Pitchfork长评翻译
“在ta引人入胜的新专中，25岁的唱作人兼制作人从震慑未来的电子流行音乐转向了空前绝后的90年代另类情绪宣泄”
当玉玲释放ta的咆哮时，听起来就像是一场全身上下都在躁动的驱魔仪式，就好像这一刻等待了一辈子。包裹着粗粝的怒火，伴随着喧嚣的鈸声，笼罩在网络生活空洞承诺的愤怒下，这些尖叫声在softscars的开场曲“x w x”中听起来就像鸣笛声一样响亮，预警着走向的崩坏。这首足以清场的爆破性首曲由交织着数字静电的级联式琶音作为前奏，用声响精确提炼了艺术学院流行音乐赛博格生命体（玉玲）对这个世界的生动提问：既然我们都无望地被科技所束缚，无望地通过科技寻找陪伴、舒适与掌控感，那作为人类又意味着什么？在softscars中，ta的回答可以像那些尖叫一样毁灭性，可以像 #emovoice抖音短视频一样有趣，也可以像一条来自已故朋友手机的短信一样惊悚。
When yeule uncorks their roar, it sounds like a full-body exorcism, like they’ve been waiting their entire life to let it out. Wrapped up in grungy angst, hurtling alongside rambunctious cymbal crashes, and shadowed by an exasperation with the empty promises of online life, these screams blare like klaxons on softscars opener “x w x,” signaling ruptures to come. This deck-clearing detonation of a song is prefaced by cascading piano lines tangled up in computerized static, a neat aural distillation of the art-school pop cyborg’s animating inquiry: Now that we’re all hopelessly tethered to technology in search of companionship, comfort, and control, what does it mean to be human? On softscars, their answer can be as annihilating as those shrieks, as playful as an #emovoice TikTok video, or as startling as a notification from a dead friend’s phone.
青少年时代的玉玲在始玩音乐制作是在2010的早些年，ta网上看过Grimes一场live后想：“这大姐做了所有的活儿…要我我也行”。在过去几年中，这位非二元性别数字原住民破圈于一系列震慑未来的流行专辑，都隐隐约约参照了Grimes、Charli XCX、Bjk的模板，在Discord和Twitch上收获了一众粉丝。一直以来，ta几乎都面无表情地演唱着，唯恐现实世界侵蚀ta的数字存在。“我喜欢设想我做的不错，我喜欢谷歌自己的病症”，这句颇有记忆点的的词出自ta 2022的glitch princess。
yeule first started toying around with music production as a young teenager in the early 2010s, after they saw a live video of Grimes on the internet and thought, “This fucking bitch does it all by herself… so I’m gonna try.” Over the last few years, the non-binary digital native broke out with a couple of future-shocked electronic pop albums in the mold of Grimes, Charli XCX, and Björk, collecting a cult of Discord and Twitch fans along the way. All the while they mostly sang in a hushed deadpan, wary of letting the real world encroach on their virtual existence. “I like to think I’m doing just fine/I like to search my symptoms online,” goes one memorable lyric from 2022’s Glitch Princess.
但在softscars中，玉玲一头栽入了被称为“人性”的东西，并与伴随其而来的混乱所斗争着。专辑标题挑衅般的取材于玉玲身上自残留下的旧伤疤，真切可触地提醒着过去的创伤与恢复的艰难心路。在终于解脱了混响的掩盖后，ta声音所展现的表现力是如此无边无际：ta的声音可以听起来既迷人又哀怨，或者充满了留恋，又或彻底崩溃，这些声音的附带效果就像一群Gollum从弱信号源传来的伴唱。ta还在寻找一种截然不同、更具复古氛围的音乐灵感：另类摇滚。这张专辑主要由玉玲与新锐制作人Kin Leonn共同创作，呈现出一个充满腐蚀和朦胧风格的复古K-Rock歌单，例如包括泡沫般的梦幻流行、emo音乐、电子民谣、流行朋克和朋克摇滚，像是青春时代美好回忆的闪回。与此同时，这位25岁的音乐人仍然不懈地探索着肉体与固件、幻想与现实、1与0之间的无限空间。
But on softscars, yeule dives headlong into this thing called humanity, tussling with all of the chaos that comes with it. The album’s title defiantly references old self-harm scars that linger on yeule’s body, tangible reminders of past traumas and what it took to overcome them. And a cloak of reverb is finally lifted from their voice, revealing an expressive range: They can sound winningly whiny or wistful or utterly broken in vocals that are often echoed by pitch-bent doppelgangers, like a chorus of Gollums calling in from a choppy line. They’re also looking to a much different, more retro realm for musical inspiration: alternative rock. The album, largely created by yeule alongside the exciting young producer Kin Leonn, delivers a vintage K-Rock playlist of corroded and gauzy styles, with souped-up dream-pop, emo, electro-folk, pop-punk, and grunge rushing by like fond teenage memories. Meanwhile, the 25 year old at its center continues to explore the infinite spaces between flesh and firmware, fantasy and reality, ones and zeroes.
猜猜怎么着？事实证明玉玲是非常优秀的摇滚明星，且在努力与热爱中不断进步着。在ta年轻时，受制于新加坡保守的社会氛围，听smashing pumpkins磁带、扮演Pixies乐队领唱是一种逃脱方式。ta 2021年的翻唱专辑Nuclear War Post X就有the Breeders、Big Thief、the Velvet Underground等乐队的曲目。当David Bowie死后，青少年玉玲一整周都没有离开自己的房间。这种崇拜在ta的大胆审美与异质个性中有所共鸣：ta变幻莫测的装造灵感来源于任天堂NDS掌机的分模线和深海生物，而又在蒸汽朋克和赛博朋克之间找到了完美的平衡点（疯狂麦克斯狂暴之路、黑客帝国）
And guess what? It turns out yeule is a very good rock star, a student of the game. In their youth, stifled by Singapore’s conservative society, they escaped into Smashing Pumpkins cassettes and bashed out Pixies songs as part of a band. They filled their 2021 covers album Nuclear War Post X with homespun takes on the Breeders, Big Thief, and the Velvet Underground, among others. When David Bowie died, a teenage yeule didn’t leave their room for a full week. That admiration resonates in their aesthetic bravado and alien otherness: They have cited Nintendo DS consoles and bottom-feeding deep-sea creatures as mood-board fodder for their ever-changing looks, which have recently hit upon a perfectly tattered midpoint between steampunk and cyberpunk, Mad Max: Fury Road and The Matrix.
在softscars震慑魂魄的情感与玉玲为被排斥者的发声方式中可以感受到Bowie的影子——就像Ziggy Stardust的Z世代子孙，在面对日益加剧的暴力和偏见中瓦解性别规范。再结合强烈的自我厌恶倾向（Billy Corgan、Thom Yorke、Gerard Way见了都要惊叹）、Courtney Love对性、毒品、摇滚的对抗性解读与暗示，甚至一些 Avril Lavigne的中指问候（玉玲说她2002年的处女作Let Go对她有重要影响），这些特征构成了一个勇敢的艺术家——将数十年的非主流能量注入到艺术中来反映我们当下被AI扰动的特别时代。
Bowie can also be heard in softscars’ walloping emotion and the way yeule gives voice to today’s outcasts—Ziggy Stardust’s Gen-Z grandkids, dismantling gender normativity in the face of heightened violence and prejudice. Mix all that with a dramatic self-loathing streak that Billy Corgan, Thom Yorke, or Gerard Way could appreciate, plus hints of Courtney Love’s confrontational spin on sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll, and even some of Avril Lavigne’s middle-finger insolence (玉玲 has called the famed mall-punk’s 2002 debut, Let Go, particularly formative), and you have someone who’s balling up decades of misfit energy into art that speaks to our uniquely AI-addled times.
专辑像是一次又一次地在悬丝上行走，平衡了宏大普适的时代幻灭感与悲惨的个人细节。在software update中，一首颓废又充满原力的流行芭乐，值得一片摇曳的手机星光海，玉玲的写作犹如微型自传能作为一代人中偏执群体的社媒简介。“25岁，创伤累累，涂着我的白色眼线”ta甜甜地唱着，就像在读儿童绘本。“手铐和医院是我鄙视的东西”。这首歌提及了饮食失调——玉玲仍在抗争的症状、药物、淤青与失去。这首歌围绕着数字永生的想法继续着：“当我离开我的肉体，你可以下载我的意识，挑出你最喜欢的切片。”作为几乎只依托于网络存在的孤独青少年，活在一条条自动发出帖子的想法划过玉玲脑海。software update在玉玲版本算法生成的体育场级摇滚副歌中达到顶峰：“我爱你宝宝”，ta在失真吉他旋律上高唱着，可能在诉说给粉丝、朋友、伴侣、自己，或以上所有。
Again and again, the album pulls off a delicate tightrope walk, balancing big, widespread feelings of modern disillusionment with harrowing personal details. On “software update,” a strung-out, meta power ballad that deserves to be met with a galaxy of swaying phone lights, yeule offers a micro autobiography that could work as a social-media bio for a blinkered generation. “25, traumatized, painting white on my eyes,” they sing sweetly, as if reading from a children’s book. “Handcuffs and hospitals are some things I despise.” The song references disordered eating, a condition that yeule still struggles with, along with white lines and grams, bruises and loss. It revolves around the idea of digital immortality. “When I leave my flesh, you can download my mind/And pick out the pretty parts for you,” they offer, lines that carry an extra heft considering that, as a lonely teenager existing mostly online, the idea of living on as a series of automated posts actually crossed yeule’s mind. “software update” crests with yeule’s version of an algorithmic arena-rock hook—“I love you baby,” they belt atop distorted guitar chimes, perhaps addressing their fans, their friends, their partner, themself, or all four.
即便在最黑暗的时刻，专辑也在持续爆炸着，其涡轮增压式的吉他演奏和洗脑旋律几乎想让你将音量调大到需要就诊耳鼻喉科的水平。专辑中也有很多纯粹的乐趣时刻，比如优秀的电吉banger“cyber meat”。在歌里，玉玲采用了一种显而易见的emo唱腔：有鼻音且又调皮的，充满了对该流派的热爱与致敬。“咬我~吸血鬼~我尝起来就像糖果~”她唱着，听起来就像在试镜2003年的热门广告。“cyber meat”由Chris Greatti担任吉他演奏与制作，他也是Yves Tumor乐队的成员。这也突显了包括玉玲、Yves、Jane Remover在内酷儿艺术家的趋势，天才地将自己的想法与风格实现在另类摇滚与情绪音乐上，颠覆了这些流派一直以来根深蒂固的男性气质。
Even at its darkest, though, softscars is a blast, its turbo-charged riffs and sticky melodies all but begging you to crank the volume up to levels that will require future ENT visits. And there are plenty of purely fun moments here too, like the excellently titled electro-rock headbanger “cyber meat.” On the song, yeule adopts an unmistakably emo singing style—nasal and bratty—that reads as a loving tribute to the genre. “Bite me, vampy/I taste just like candy,” they tease, sounding as if they were auditioning for a Hot Topic commercial circa 2003. “cyber meat” features production and guitar from Chris Greatti, who’s in Yves Tumor’s band, and it underlines the current trend of queer artists, including yeule, Yves, and Jane Remover, who are brilliantly putting their own spin on alt-rock and emo as they subvert those genres’ historically masculine associations.
对玉玲和其他许多人来说，softscars中闪闪发光又嘎吱作响的声音本质上是怀旧的，让人想起世纪之交时无忧无虑的时代，当时Nirvana的In Utero满是划痕的碟片可能是世界上最重要的东西，而噪音效果器的轻踩都足以让人血清素飙升。那也是一个尚未形成如今我们所熟悉的互联网的时代，在社交媒体及其附带问题出现之前，那时的网络呈现出一种打破陈旧观点与二元对立的曙光，而不是强化他们。对于在网络环境中成长起来的艺术家，选择在这样的时机决定关闭一张张网页，而将隐喻性的404出错页面呈现为一种荣耀徽章，这样的行动尤其富有启示性。然而，softscars也并不是像在乡间度过一个焕发活力的周末、或像在山顶回响的Marshall音响那样田园牧歌。在手动失真与数字焦虑的冲撞中，这张专辑在欢笑与哭喊中面对着我们处于令人头晕目眩的科技崖边的模糊时刻。“Art, artificially”, 玉玲在一个特别活力的时刻唱着，“I wish I was special”，曾希望自己很特别，我们不都如此吗。
For yeule, and so many others, the sounds that glint and crunch across softscars are inherently nostalgic, harkening to a turn-of-the-century era of blissed-out innocence, when a scratched-up copy of Nirvana’s In Utero could be the most important thing in the world, and the simple stomp of a fuzz pedal could send your serotonin levels off the charts. It was also an era before the internet as we know it, before social media and its attendant ills, when the web presented hopes of breaking down old ideas and binaries instead of reinforcing them. For an artist who was raised online to choose this time to start closing their tabs and turning their metaphorical 404 errors into badges of pride feels especially meaningful. And yet softscars isn’t as simple as a rejuvenating weekend in the countryside, or a Marshall stack ringing over the hilltops. In its clash of handcrafted distortion and digital anxieties, the album faces our blurry moment at the precipice of head-spinning technological advances with a laugh and a cry. “Art, artificially,” yeule sings at one particularly fizzy point, over chugging guitars and starry synths, “I wish I was special.” Don’t we all.
