【搬运】【译】叉婊Pitchfork评Yuna专辑《Rouge》（胭脂）

搬运自：微信公众号【评论搬一堆】（在原文基础上添加了英语原文与排版调整）

翻译：JenniferC

校对：Tyler Smith

排版：Peter D

Yuna has always made dreamer’s music: ethereal and achy, often centered on the gap between desire and reality. But on Rouge, the 32-year-old sounds clear-eyed, grounded, and sure of herself. Rouge is Yunalis Zara’ai’s fourth internationally released studio album since moving from her home country of Malaysia to L.A. eight years ago and, not inconsequentially, her first as a married person. On lead single “Forevermore,” she croons, “I’ve been dreaming of this light/ Piercing through the darkest night,” and one gets the sense she’s been waiting for this self-trust and certainty a long while. Her 2012 self-titled debut placed her within the world of Ingrid Michaelson-esque folk-pop, but on Rouge she’s making simmering R&B bops, pulling from disco and hip-hop along the way.

一直以来，Yuna的音乐都像是梦中人的歌曲：空灵飘渺、疼痛戳心，她的歌曲聚焦于欲望和现实之间的鸿沟。但是，在《Rouge》这张专辑中，这位32岁的女歌手却目光坚定、脚踏实地、自信无比。《Rouge》是Yunalis Zara’ai 八年前从马来西亚搬到洛杉矶发展后发行的第四张国际版的录音室专辑，更值得一提的是，这也是她婚后首张专辑。在主打单曲《Forevermore（直到永远）》中，她低吟浅唱着“I’ve been dreaming of this light/ Piercing through the darkest night（我一直梦想着这束光/穿透最黑暗的夜晚）”。我们能感受到，这种自信感和确定感，她渴望已久。2012年，Yuna的同名专辑使她进入大众流行音乐圈，步了Ingrid Michaelson的后尘。而在《Rouge》这张专辑中，她正在尝试节奏布鲁斯，并且从迪斯科和嘻哈中汲取灵感。

“Amy” drifts like incense, flush with the trappings of Sade-inspired smooth jazz and Masego’s shadowy backing vocals. “Pink Youth,” featuring Little Simz, is a girl-empowerment track that rides a hazy disco beat reminiscent of Beyoncé’s “Blow,” while “Castaway,” featuring Tyler, The Creator, is a soft-spoken yet indisputable middle finger to a former lover. Neither song contains their guest artists’ typically sharp bars (Tyler did not need to rhyme “Beer belly is on horizon” with “You really don’t have Verizon”), but texturally, they work. By contrast, on album highlight “Does She,” Yuna’s duet with Jay Park unfolds like actual dialogue, rather than just a requisite 16-bar insertion.

《Amy(艾米）》仿佛一阵游丝般的氤氲香气，其中洋溢着Sade般的流畅爵士乐，Masego的背景人声若有若无。《Pink Youth(粉红青春）》中Yuna与 Little Simz合作，这是一首激发女性力量的歌曲，其中隐约的迪斯科节拍让人想起Beyoncé的《Blow》。《Castaway（逃离你）》则是和 Tyler, The Creator合作的，声线柔情，但却是对前任毫不留情地竖了个中指。这几首歌都没有体现出合作歌手典型明显的bar（译者注：bar为说唱中专用语，一句话即一个bar)Tyler其实不用把“Beer belly is on horizon（我们之间无法继续就像日薄西山般凄凉）“和“You really don’t have Verizon（你如今听不到我，是因为你信号不好）”两句刻意押韵）（译者注：两句话结尾-izon押韵），不过从歌词文本上来讲，效果还不错。与之相比，专辑引人注目的歌曲《Does She(她是这样的吗？）》就好多了，Yuna和 Jay Park（朴宰范）的二重唱就像一场缓缓展开的真实对话，而不是强行插入的歌曲必须的16个bar。

Not every track is so seamless. Album single “Blank Marquee” bumps along to a roller-rink-ready beat that recalls the break in Prince’s “I Wanna Be Your Lover,” which then dovetails into a woozy Tame Impala synth groove, only to be interrupted by a grubby and unpleasant G-Eazy. On “Likes,” Yuna’s plum-sweet voice rides atop an aquatic wash of Rhodes piano chords with trumpet lines recalling Donnie trumpet & the Social Experiment’s Surf. She sings of the double standards she faces as a Muslim woman in the American music industry; if people aren’t knocking her for dressing modestly or not drinking, they’re complaining that it isn’t a Muslim woman’s place to be singing on stage in public. It’s one of the more personal moments on the album—until KYLE enters, and his verse zaps the mood almost as effectively as J. Cole on Jeremih’s “Planez.”

当然了，不是每首歌都衔接得这么流畅。专辑单曲《Blank Marquee（一片空白）》的节奏仿佛滑过溜冰场，使人想起Prince的《I Wanna Be Your Lover（我想要成为你的爱人）》中的强烈律动。《Blank Marquee》和 Tame Impala昏昏沉沉的混音旋律不谋而合，只不过后来被讨厌的 G-Eazy强行插入打断了。《Likes(喜欢的）》中，Yuna甜美的嗓音辅以罗兹电钢琴和弦的洗礼以及鼓点的节奏，让人想起 Donnie trumpet & the Social Experiment的《Surf(冲浪）》。她在这首歌中道出了自己作为一个穆斯林女性置身美国音乐界时面临的双重标准：人们要么抨击她穿着不得体、饮酒，要么批评一个穆斯林女性不该在公众场合抛头露面地演唱。这些是专辑中Yuna个人的真情流露——歌曲的后来， KYLE也加入演唱，他的词直击人心，就像 J. Cole在 Jeremih的《Planez》的出现那么有效。

These bumps in the road only underscore Yuna’s evolution: She’s broadened her palette, but she is still figuring out how to make these sounds feel like her own. There are some singular moments: her lilting, off-beat synths; the gentle instrumental stretches that feel more experimental than anything she’s done; a recurring motif—alternately framed by traditional Malay gendang-like percussion, meditative vocals, and raindrops—that haunts the corners of the album.

不过，这些小小的坎坷只会让我们注意到Yuna在不断创新和挑战自我：她拓宽了自己的音乐道路，但仍在探索如何唱出自己的音色。她的音乐中，有些瞬间非凡绝伦：轻快又不和节奏的合成器音乐；她之前从来没试过的轻柔乐器声片段；她音乐中反复出现的主题——马来西亚传统鼓的打击乐、冥想的配乐、雨滴声的小段落交替出现，萦绕在专辑的每一个角落里。

It is in the final track that we see Yuna most clearly. Inspired by syair, a form of Malay narrative poetry-singing, album closer “Tiada Akhir” lingers like a faded memory. Against a rainy, silver-gray backdrop, Yuna intones in Malay, “You were born, like a bright light [...] I thought you would save me/But you were the poison that stopped my heart.” It is a poem about loss—and yet, in its ashes, we come to witness the truth: that from its depths, Yunalis Zara’ai is rising.

专辑的最后一首歌让我们更彻底地了解了Yuna。专辑的最后一支曲子《Tiada Akhir》的灵感源于syair，一种马来西亚的叙事唱诗，仿佛向我们缓缓道出一段模糊的记忆。阴雨绵绵，四周灰暗，Yuna用马来语吟唱道：“You were born, like a bright light [...] I thought you would save me/But you were the poison that stopped my heart.（你出生了，就像一盏明亮的灯……我原以为你会来救我，但你却是让我停止心跳的毒药）”这是一首关于失去的优美诗篇——然而，在灰烬中，我们看到了真相：在灰烬深处， Yunalis Zara’ai正在重生崛起。