Pitchfork乐评及翻译
For Emma, Forever Ago
2007
8.1
- GENRE流派:
Rock
- LABEL厂牌:
self-released / Jagjaguwar
- REVIEWED评论时间:
October 4, 2007
The biographical details behind the creation of an album shouldn't matter when it comes to a listener's enjoyment, but For Emma, Forever Ago, Justin Vernon's debut as Bon Iver, exudes such a strong sense of loneliness and remoteness that you might infer some tragedy behind it. So, to skirt the rumor mill, here are the particulars, as much or as little as they might apply: In 2005, Vernon's former band DeYarmond Edison moved from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, to North Carolina. As the band developed and matured in its new home, the members' artistic interests diverged and eventually the group disbanded. While his bandmates formed Megafaun, Vernon-- who had worked with the Rosebuds and Ticonderoga-- returned to Wisconsin, where he sequestered himself in a remote cabin for four snowy months. During that time, he wrote and recorded most of the songs that would eventually become For Emma, Forever Ago.
单从听众的感受考虑，一张唱片的制作背景和细节并不是最重要的。但对于For Emma, Forever Ago，Justin Vernon以Bon Iver的身份的初次亮相的专辑，透露出如此强烈的孤独感和疏离感，以至于你多少能从专辑中推测出它背后的一些悲剧。因此，为了避免不当的想象和流言蜚语的干扰，以下是这张专辑诞生的详细背景，有人或多或少已经猜测出了其中的一部分：在2005年，Vernon所在的乐队DeYarmond Edison从威斯康星州的欧克莱尔市搬到了加州北部。正当这支乐队日趋成熟，乐队成员们的艺术志趣发生了分歧，最终导致了乐队的解散。在剩余成员组建新乐队Megafaun的同时，Vernon——曾与Rosebuds 和 Ticonderoga合作——回到了威斯康星州，在那里，他将自己封闭在一个偏僻的小木屋里，度过了白雪纷飞的四个月。在那段时间里，他录制了许多歌曲，最终成为了For Emma, Forever Ago.
As the second half of its title implies, the album is a ruminative collection of songs full of natural imagery and acoustic strums-- the sound of a man left alone with his memories and a guitar. Bon Iver will likely bear comparisons to Iron & Wine for its quiet folk and hushed intimacy, but in fact, Vernon, adopting a falsetto that is worlds away from his work with DeYarmond Edison, sounds more like TV on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe, not just in his vocal timbre, but in the way his voice grows grainier as it gets louder.
从专辑名的后半段可以推测得知，这张专辑是充满自然意向和原声弹拨乐器的歌曲的集合——一个男人带着他的吉他和回忆去独处的声音。Bon Iver多半会被人拿来和Iron&Wine比较，因为它拥有静谧缄默的民谣气质，但事实上，Vernon在本专采用了与在前乐队大不相同的假音，听起来更像TV on the Radio里的Tunde Adebimpe，不只是音色像，还有声音越大，颗粒感越强这点也像。
Vernon gives a soulful performance full of intuitive swells and fades, his phrasing and pronunciation making his voice as much a purely sonic instrument as his guitar. In the discursive coda of "Creature Fear" he whittles the song down to a single repeated syllable-- "fa." Rarely does folk-- indie or otherwise-- give so much over to ambience: Quivering guitar strings, mic'ed closely, lend opener "Flume" its eerily interiorized sound, which matches his unsettling similes. "Lump Sum" begins with a choir of Vernons echoing cavernously, which, along with that rhythmically rushing guitar, initiates the listener into the song's strange space.
Vernon的演唱含情脉脉，时而高涨，时而低落。他歌词中采用的短语和韵脚让他的声音更像是一件纯乐器。在Creature Fear散漫的尾声中，他让动态渐弱，并最终以简单重复的音节“fa”结束。极少有民谣或者独立音乐给氛围营造这么多空间：颤抖的吉他弦，凑近麦克风的声音，给予开场曲Flume怪异的内在音效，表达出他的不安。Lump Sum由Vernon叠加的和声开场，像是在山洞里唱出来的一样，这样的和声再配合上有节奏的吉他，将听众领入这张专辑的奇特氛围里。
For Emma isn't a wholly ascetic project, though. A few songs benefit from additional recording and input after Vernon's initial sessions: Christy Smith of Raleigh's Nola adds flute and drums to "Flume", and Boston-based musicians John DeHaven and Randy Pingrey add horns to "For Emma"; surprisingly, their company doesn't break the album's spell of isolation, but rather strengthens it, as if they're only his imaginary friends. Vernon turns the cabin's limitations into assets on "The Wolves", layering his falsetto, tweaking his vocal tones to simple yet devastating effect, and piling on clattering percussion to create a calamitous finale.
然而，For Emma 不是完全悲情的。部分歌曲在Vernon最初版本的基础上在后期加入了额外的音效：Raleigh's Nola的Christy Smith在Flume中加入了长笛和鼓，波士顿音乐家John DeHaven和Randy Pingrey在For Emma中加入了长号；令人惊讶的是，这些音效的加入并未破坏专辑的疏离感，而是加强了它，就好像这些配器是他假象的朋友。Vernon把身处偏僻小木屋的不利转变为优势。他在The Wolves中堆叠假声，扭曲他的人声音调，简单，却能营造出强有力的效果，而打击乐嘈杂地堆叠也营造出凄惨的结尾。
翻译：radiohorse
