搬運(yùn)自：微信公眾號(hào)【評(píng)論搬一堆】

原文鏈接：https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/CKiMfkzAEnyUHs0c40kTOA

原文翻譯：Ryan-Xiang

原文審譯：Emma Z

原文排版：Ryan-Chopin（在原文基礎(chǔ)上添加了英語(yǔ)原文，評(píng)分截圖與排版調(diào)整）

Twenty years ago, Madonna was a postmodernist's dream. Her ability to transform herself from song to song and from album to album became a proclamation of self-nullifying empowerment, giving her the ability to create a stationary persona out of shifting identities. However, by the start of the 1990s, Madonna's transformations Appeared more calculated as she aged and fell behind the curve, trying to predict the next dominant style instead of confidently setting it.在Madonna（麥當(dāng)娜）的第十四張專(zhuān)輯《Confessions on a dancefloor（舞池告白）》中，這位流行巨星與Stuart Price（斯圖爾特·普萊斯）共同完成復(fù)古創(chuàng)作；這張專(zhuān)輯沿用了麥當(dāng)娜出道早期的夜店女王路線，并再次展現(xiàn)了曾被她和其他歌手在80年代早期所顛覆的70年代風(fēng)格。

With?Confessions on a Dance Floor, her 14th album, Madonna again reinvents herself, and it Appears she's nearly lApped herself. Her latest iteration is a pre-Madonna (prima donna?) disco vixen, basking in a '70s musical style that she herself, among others, helped to morph and displace in the early '80s. Allowing her to accessorize creatively (love that wrap-around top), this new persona has the potential to be immensely entertaining, but there's something a little sad about it too. At 47 Madonna is playing the role of someone 25 years younger, and those retro space leotards and that feathered hair only make her look more mature and matronly, like your friend's mom dressed up embarrassingly for Halloween.

二十年前，Madonna是后現(xiàn)代主義者的完美偶像。她在不同歌曲和專(zhuān)輯間的轉(zhuǎn)變能力成了人格否定的力量宣言，這使她能夠在變化的人格中保持一個(gè)穩(wěn)定的身份。然而，到20世紀(jì)90年代初，隨著年齡增長(zhǎng)和樂(lè)壇地位下滑，Madonna的轉(zhuǎn)型似乎變得更為謹(jǐn)慎，她開(kāi)始嘗試去預(yù)測(cè)下一個(gè)主流風(fēng)格而不是自信地創(chuàng)造潮流。Madonna用第十四張專(zhuān)輯《Confessions on a dancefloor》再次轉(zhuǎn)型的同時(shí)卻又幾乎束縛住了她自己。這張專(zhuān)輯沿用了麥當(dāng)娜出道早期的夜店女王路線，并再次展現(xiàn)了曾被她和其他歌手在80年代早期所顛覆的70年代風(fēng)格。這個(gè)全新的人格使得她能夠在裝束方面大膽創(chuàng)新（尤其是那件曲邊的上衣），并有著極大的取悅市場(chǎng)的潛能。但令人悲傷的是：47歲的Madonna扮演著比她年輕25歲的角色，那些復(fù)古緊身衣和羽毛裝飾的頭發(fā)反而讓她看起來(lái)更加精于世故，就像在萬(wàn)圣節(jié)造型尷尬的老阿姨一樣。

If the outfit depresses, the music on?Confessions?accomplishes the feat of making her sound young again. Kicking off the album, "Hung Up" is an impressive and enjoyable single, strong enough to have everyone trying to figure out if it's her best since "Ray of Light" or since "Like a Prayer". The main groove is lifted from ABBA's "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme (A Man After Midnight)", but used in such a way that it resembles a brilliant mash-up rather than a lazy sample. Credit is due Stuart Price of Les Rhythmes Digitales, who builds a warehouse-size wall of sound for Madonna's songs, allowing her to revel in the shameless mirrorballsiness of it all.

盡管麥當(dāng)娜的新專(zhuān)造型著實(shí)有些讓人失望，但是這張專(zhuān)輯的音樂(lè)卻成功完成了讓她的聲音年輕如初的任務(wù)。作為專(zhuān)輯的開(kāi)頭，“Hung?up(心神不寧)”是一首抓耳又討巧的歌，它的質(zhì)量是如此上乘，以至于讓人想去探究這是不是她在“Ray?of Light(光線)”或是“Like?a?prayer（宛如祈禱）”后最好的單曲。這首歌的主旋律采樣于ABBA的“Gimme！Gimmme！Gimme！(A Man After Midnight)（午夜孤男）”,但采取了一種出色的類(lèi)似混搭的方式而不是懶惰地將其生搬硬套。這歸功于Les Rhythures Digitales的Stuart Price（斯圖爾特·普萊斯），他為Madonna創(chuàng)作的音樂(lè)足夠鋪滿(mǎn)整個(gè)倉(cāng)庫(kù)的墻壁，這些創(chuàng)作使她能夠在專(zhuān)輯里那些鏡像中毫無(wú)羞恥地盡情狂歡。

That collaboration stays strong over the first half of?Confessions. On "Get Together", as Price's synths ebb and flow moodily, Madonna asks the eternal pop question, "Do you believe in love at first sight?", over a tripping vocal melody. The cascades of sound wash directly into "Sorry", setting up the song's panlingual apologies and shifting bass tectonics. These songs have a deceptive lyrical vacuity that hints at greater depths, but leaves them to the listener to consider. On the other hand, "Future Lovers" begins with similar escapism, as Madonna warmly exhorts, "Let's forget your life, forget your problems, administration, bills, and loans." But it's no simple call to the dancefloor: Over a prismatic vocal theme, she unequivocally equates music with spirituality, dancing with religious ritual.

在這張專(zhuān)輯的前半部分，Madonna和Price的這種合作一直表現(xiàn)強(qiáng)勢(shì)。在單曲“Get?Together（聚在一起）”中，Price用合成器使節(jié)奏隨著整體情緒的變化跌宕起伏，同時(shí)Madonna在這種輕快的旋律中拋出了一個(gè)經(jīng)典問(wèn)題：“你相信一見(jiàn)鐘情嗎？”。接著這些旋律如同瀑布般又卷入了單曲“Sorry（對(duì)不起）”，為這首歌設(shè)定了各種語(yǔ)言的道歉和富有層次感的低音結(jié)構(gòu)。這兩首歌曲都帶著一種迷幻卻又深情的空虛感，這些空虛感有著更深層次的意義，留給了聽(tīng)眾更多思考的空間。另一方面，“Future Lovers（未來(lái)情人）”的開(kāi)頭也有類(lèi)似的逃避現(xiàn)實(shí)色彩，正如Madonna歌曲中循循善誘的話語(yǔ)，“忘記你的生活，忘記你的所有的煩惱?！?，但這并不僅僅是來(lái)自舞池中央的邀請(qǐng)：在這個(gè)棱鏡般迷幻的聲音里，Madonna明確地將音樂(lè)與靈性，舞蹈與宗教儀式劃上了等號(hào)。

This impressive momentum, unfortunately, is interrupted by "I Love New York", which stumbles over mad-glad-bad rhyme schemes and dumb-ass lyrics like "I don't like cities but I like New York/ Other cities make me feel like a dork." It sounds like a transparently targeted post-9/11 valentine to the Big Apple-- odd coming from an ex-pat. Inanities like "If you don't like my attitude/ Then you can eff off" are at least partly excused by Price's production, which builds from the beat up to incorporate rock elements that could be a nod to Brooklyn hipster dance punk.

不幸的是，這種令人印象深刻的勢(shì)頭被“I Love New York（我愛(ài)紐約）”所打斷，這首歌被糟糕的狂歡押韻和“我不喜歡城市，但我喜歡紐約，其他城市讓我覺(jué)得自己像個(gè)傻子”這樣愚蠢的歌詞拖累了。它聽(tīng)起來(lái)就像是給經(jīng)歷了911事件后的紐約城的情人節(jié)禮物，這樣一首歌從Madonna這個(gè)外鄉(xiāng)人口中唱出來(lái)就顯得更加奇怪了。Price在制作這首歌時(shí)在節(jié)拍中融合了搖滾元素以致敬布魯克林式嘻哈朋克，這樣的制作給諸如“如果你不喜歡我的態(tài)度，那么你就可以放手”這樣的膚淺歌詞提供了一個(gè)合理的借口。

Despite Price's best efforts to infuse these songs with motion and finesse,?Confessions?never quite reaches its earlier heights after "I Love New York". When Madonna actually starts confessing, the album loses its delicate balance between pop frivolity and spiritual gravity. "Now I can tell you about success, about fame," she intones at the end of "Let It Will Be", as if that's all she knows anymore. She proselytizes the Kabbalah on "Isaac", but despite the controversy that song has created, it's remarkable only for Price's two-note pendulum string sample and a hummed melody that could have been lifted from "Frozen".

盡管Price拼盡全力讓后面這些歌曲充滿(mǎn)節(jié)奏感和細(xì)節(jié)，但在“I Love New York”之后，這張專(zhuān)輯再難企及前半部分的高度。當(dāng)Madonna真的開(kāi)始坦白時(shí)，這張專(zhuān)輯就失去了在輕快的流行曲風(fēng)和精神層面的張力之間原有的那種微妙平衡。她在“Let It Will Be（順其自然）”的結(jié)尾說(shuō)：“現(xiàn)在我可以告訴你關(guān)于名譽(yù)的所有”，好像這就是她所知道的一切。她還將卡巴拉教義改編成了“Isaac（以撒）”。盡管這首歌引起了不小的爭(zhēng)議，但實(shí)際上它值得注意的地方只有Price的雙音符鐘擺弦樂(lè)片段和可能是從“Frozen（冰封）”采樣的嗡嗡曲調(diào)。

The young Madonna pops up repeatedly on?Confessions, a foil to her older self. "How High" plumbs the motives behind her headline- and crotch-grabbing behavior of yore, but it only reveals how deeply she has embedded herself into the establishment. The album title recalls her contentious relationship to Catholicism on "Papa Don't Preach" and "Like a Prayer", and that pop visionary subversiveness makes her reverence to the Kabbalah seem tame by comparison. There's no conflict between her and her new faith, so there's no journey. As?Confessions?weighs down with more of her personal baggage, the songs become, despite Price's inventive and mercurial production, less inviting and less danceable, as if Madonna wants the dance floor all to herself.

為了襯托她年長(zhǎng)的一面，年輕Madonna的形象反復(fù)出現(xiàn)在這張專(zhuān)輯中。“HowHigh（聲名遠(yuǎn)揚(yáng)）”這一歌曲深究了她當(dāng)年摸胯等博眼球動(dòng)作背后真正的動(dòng)機(jī)，但其實(shí)這首歌只揭示了她已經(jīng)深深地融入了這些人設(shè)。這張專(zhuān)輯的名字讓人想起了她在“Papa Don't Preach（爸爸別說(shuō)教）”和“Like a Prayer(宛如祈禱)”兩首歌中與天主教飽受爭(zhēng)議的關(guān)系；與這種通過(guò)流行文化對(duì)宗教的幻想性顛覆相比，她對(duì)卡巴拉教的崇敬顯得平淡無(wú)奇。她和她的新信仰沒(méi)有沖突，因此也就沒(méi)有什么值得關(guān)注的經(jīng)歷。由于這張專(zhuān)輯被Madonna個(gè)人包袱所過(guò)多的限制，這導(dǎo)致盡管Price的編曲天馬行空，但這些歌曲最終卻并不那么抓耳，也不怎么適合做舞蹈伴奏，顯得Madonna似乎想要獨(dú)占舞池一樣。