[渣翻] Pitchfork Reviews: Sweetener, 8.1/10

原文地址： https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/ariana-grande-sweetener/

After years of searching, Ariana Grande has found her true voice. Sweetener is an exemplary pop album, radiating with low-key joy and newfound love.

经过多年的探索，Ariana Grande终于发出了真正属于自己的声音。Sweetener是一张典型的流行专辑，专辑中流露着低调的喜悦，也描述了她的一段新恋情。

Ariana Grande’s journey from child star to “human cupcake” to heir apparent to the diva throne has been centered around discovering the song that defines her. Though her soprano is instantly recognizable—floating from sultry melismas to whistle singing, elocution be damned—locating her in the hits has been difficult at times. Her last two albums, 2014’s My Everything and 2016’s Dangerous Woman, were solid but musically scattershot, filled with trendy guests and weighed down by her bad-girl alter-ego. For Grande to ascend to the next creative level, she’d need more than just the range.

从童星到“甜心小天后”，再到剑指diva宝座，Ariana Grande的歌手之路一直围绕着能够做出真正准确定义她的歌曲而展开。尽管她的高音极具辨识度——从花腔到哨音她都游刃有余——但是这也为她招致批评——有时在大热单曲中找准她的个人定位并非易事。她的上两张专辑，无论是2014年的My Everything还是2016年的Dangerous Woman，质量都尚可，但是从音乐性上看还是稍显杂乱无章：专辑不仅充满为蹭热度而请来的合作歌手，还被她急于完善的“坏女孩”的第二人格深深拖累。对于Grande来说，想要自己的音乐事业更上一层楼，她需要跳出舒适圈，打开眼界。

Sweetener, Grande’s first album since the 2017 bombing at her Manchester concert, feels more honest and distinct than any of her past work. Perhaps because tragedy has a way of revealing our true selves, the 25-year-old star finally allows herself to just take things as they come. She doesn’t force the heart-wrenching emotion of it all into tearful ballads and message-heavy anthems, but instead lets the low-key joy of the title track radiate across the album. The best parts of Sweetener have her looking for hope and stumbling upon the glow of new love. By the time you reach the interlude about her comedian fiancé Pete Davidson called “pete davidson,” where the word “happy” is repeated 22 times in just over a minute, whatever cynical snapshot of their quickie engagement that may have formed between That Lollipop Photo and reports of Big Dick Energy has fallen away. Let the young diva love in peace.

Sweetener，是在2017年曼彻斯特爆炸案发生后Grande发行的第一张专辑，这张专辑让听众感受到了她前所未有的笃定与真诚。也许是悲剧的发生让我们都能去反思何为真正的自我，这位25岁的歌星亦如是，最终她接受了让一切都顺其自然。她并没有尝试着将心痛的情绪强行融入悲伤的芭乐曲或信息密集的“大歌”，而是将同名曲中洋溢着的低调的喜悦点缀在整张专辑中。Sweetener最出色的部分讲述了她对希冀的探求，以及对无意中结识的新欢的炽热情感。名为“pete davidson”的幕间曲，是关于她的喜剧演员未婚夫Pete Davidson的。当你听到在这首歌中，单词“happy”在一分多钟的时间里被重复了22次时，任何因为看到Ariana吃棒棒糖的照片与说Pete尺寸惊人的报导而对他们的火速订婚产生了的消极想法瞬间烟消云散。就让这位年轻的diva安静地放手去爱吧。

Grande co-wrote more songs than usual (10 out of 15) and formed a clear bond with Pharrell, who serves as a songwriter and producer across Sweetener’s stronger half. His funk-lite idiosyncrasies set a bright tone and help elevate the record’s more conventional song structures. Grande and Williams leave themselves plenty of room to play around with texture in clever ways, particularly when it comes to layered vocals and skittering percussion. Set to little more than panting, tongue clicks, and keyboard orbs, “R.E.M” finds novel ways for Grande to expand her vocal repertoire. Singing in a stream of consciousness style about the man in her dreams, she flows in and out of R&B crooning, doo-wop vocal runs, gospel harmonizing, cheeky sing-talking, and a surprisingly precise rap flow (“‘Scuse me, um? I love you/I know that’s not the way to start a conversation, trouble”). She doesn’t even need a money note to stamp her mark.

相较于以前，Grande在这张专辑中更深入地参与了歌曲创作（15首歌中有10首她参与其中），并且与Pharrell建立起了明确的合作关系：Sweetener中一多半的歌曲都有他操刀。他独特的“轻放克”的个人音乐特质为整张专辑奠定了明快的基调，并且帮助改良了专辑中歌曲的传统结构。Grande和Williams为自己的创作留足了空间，以更为巧妙的手法反复琢磨和谐的乐感，尤其是在富有层次感的人声和使用轻巧的打击乐器的探索中更见功夫。轻喘声，弹舌音，再加上键盘的伴奏，在“R.E.M”中Grande以新奇的方式拓宽了她的唱法。在这首歌中，她以“意识流”的风格讲述自己的春梦，熟练地转换运用R&B式的浅吟低唱，杜沃普唱法，福音曲唱法，充满挑逗意味的半说半唱形式，甚至出现了令人惊喜的说唱段(“‘Scuse me, um? I love you（“你好，打扰一下，我…我爱你）/I know that’s not the way to start a conversation, trouble（我知道这并非常理中的搭讪方式，真令人苦恼）”)。她甚至都不需要将自己的头像印在钞票上来证明自己的独一无二了。

The non-Pharrell tracks come courtesy of past Grande collaborators like Max Martin, ILYA, and TB Hits, and largely tap into the ongoing trap influence on the Top 40. Not one of them is outright filler, but an ode to a toxic ex like “everytime” is markedly less original—the kind of bad-decision-making set to ominous thumping that’s all over the charts. Grande’s got her own new rules, though: She tweaks the daydreaming of Imogen Heap into the throbbing EDM twinkle of “goodnight n go” and turns the melancholy of Drake into a meditation on anxiety with “breathin.” Neither is a direct extension of her work with Williams, but both feel like natural fits on an album all about finding the light.

Pharrell没有参与制作的歌曲，则由Grande一向关系密切的合作者Max Martin, ILYA和TB Hits经手操办，它们大部分乘了公告牌榜Top40中说唱歌曲盛行的东风。它们都不是专辑中用来充数的歌曲，但是“everytime”这种唱给卑鄙前任的赞歌已经显得非常滥俗——榜单上充斥着这种决策失误的失败产物。Grande显然也有自己的一套准则：她将Imogen Heap有如白日梦呢喃般的“goodnight n go”改编成了闪耀着EDM律动节奏的同名曲；在“breathin”中她也将Drake式的忧郁转变为了对于自身焦虑的深思。它们都并不是与Williams合作的衍生物，但是在一张主题为“寻找光明”的专辑中，这两首歌与专辑的气质紧密而自然地完美契合。

Grande may have delivered more of a full-album vibe than a bangers-filled juggernaut, but there is at least one career-defining moment here—the song she has been looking for, wrapped in an unassuming package. Sweetener ends with “get well soon,” the sort of freeform, self-help soul ballad you’d maybe expect to round out a Beyoncé opus. Anyone who knows how gracefully Grande handled the horrific events at her Manchester show last year will recognize an equally graceful response to her own emotional aftermath in this song. Channeling all the conflicting voices in her head, Grande sings striking downbeat counter-melodies of “girl what’s wrong witchu come back down.” She soothes herself with her own luscious harmonies, urges fans to take care of one another, and modestly assures that anyone can work their way to the top. Like much of Sweetener, the song is musically sparse but encompasses a kaleidoscope of vocal tones. It is here, four albums in, that the true multitudes of her voice, and by extension herself, blossom.

Grande这次无疑为我们带来了从各方面来说完整性都更强的专辑，而不是以往的那些七拼八凑的热单集锦。这张专辑中至少呈现出了一个她的职业生涯的里程碑时刻——一首她一直以来都在苦苦寻找的歌，深藏在质朴内敛的表面之下。Sweetener以“get well soon”作结，它拥有非传统的歌曲结构，是一首关于自我救赎的灵魂芭乐曲，颇具Beyoncé的神韵。了解到Grande在去年曼彻斯特爆炸案发生后处理方式是多么大方得体的每个人，都能与她在这首歌中流露出的情绪创伤共情共鸣。她在这首歌中将长久在头脑里碰撞激荡的声音一吐为快，伴着沉重有力的复调旋律，她唱道 “girl what’s wrong witchu come back down（女孩，你怎么了，快过来）”。她用柔和悦耳的和声抚慰自己的心灵，告诉粉丝要互相照顾体谅，并谦逊地向所有人保证他们都能通过不懈努力走上人生巅峰。就像Sweetener中的其他歌曲一样，这首歌在音乐性上稍显单薄，但是Grande在其中使用了纷繁复杂的唱法。也就是在这里，在她的第四张专辑中，她才能炉火纯青地将自己的声乐天赋运用自如——由此引申开来，直到第四张专辑，她才真正地做到舒展自我，尽情绽放。

注：本人非英专，翻译只是兴趣所在，如有错误请在评论区指出或私信我，理性讨论不撕逼不吵架。数字评分及乐评内容代表Pitchfork观点，不代表本人观点（星级和短评代表本人观点，两者之间没有必然联系）