Pitchfork乐评及中文翻译

乐评人：Ryan Dombal

Pitchfork评分：10

中文翻译（机翻+语法用词已调整）

Kanye 的说唱生涯在一张 LP 中达到巅峰，就好像这张LP是他最伟大的作品--施展了他最强大的才能，但同时也展现了他自我分裂的公众形象。 Kanye West 35 分钟的MV，Runaway，在游行中达到顶峰。当红色头巾穿过田野时，烟花在闪烁。奇观的中心是迈克尔杰克逊巨大、苍白的卡通形象。 My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy 以庞大的“All of the Lights”为游行配乐，Kanye 恳求道：“出了什么问题，我抱住我的头/MJ 走了，我们的兄弟死了。”这标志着Kanye对流行音乐之王的痴迷的又一章。 Kanye的唱片包含无数对杰克逊的引用。他作为制作人的第一首热门歌曲是 Jay-Z 的“Izzo (H.O.V.A.)”，采样了 MJ 的“I Want You Back”。对于许多人来说，他作为说唱歌手的第一句令人难忘的歌词出现在 2003 年的“Slow Jamz”中：“她有一个像迈克尔·杰克逊一样的浅肤色朋友/有一个像迈克尔·杰克逊一样的深色皮肤朋友。”当Kanye最近在“今日”节目中对马特劳尔的采访出错时，他在推特上写道，“我希望迈克尔杰克逊有推特！！！！！！也许迈克可以解释媒体如何陷害他！！！这都是安排好的！！！”和其他大多数事情一样，Kanye 可能夸大了亲属关系，但这是真的。在 Twisted Fantasy 上表现得最为明显，这是一种超现实主义的过度，很少有艺术家能够创造，甚至愿意尝试。 需要明确的是，Kanye West 不是Michael Jackson。正如他上个月告诉 MTV 的那样，“我这一生确实有一个目标，那就是成为有史以来最伟大的艺术家，[但是]因为我不会跳舞或唱歌，这非常困难。”他笑着放弃了这个想法，但你会觉得他不是在开玩笑。与Michael Jackson不同，他不想为了安抚大众而抹去自己的一些东西——他的阴暗、他的坦率。虽然Jackson自己对偏执和背叛的扭曲幻想最终吞噬了他的整个身体，但Kanye仍然意识到他的幻想，尽管随着报纸上的每一次争议，这种正念变得越来越不稳定。这种平衡很脆弱，但现在对他有利。在 Twisted Fantasy 中，Kanye 疯狂到可以真正相信他是最伟大的。而且，在他的职业生涯大约十年后，这位勤奋的完美主义者在麦克风和录音室方面获得了天赋。Kanye 的最后一张专辑，2008 年的 808s 和 Heartbreak，大量使用 Auto-Tune 和纯粹的合成器，但对宏伟的想法相对较少。这是一个必要的挫折，扩展了他的情感调色板；在严酷的分手和他的母亲去世后的打击，体现在Twisted Fantasy的最严酷的低谷中。但在音乐上，新专辑在很大程度上延续了 2007 年Graduation在其极简主义嘻哈音乐中的表现，其中闪烁着 The College Dropout 的舒适食品采样和 Late Registration 的巴洛克乐器无缝编织。结果，唱片就像一个高潮和瞬间的热门歌曲，实现了他最强大的才能，同时也展现了他分裂的公众形象。由于他所推广的书呆子说唱原型现在已经司空见惯，他将其置之不理，将他的风格和戏剧带到了以前未知的地方，远离传统的文明。 他脑子里也有很多想法。在去年臭名昭著的Taylor Swift颁奖舞台之后流放自己数月后，这位说唱歌手于 7 月底在 Facebook 和 Twitter 的总部首次复出露面。 Kanye穿着量身定制的 GQ 哑弹衣服站在桌子上，同时通过新的韵律（没有音乐伴奏）做手势的视频迅速传播开来。硅谷之行似乎是一个噱头，但它们是预言性的。Kanye永远是一个过度分享者，一直在为他最新的镜子出生寻找一个出口。他在 Twitter 上找到了这个平台，并开始叙述自己的故事。无论是炫耀异国情调的商品，为自己抵御媒体的攻击，还是进行意识流咆哮，Kanye 终于拥有了他一直想要的无中间人、即时满足的平台。 有了直接的联系，他开始每周免费在线发布歌曲， 正如Radiohead 凭借他们的按需付费专辑In Rainbows 发行计划和 Lil Wayne 的免费Mixtape项目，直到 2008 年的 Tha Carter III。因此，虽然 Kanye 不能像 Michael Jackson那样唱歌或跳舞，但他正在以一种新鲜的、明显的方式建立一个伟大的的舞台。 “当我过去完成一张专辑时，我会为我妈妈听到这个消息而感到非常兴奋！”他在 11 月 11 日写道。“我们过去所说的......完整包含所有歌曲的专辑！！！我创作歌曲是为了取悦一个人......我的妈妈！！！我在想……我妈妈会不会喜欢这首歌！” 我不确定他说的是哪首歌。因为，在 7 月和 11 月之间，Kanye决定My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy对妈妈不那么友好，而更多地是对享乐主义的探索。在 Facebook，他唱了将成为专辑更接近“迷失世界”的第一节歌词，曾一度将迈克尔杰克逊的“Wanna Be Startin'Something”改为“Mama-say mama-sah Mama Donda 's son”，指的是给他已故的母亲。专辑中没有提及家族典故。另一个 Facebook 歌曲——一个名为“Mom's Boyfriend”的帐户——也被删除了，还有老式的 Kanye 声音“See Me Now”。这种排除说明了专辑的重点——推动一切向前发展，同时不断处于疯狂不稳定的边缘。 这不是让 The College Dropout 甚至是 808s 和 Heartbreak 背后受伤的那个足智多谋的神童。相反，Kanye 的 Twisted Fantasy 化身从他以前的作品中挑选了一些小东西，然后把它们炸成不理智的东西。这张专辑广泛、包罗万象的性质在其惊人的嘉宾名单中得到了证实，其中包括导师 Jay-Z、RZA 和 No ID，以及 Nicki Minaj、Rick Ross、Kid Cudi 和 Bon Iver 的 Justin Vernon 等新成员。包括 Minaj（她在“Monster”中贡献了她生活中的精神分裂症诗句）、Ross（一个以随心所欲地创造自己的现实而闻名的人）和 Cudi（他可能比 Kanye 更疯狂地自我毁灭）特别是增加了幻觉的基调。当 Chris Rock 出现在专辑最黯淡的时刻之一提供救济时，开始感觉好像 Kanye 正在舞台管理他自己的颁奖典礼，拥有足够的明星力量、震撼力和活力来压平格莱美奖、VMA、其余的都一次性完成。 在过去的几个月里，Kanye 断断续续地试图在采访和 Twitter 上摆脱他作为粗鲁的利己主义者的形象，可是，这是不可能的。因为如果没有他爆炸性的自我价值——它本身就是对自我怀疑的周期性反应，他的音乐探索了这么多——就不会有Twisted Fantasy。 “每个超级英雄都需要他的音乐，”他在“Power”这首歌中说道，尽管他远非漫画书传说中的美德典范，但他也同样是复杂的。在他的公共生活中，他同样表现出脆弱和不可战胜的一面，但他也同样擅长反派一面——尤其是在这张专辑中。 在“Runaway”中，他激动地突出了自己的恶作剧，将其变成了全人类的战斗口号。就像他的许多最伟大的歌曲一样，它很有趣，很悲伤，而且很反常。虽然“All of the Lights”的皇家号角和军鼓让它听起来像是可以想象到的最夸张的吹嘘的理想出口，但Kanye却扮演着一个虐待狂的角色，不顾一切地想要弥补一百万承诺。 “地狱般的生活”试图将其中心信条——“我不再需要毒品，我只需要浦西和宗教”——变成一种崇高的追求。当低音扬声器覆盖合成器线潜伏时，Kanye 证明了他不和色情明星睡觉而是嫁给色情明星的梦想，以好斗的嘲讽达到顶峰，“你怎么能说他们过着错误的生活/当你从不开灯的时候。”受到他与 Amber Rose 两年关系的启发，这首歌模糊了幻想与现实、性与浪漫、爱情与宗教之间的界限，直到根本不存在任何界限。这是一个带有恶魔的z必杀技；一种脆弱的状态，在下一首歌中情不自禁地崩溃。 闹鬼的 Aphex Twin 采样以一首诗结束，其中 Kanye 的声音被加快、减慢和拉长。这种效果几乎是精神病，暗示着三四个内心的独白在为破碎的情绪而战。这是记录中韦斯特操纵他的声音的众多时刻之一。无论是在“Gorgeous”中通过细小的、类似 Strokes 的过滤器将一些他有史以来最好的押韵汇集起来，还是在“Runaway”的最后几分钟让自己像一个垂死的机器人一样哭泣，他都使用工作室的魔法来吸引他的群众。然而，引人注目的是，他没有得到专辑的最后一句话。这种区别体现在吉尔·斯科特-赫伦 1970 年的口语作品“评论#1”中发人深省的语气，这是对美国寓言的鲜明看法。 “我想要的只是一个好家，一个妻子和孩子，以及每天晚上给他们吃的食物，”斯科特-赫伦说，结束了这个幻想。 在“POWER”中，Kanye 说：“我孩子般的创造力、纯洁和诚实正被这些成熟的想法所挤满/现实正在追赶我，带走我内心的孩子，我正在争取监护权。”这些台词指出了说唱歌手和他的英雄之间的另一个共同点。像迈克尔一样，坎耶的行为——从难以预测爆发到音乐才华--每一个33岁成年人都难以有的才华。

这种天真在 Twisted Fantasy 上经常受到打击，但它仍然存在，更适合这个时代。 Kanye 的音乐和人格都是有缺陷的诚实，他的人与神话的二分法曾经是超现实主义的。 “我不能成为每个人的英雄和恶棍，救世主和罪人，Christian和反Jesus（***由于Douban政策原因暂时用英文替代这几个词***）” 他早些时候写道。 这可能是真的，因为他比任何人都更愿意尝试。

原文：

Kanye's big year culminates in an LP that feels like an instant greatest hits, the ultimate realization of his strongest talents and divisive public persona. Kanye West's 35-minute super-video, Runaway, peaks with a parade. Fireworks flash while red hoods march through a field. At the center of the spectacle is a huge, pale, cartoonish rendering of Michael Jackson's head. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy's gargantuan "All of the Lights" soundtracks the procession, with Kanye pleading, "Something wrong, I hold my head/ MJ gone, our nigga dead." The tribute marks another chapter in West's ongoing obsession with the King of Pop. West's discography contains innumerable references and allusions to Jackson. His first hit as a producer, Jay-Z's "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)", sampled the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back". For many, his first memorable lines as a rapper came during 2003's "Slow Jamz": "She got a light-skinned friend look like Michael Jackson/ Got a dark-skinned friend look like Michael Jackson." And when West's recent interview with Matt Lauer on the "Today" show went awry, he took to Twitter, writing, "I wish Michael Jackson had twitter!!!!!! Maybe Mike could have explained how the media tried to set him up!!! It's all a fucking set up!!!!" Like most everything else, Kanye may exaggerate the kinship, but it's real. And it's never more apparent than on Twisted Fantasy, a blast of surreal pop excess that few artists are capable of creating, or even willing to attempt. To be clear, Kanye West is not Michael Jackson. As he told MTV last month, "I do have a goal in this lifetime to be the greatest artist of all time, [but] that's very difficult being that I can't dance or sing." He ended the thought with a laugh, but you get the impression he's not kidding. Unlike Michael, he's not interested in scrubbing away bits of himself-- his blackness, his candidness-- to appease the masses. And while Jackson's own twisted fantasies of paranoia and betrayal eventually consumed him whole, West is still aware of his illusions, though that mindfulness becomes increasingly unmoored with each newspaper-splashing controversy. The balance is tenuous, but right now it's working to his advantage. On Twisted Fantasy, Kanye is crazy enough to truly believe he's the greatest out there. And, about a decade into his career, the hardworking perfectionist has gained the talent on the mic and in the control room to make a startlingly strong case for just that. Kanye's last album, 2008's 808s and Heartbreak, was heavy on the Auto-Tune and stark synths, but relatively light on grandiose ideas. It was a necessary detour that expanded his emotional palette; a bloodletting after a harsh breakup and the passing of his mother that manifests itself in Twisted Fantasy's harshest lows. But musically, the new album largely continues where 2007's Graduation left off in its maximalist hip-hop bent, with flashes of The College Dropout's comfort-food sampling and Late Registration's baroque instrumentation weaved in seamlessly. As a result, the record comes off like a culmination and an instant greatest hits, the ultimate realization of his strongest talents and divisive public persona. And since the nerd-superstar rap archetype he popularized has now become commonplace, he leaves it in the dust, taking his style and drama to previously uncharted locales, far away from typical civilization. He's got a lot on his mind, too. After exiling himself for months following last year's infamous Taylor Swift stage bomb, the rapper made some of his first comeback appearances at the headquarters of Facebook and Twitter in late July. Videos of West standing on a table in tailored GQ duds while gesticulating through new rhymes (sans musical accompaniment) quickly made the rounds. The Silicon Valley visits seemed like a stunt, but they were prophetic. Forever an over-sharer, Kanye was looking for an outlet for his latest mirror-born musings. He found that platform with Twitter, and proceeded to dictate his own narrative in 140 character hits. Whether showing off exotic purchases, defending himself against the press, or going on stream-of-consciousness rants, Kanye finally had the middleman-free, instant-gratification platform he'd always wanted. Juiced on the direct connection, he began releasing weekly songs for free online, the generosity of which would be moot if the songs didn't deliver. But they did, over and over, eventually building up the same type of superstar goodwill Radiohead pulled off with their pay-what-you-want In Rainbows release plan and Lil Wayne's free mixtape barrage leading up to 2008's Tha Carter III. So while Kanye can't sing or dance like Michael, he's making meaningful connections in a fresh, oftentimes (ahem) naked way. "When I used to finish an album I would be so excited for my mom to hear the final - final!" he wrote on November 11. "The final - final is what we used to call the... completed album with all the skits!!! I made songs to please one person... MY MOM!!! I would think... would my my Mom like this song!" I'm not sure which song he's talking about. Because, between July and November, West seemingly decided to make My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy less mom-friendly and more of a hedonistic exploration into a rich and famous American id. At Facebook, he rapped the first verse of what would become album closer "Lost in the World", at one point changing Michael Jackson's "Wanna Be Startin' Something" refrain to, "Mama-say mama-sah Mama Donda's son," referring to his late mother. The familial allusion was left off the album. Another Facebook tune-- a brutally oedipal account called "Mama's Boyfriend"-- was also deleted, along with the vintage-Kanye-sounding "See Me Now". Such exclusions speak to the album's sharp focus-- to move everything forward while constantly tipping on the brink of frantic instability. This isn't the same resourceful prodigy who made The College Dropout or even the wounded soul behind 808s and Heartbreak. Instead, Kanye's Twisted Fantasy incarnation cherry-picks little things from his previous work and blows them up into something less than sane. The expansive, all-encompassing nature of the album is borne out in its staggering guest list which includes mentors Jay-Z, RZA, and No ID, along with new charges like Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross, Kid Cudi, and Bon Iver's Justin Vernon. The inclusion of Minaj (who contributes the schizoid verse of her life on "Monster"), Ross (a guy known for making up his own reality as he goes), and Cudi (who's probably even more wildly self-destructive than Kanye) especially adds to the hallucinatory tone. By the time Chris Rock shows up to provide comic relief during one of the album's bleakest moments, it begins to feel as if Kanye is stage-managing his own award show with enough starpower, shock, and dynamism to flatten the Grammys, the VMAs, and the rest all at once. Over the past few months, Kanye has intermittently tried to flush away his rep as a boorish egoist in interviews and on Twitter, which is, fortunately, impossible. Because without his exploding self-worth-- itself a cyclical reaction to the self-doubt so much of his music explores-- there would be no Twisted Fantasy. "Every superhero needs his theme music," he says on "POWER", and though he's far from the virtuous paragons of comic book lore, he's no less complex. In his public life, he exhibits vulnerability and invincibility in equal measure, but he's just as apt at villainy-- especially here. With "Runaway", he rousingly highlights his own douchebaggery, turning it into a rallying cry for all humanity. Like many of his greatest songs, it's funny, sad, and perversely relatable. And while the royal horns and martial drums of "All of the Lights" make it sound like the ideal outlet for the most over-the-top boasts imaginable, West instead inhabits the role of an abusive deadbeat desperate to make good on a million blown promises. "Hell of a Life" attempts to bend its central credo-- "no more drugs for me, pussy and religion is all I need"-- into a noble pursuit. As a woofer-mulching synth line lurks, Kanye justifies his dreams of not sleeping with but marrying a porn star, peaking with the combative taunt, "How can you say they live they life wrong/ When you never fuck with the lights on." Inspired by his two-year relationship with salacious model Amber Rose, the song blurs the line between fantasy and reality, sex and romance, love and religion, until no lines exist at all. It's a zonked nirvana with demons underneath; a fragile state that can't help but break apart on the very next song. The haunted, Aphex Twin-sampling "Blame Game" bottoms out with a verse in which Kanye's voice is sped up, slowed down and stretched out. The effect is almost psychotic, suggesting three or four inner monologues fighting over smashed emotions. It's one of many moments on the record where West manipulates his vocals. Whether funneling some of his best-ever rhymes through a tinny, Strokes-like filter on "Gorgeous" or making himself wail like a dying cyborg in the final minutes of "Runaway", he uses studio wizardry to draw out his multitudes. Tellingly, though, he doesn't get the last word on the album. That distinction goes to the sobering tones of Gil Scott-Heron's 1970 spoken-word piece "Comment #1", a stark take on the American fable. "All I want is a good home and a wife and children and some food to feed them every night," says Scott-Heron, bringing the fantasy to a close. On "POWER", Kanye raps, "My childlike creativity, purity, and honesty is honestly being crowded by these grown thoughts/ Reality is catching up with me, taking my inner child, I'm fighting for custody." The lines nail another commonality between the rapper and his hero. Like Michael, Kanye's behavior-- from the poorly planned outbursts to the musical brilliance-- is wide-eyed in a way that most 33 year olds have long left behind. That naivety is routinely battered on Twisted Fantasy, yet it survives, better for the wear. With his music and persona both marked by a flawed honesty, Kanye's man-myth dichotomy is at once modern and truly classic. "I can't be everybody's hero and villain, savior and sinner, Christian and anti Christ!" he wrote earlier this month. That may be true, but he's more willing than anyone else to try.