【搬运/翻译】Pitchfork乐评
原作者：David Moore；原文发表时间：2004年9月12日；p4k评分：9.7/10。
How did we get here?*
我们怎么成了这样？
*这句话来源于Talking Heads的著名歌曲“Once in a Lifetime”。这首歌表达对现代生活的迷茫，有这样两句歌词：“And you may ask yourself/ Well...How did I get here?” Talking Heads的主唱/词作者即下文提到的大卫·拜恩。
Ours is a generation overwhelmed by frustration, unrest, dread, and tragedy. Fear is wholly pervasive in American society, but we manage nonetheless to build our defenses in subtle ways-- we scoff at arbitrary, color-coded "threat" levels; we receive our information from comedians and laugh at politicians. Upon the turn of the 21st century, we have come to know our isolation well. Our self-imposed solitude renders us politically and spiritually inert, but rather than take steps to heal our emotional and existential wounds, we have chosen to revel in them. We consume the affected martyrdom of our purported idols and spit it back in mocking defiance. We forget that "emo" was once derived from emotion, and that in our buying and selling of personal pain, or the cynical approximation of it, we feel nothing.
我们这一代，是被失落、骚动、恐惧和不幸淹没的一代。恐惧弥漫在美国社会，但我们还是狡黠地撑起了保护伞：我们嘲笑不同颜色的“警戒”标识；我们把搞笑艺人当成精神导师、嘲讽着政客们。迈入二十一世纪时，我们才真正意识到自身的孤独。这种自找的孤立使我们在政治上和精神上都怠惰了，但我们不仅没有积极治愈这种情感和存在上的创伤，反而还主动沉湎其中。对所谓偶像们的牺牲，我们先是消费玩味一番，然后又嘲弄之、唾弃之。我们已经忘了“emo”来源于“emotion”(感情)，玩世不恭地买卖着个人的抑郁和痛苦，但与此同时，我们什么感受也没得到。
We are not the first, or the last, to be confronted with this dilemma. David Byrne famously asked a variation on the question that opens this review, and in doing so suggested a type of universal disaffection synonymous with drowning. And so The Arcade Fire asks the question again, but with a crucial distinction: The pain of Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, the enigmatic husband-and-wife songwriting force behind the band, is not merely metaphorical, nor is it defeatist. They tread water in Byrne's ambivalence because they have known real, blinding pain, and they have overcome it in a way that is both tangible and accessible. Their search for salvation in the midst of real chaos is ours; their eventual catharsis is part of our continual enlightenment.
面临这种困境的，前有古人，后有来者，并不是只有我们这一代。大卫·拜恩的著名之问（指“How did we get here?”，见歌曲《Once in a Lifetime》）就是这个问题的变体，他的审问启发了这篇乐评，代表着人们一种普遍的、似被淹没一般的**压抑。现在Arcade Fire再次追寻这个问题的答案，但他们有有一点很不一样：Win butler和Régine Chassagne的苦楚是这对夫妻神秘的写歌源泉，这种苦楚不只是隐喻，也不是绝望的。他们同样感受到了拜恩的矛盾，因为他们已经亲身经历过巨大的痛苦，而且还用实在、可行的办法将其克服。他们在混乱失序中对救赎的求索，同样适用于我们；他们最终的宣泄，成为我们启蒙过程的一部分。
**《Once in a Lifetime》中有“Into the blue again/ Into the slient water”这样的歌词。
The years leading up to the recording of Funeral were marked with death. Chassagne's grandmother passed away in June of 2003, Butler's grandfather in March of 2004, and bandmate Richard Parry's aunt the following month. These songs demonstrate a collective subliminal recognition of the powerful but oddly distanced pain that follows the death of an aging loved one. Funeral evokes sickness and death, but also understanding and renewal; childlike mystification, but also the impending coldness of maturity. The recurring motif of a non-specific "neighborhood" suggests the supportive bonds of family and community, but most of its lyrical imagery is overpoweringly desolate.
Funeral录制的这一年留下了死神的印记。Chassagne的奶奶在2003年6月去世，Butler的爷爷在2004年3月去世，一个月后，队友Richard Parry的姑姑也去世了。Funeral里的这些歌曲传递出集体潜意识里感受到的、一种剧烈又异常疏离的悲苦，这种悲苦随着亲人的逝去而来。Funeral蕴含着困顿和死亡，也蕴含着释然和重生；有孩童对世界的不解，也有迫近的成人世界的冷酷。泛指的“邻居”意象多次出现，暗示了一种家庭和团体的支持性联结，但这一意象组成的画面，大多是非常悲凉的。
"Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" is a sumptuously theatrical opener-- the gentle hum of an organ, undulating strings, and repetition of a simple piano figure suggest the discreet unveiling of an epic. Butler, in a bold voice that wavers with the force of raw, unspoken emotion, introduces his neighborhood. The scene is tragic: As a young man's parents weep in the next room, he secretly escapes to meet his girlfriend in the town square, where they naively plan an "adult" future that, in the haze of adolescence, is barely comprehensible to them. Their only respite from their shared uncertainty and remoteness exists in the memories of friends and parents.
“Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)”是个像戏剧般华丽的开场曲——风琴温柔的嗡鸣、弦乐的起伏和简单钢琴小调的重复，一部鸿篇巨制就这样节制地展开了。Butler粗犷的歌声随着质朴内敛的情感震颤着，把他的“邻居”徐徐道来。画面是悲剧性的：一个少年的父母在房间里哭泣，而他悄悄逃出房子去小镇广场上见他的情人，他们就在那儿天真地规划着长大后未来。他们正值青春年少，对成年后的未来还懵懂无知。他们最终困于疏离和迷茫，只有在对亲友的记忆中才得以片刻喘息。
The following songs draw upon the tone and sentiment of "Tunnels" as an abstract mission statement. The conventionally rock-oriented "Neighborhood #2 (Laika)" is a second-hand account of one individual's struggle to overcome an introverted sense of suicidal desperation. The lyrics superficially suggest a theme of middle-class alienation, but avoid literal allusion to a suburban wasteland-- one defining characteristic of the album, in fact, is the all-encompassing scope of its conceptual neighborhoods. The urban clatter of Butler's adopted hometown of Montreal can be felt in the foreboding streetlights and shadows of "Une Annee Sans Lumiere", while Chassagne's evocative illustration of her homeland (on "Haiti", the country her parents fled in the 1960s) is both distantly exotic and starkly violent, perfectly evoking a nation in turmoil.
下一首歌也采用了第一首歌的风格和情感基调，将其作为抽象的主旨。传统摇滚风格的“Neighborhood #2 (Laika)”以他人的视角叙述了一个内向者克服自杀绝望的努力。歌词浅显地表达出中产阶级的孤独，但避免了让人误以为暗指郊区的荒地***。这张专辑的一个最大的特征就是那“邻居”的概念，这一概念包罗万象。在“Une Annee Sans Lumiere”的不详的街灯和暗影中，我们可以感受到Butler定居的蒙特利尔的都市喧嚣；Chassagne对她家乡（即“Haiti”这首歌，她的父母在六十年代逃离海地）的回忆，既充满了遥远异国的情调，也充斥着残酷的暴行，完美地描绘出一个动荡的国家。
***从网易云这首歌的评论区得知：这首歌里的“Alexander”很可能指的是Christopher McCandless。1992年4月，原本生活富足的他，一路搭便车到了阿拉斯加的荒野独居。四个月后，他腐烂的尸体被猎人发现。他的事迹后来被写成了小说，小说后来被改编成了电影，也就是08年获得奥斯卡提名的《荒野生存》。
"Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" is a shimmering, audacious anthem that combines a driving pop beat, ominous guitar assault, and sprightly glockenspiel decoration into a passionate, fist-pumping album manifesto. The fluidity of the song's construction is mesmerizing, and the cohesion of Butler's poignant assertion of exasperation ("I went out into the night/ I went out to pick a fight with anyone") and his emotional call to arms ("The power's out in the heart of man/ Take it from your heart/ Put it in your hand"), distinguishes the song as the album's towering centerpiece.
“Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)”这首歌不拘一格，混合了pop节拍、狂野入侵的吉他和明快的钟琴装饰音，将其融合成铿锵有力的专辑宣言。歌曲结构的流动性非常迷人，Butler愤怒又沉痛的声言中的凝聚力（“我走进夜色里/找上一个人便大打出手”）和他充满激情的战斗口号（“人心也经历着一场大停电/从心里拿出你的热情/将其紧握于手吧/”），让这首歌成为整张专辑的中心。
Even in its darkest moments, Funeral exudes an empowering positivity. Slow-burning ballad "Crown of Love" is an expression of lovesick guilt that perpetually crescendos until the track unexpectedly explodes into a dance section, still soaked in the melodrama of weeping strings; the song's psychological despair gives way to a purely physical catharsis. The anthemic momentum of "Rebellion (Lies)" counterbalances Butler's plaintive appeal for survival at death's door, and there is liberation in his admittance of life's inevitable transience. "In the Backseat" explores a common phenomenon-- a love of backseat window-gazing, inextricably linked to an intense fear of driving-- that ultimately suggests a conclusive optimism through ongoing self-examination. "I've been learning to drive my whole life," Chassagne sings, as the album's acoustic majesty finally recedes and relinquishes.
即使是在最伤感的歌里，Funeral也流露出一股振奋人心的积极情绪。徐徐行进的情歌“Crown of Love”表达着相思之苦，这首歌在一段渐强后出人意料地爆发，进入舞曲部分，却仍旧沉浸在如泣如诉的弦乐中；这首歌精神上的绝望最终让位于纯粹的嘶吼与宣泄。“Rebellion (Lies)”中欢快推进的音乐冲淡了Butler对逃离死亡的哀苦呼求，而他对生命注定转瞬即逝的接受，也带有一种解放和自由。“In the Backseat”探讨了一种普遍现象：喜欢坐在后座凝视窗外，同时也害怕自己承担驾驶****。这种现象最终表现出一种不断自我省视之后的乐观。“我一生都在学着驾车前行，”Chassagne唱道，同时这张专辑华丽的伴奏渐趋微弱、最终停止。
****这里的“承担驾驶”指担负起成年人的责任。
So long as we're unable or unwilling to fully recognize the healing aspect of embracing honest emotion in popular music, we will always approach the sincerity of an album like Funeral from a clinical distance. Still, that it's so easy to embrace this album's operatic proclamation of love and redemption speaks to the scope of The Arcade Fire's vision. It's taken perhaps too long for us to reach this point where an album is at last capable of completely and successfully restoring the tainted phrase "emotional" to its true origin. Dissecting how we got here now seems unimportant. It's simply comforting to know that we finally have arrived.
体味流行音乐中的真挚感情有着治愈人心的作用——只要我们还不能或不愿去完全认识到这一点，我们就会对Funeral这种专辑的真诚保持一份“临床距离”*****。此外，我们很容易接受这张专辑对爱与救赎的歌剧式表达，这就要说到Arcade Fire的愿景了。或许我们过了太久才理解到这一点：这张专辑足以让已经变味的“emotional”这个词返璞归真。研究“我们怎么成了这样”似乎不再重要，只要知道我们已经成了这样，就已经很不错了。
*****医学术语，指医生在治病时，出于职业规范而与病人保持的心理距离。比如，当医生面对一个不停咳嗽、愁眉苦脸的病人时，他不应该表达同情或怜悯，而应该思考病因和治疗的手段。
