawberita and dance all night—Charli doesn’t show up in the mix until the second verse, giving the spotlight to Swedish bloghouse revivalist?Tove Lo?and Finnish trop-goth ALMA. By the bridge, the three voices have braided together almost imperceptibly. And on “Backseat,” an instant night-drive classic (and a fever-dream collab for anyone who replies to celebrity tweets with “mom”), Charli and synth-pop sweetheart?Carly Rae Jepsen?exchange verse and hook duty before coming together as one voice, howling “All alone, all alone, all alone” in unison. These are huge, emotionally climactic songs, with soaring melodies and bass that sounds like the shifting of skyscraper scaffolding. But there’s something doomed and loveless in the air, too; on?Pop 2, romantic love is fun but fucked and partying is an emotional refuge.

《Pop 2》與主流流行樂的巨大差異不僅在于嘉賓名單，還在于這些聲音的融合方式，使EP里的10首歌曲不像一個酷炫小孩的策劃項(xiàng)目，而更像一場你無意闖入的慶祝派對。在歌曲“Out of My Head”中——一首讓你酣醉于草莓瑪格麗特酒徹夜舞動的歌曲——Charli在第二段主歌才開始獻(xiàn)聲，將聚光燈讓給瑞典Bloghouse曲風(fēng)復(fù)興者Tove Lo和芬蘭哥特歌手Alma。在歌曲bridge處，三人的聲音悄無聲息地交織在一起。在“Backseat”這首深夜駕駛的當(dāng)代經(jīng)典歌曲中（對于那些在名人推特上評論“媽媽”的聽眾來說，這是一次夢寐以求的合作），Charli XCX與合成器流行甜心Carly Rae Jepsen交換主歌與副歌部分，不約而同地喊出（歌詞）“All alone, all alone, all alone”。這些情感爆發(fā)的歌曲，伴隨著高昂的旋律和如同拆除高樓施工架般的貝斯，卻也深藏著無能為力的宿命感和冷漠無情。在《Pop 2》中，熱戀的浪漫無處可尋，去他的尋歡作樂成為情感的庇護(hù)所。

It’s Pop 2’s production, more than anything, that places it on the vanguard of a complete stylistic breakthrough, thanks wap720ly to PC Music’s A.G. Cook, whose credit appears on every song. I was skeptical of the label’s high-concept art school antics when they first emerged; but the further they’ve gotten from the Web 1.0 shtick, the more vital the collective’s impeccable, poignant pop futurism has become. And though Pop 2 sounds like the future, even more delightful is the way it hybridizes sounds from the past two decades of weirdo electronics: the synthetic maximalism of Rustie and HudMo, heartfelt late ’90s Eurodance a la Aqua or DJ Sammy, Crystal Castles’ goth electro-scuzz, J-pop super-producer Yasutaka Nakata’s wistful Shibuya-kei, Cher’s “Believe,” and of course, Britney, from Blackout to Britney Jean. And though it’s by now common practice for pop stars to flirt with hip-hop production, the results often reveal a cynically low level of engagement with the genre—tacking on “Metro Boomin-Type Beat,” some 808s, and calling it a day. Here, Charli and A.G. Cook know exactly what they’re going for: the “Versace”-style repetition on alien posse cut “I Got It”; the pristine, sultry chords, reminiscent of Late Nights With Jeremih on “Out of My Head”; the slurry, decayed cadences on “Delicious,” calling to mind Travis Scott or Swae Lee.

正是制作使得《Pop 2》超凡脫俗，成為打破潮流定義的前衛(wèi)先鋒大作，多虧來自PC Music的?A.G. Cook，EP每首歌都有他的署名。剛開始接觸他們廠牌成立初期的高端藝術(shù)時，我有點(diǎn)懷疑自我；但隨著他們逐漸吸納Web 1.0風(fēng)格，他們的作品風(fēng)格越發(fā)不懈可擊直擊人心。盡管《Pop 2》像未來的音樂，但卻糅合了過去20年的另類電子經(jīng)典作品：Rustie與HudMo的合成極致主義、Aqua或DJ Sammy的90年代末激昂歐陸舞曲、Crystal Castles的哥特電子風(fēng)、J-pop頂級制作人中田康孝的的澀谷風(fēng)、Cher的“Believe”，當(dāng)然還有Britney Spears從《Blackout》到《Britney Jean》時期的音樂。盡管如今流行音樂引入嘻哈制作早已成為司空見慣的做法——但成果卻不盡人意，粗制濫造地套用Metro Boomin式的節(jié)拍和一些808鼓點(diǎn)便草率了事。但EP里，Charli XCX與A.G. Cook很清楚他們該做出什么效果：歌曲”I Got It“中仿佛被外星人附身般的（Migos/Drake單曲）“Versace”式的重復(fù)唱段；“Out of My Head”中精致魅惑的和弦讓我聯(lián)想到Jeremih的2015年專輯《Late Nights》；歌曲“Delicious”中抑揚(yáng)頓挫的暗黑腔調(diào)讓我聯(lián)想到Travis Scott和Swae Lee。

The strangest and most uncannily similar stylistic comparison to?Pop 2, though, is former “Teen Mom” Farrah Abraham’s outsider opus,?My Teenage Dream Ended. Sweepingly ridiculed as one of 2012’s worst albums, that judgment, five years later, feels wildly narrow-minded. It is a baffling work, to be sure: frantic layers of dubstep, EDM, witch-house, and breakbeats seem to run in the opposite direction as Abraham’s absurdly AutoTuned narratives about surviving the death of her husband. (In a?recent interview, the album’s producer, Frederick M. Cuevas, admits that Abraham recorded her diaristic lyrics before ever hearing the music.) After my first full spin of?Pop 2, I couldn’t shake the thought: “This sounds like Farrah, but good.” The album’s vocal processing is unlike anything I’ve heard in pop; Cook’s aggressive, evocative filtering has the paradoxical effect of heightening the humanity of it all. On “Lucky,” the tape’s saddest, wildest song (whose title cannot be understood without an implicit nod to Britney, whose own?“Lucky”?was her first of many explorations of the soul-sucking side-effects of stardom), Charli’s voice warps from anthropomorphic pan flute to rogue AOL dial-up tone to primal scream from the soul. When she sings, “You got no reception, you’re breaking up,” her voice gently stutters like it’s just out of service range, a subtle but brilliant touch.

與《Pop 2》風(fēng)格相近的最詭異的作品，大概是前MTV真人秀“Teen Mom”演員Farrah Abraham的跨界之作《My Teenage Dream Ended》。曾被大眾嘲諷為2012年最爛專輯之一，五年后再看，這種說法是過于目光短淺了。可以肯定的是，這是一張令人困惑的專輯；瘋狂疊加的dubstep、EDM、witch-house、breakbeats似乎與Abraham走出丈夫去世陰影的專輯主題背道而馳。(在近期一次采訪中，這張專輯的制作人Frederick M. Cuevas表示，Abraham在聽到demo前就寫好了她的日記歌詞)。第一次完整聆聽完《Pop 2》，我就不能擺脫這種想法：“聽起來很像Farrah，但歌曲很棒?！边@張混音帶的人聲處理方式與我所知的其他流行歌曲都不同。A.G?Cook咄咄逼人且共鳴心靈的人聲處理的做法意外彰顯出人性光輝。在混音帶中最悲情放肆的歌曲Lucky”中，（歌名顯然照應(yīng)Britney Spears的“Lucky”，她的“Lucky”是她首次探索巨星身份敲骨吸髓靈魂的副作用），Charli XCX的人聲不斷扭曲——從擬人化的排簫到怪異刺耳的撥號聲再到靈魂間的原始尖嘯。當(dāng)她唱道（歌詞）“You got no reception, you’re breaking up,”時，歌聲輕柔間斷，就像不在信號范圍內(nèi)，別出心裁的靈魂觸動。

But the tape’s best moment is saved for last. Unceremoniously titled “Track 10,” the song glitches into focus as if beamed in from interstellar broadband. Charli’s hyper-filtered melodies float over a celestial synth choir, building into a densely-layered collage of her own voice, howling at the moon until their vocal chords go ragged. Halfway through, the track explodes into ecstatic drums and vocal effects from Lil Data, a PC Music artist who uses a program called?TidalCycles?to compose via code. Far from the pristine perfection of PC Music’s early releases, there’s something a bit messy about the whole thing—a sense of humanity, beaming plainly from its hyper-synthetic surroundings, that feels like a revelation.

但混音帶最佳時刻留在了最后。突兀命名的歌曲“Track 10”，歌曲開頭如同從浩瀚星際照進(jìn)的光芒般在機(jī)器故障聲中逐漸聚焦。Charli XCX提煉出的hyper旋律流淌在合成唱詩班的天空，用自己的聲音筑造層次感，向圓月呼嘯直至聲嘶力竭。歌曲中段忽然崩裂為躁動鼓聲和人聲，這是源自PC Music的Lil Data的創(chuàng)意，他擅長用Tidalcycles程序編曲。相比PC Music早期嚴(yán)絲合縫的完美成品，這次作品卻有些凌亂——這就是人性，就像一束白光刺過hyper合成器，好似神諭降臨。