Pitchfork乐评搬运及翻译

原文地址https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/3729-singing-bones/ 历史上许多美国人西迁是为了寻求财富、繁荣和冒险。近年来，人们移居亚利桑那、新墨西哥和南加州则是为了清新的空气、开阔的空间和干燥的气候以改善健康。但就The Handsome Family——这支由Rennie和Brett Sparks夫妇组成的前卫乡村二人组而言，无论他们当初离开芝加哥定居阿尔伯克基出于何种原因，西南部的阳光似乎并未驱散其音乐中哥特式美国风情特有的黑色幽默与病态气质。与以往作品一脉相承，他们的第六张专辑《Singing Bones》依旧充斥着疯狂呓语、自杀臆想以及暴力谋杀的故事。 但这并不意味着地理变迁对《Singing Bones》毫无影响。正如他们迄今为止最出色的1998年专辑《Through the Trees》——歌词中点缀着芝加哥街头流浪汉、漫长宽阔的街道和威斯康星周末的“逃亡”意象——这张新作似乎也回荡着西南部广袤空间与无垠天空的韵律。 从这个角度看，这是乐队最具美感的一张专辑。他们将传统原声乡村音乐精妙编排，辅以踏板钢棒吉他与锯琴的颤音，时而融入墨西哥街头乐队、福音音乐与乡村民谣元素。相较于近期《In the Air》和《Twilight》的空灵轻盈，新专辑呈现出空旷而近乎极简的声景，仿佛萦绕着幽灵的低语。逝去的爱人故友、历史的沉重枷锁、内心的恶魔心魔，都被Sparks夫妇注入音符。从《24-Hour Store》货架间游荡的鬼影，到《Far From Any Road》中挥之不去的死亡气息，再到《The Bottomless Hole》与《Gail with the Golden Hair》中面对失去之物的宿命感，精神、心智与肉体的腐朽和溃败构成了专辑的核心主题。 或许是清新空气使然，Sparks夫妇的演唱也达到新高度。Brett浑厚的男中音——曾在《Through the Trees》与《Milk and Scissors》中完美诠释幽闭恐惧、渺小自我与精神崩溃——相较于乐队近期作品或早期根源摇滚风格，与这张专辑华丽空旷的编曲更为契合。他们的和声也显著精进，Rennie摒弃了以往刻意营造的沙哑嘶吼（那种可能令人不适的尖锐音色），转而采用飘渺的假声唱法。 在阴郁基调中保持旋律性，Rennie歌词中锋利的意象与精妙叙事使她区别于多数被归类为“后普拉斯时代”（此处指的是西尔维娅. 普拉斯）的忧郁民谣歌手。她对破碎浪漫主义的感知，以及对失去与后果的真切把握，使其创作自然优于那些在朋克酒吧巡演、将痛苦不适视为时尚名片的滥情派。真正的创痛当然不是如此——它私密难言，如同专辑中萦绕不散的幽灵般难以捉摸。 原文 Many Americans historically moved West to seek wealth, prosperity, and adventure. More recently, people made the shift to the clean air, open space, and lack of humidity of Arizona, New Mexico, and Southern California for improved health. But whatever the reasons that The Handsome Family, the avant-country husband/wife duo of Rennie and Brett Sparks, had for picking up stakes in Chicago and relocating to Albuquerque, it hasn't seemed to affect the dark humor or morbidity of their gothic Americana music. Like most of their work,Signing Bones, the band's sixth album, is another collection of tales of madness, thoughts of suicide, and acts of brutality and murder. Which isn't to say thatSinging Bonesdoesn't sound as if it was informed by their change in geography. Like their best album to date, 1998'sThrough the Trees-- which was peppered by lyrical references to Chicago's stool bums, long, wide avenues, and Wisconsin weekend "getaways"--Signing Bonesseems to echo the wide-open space and endless skies of the Southwest. In a way, then, this is the band's most beautiful record, an expertly arranged blend of their acoustic old school country augmented by pedal steel guitar and bowed saws and sometimes colored by elements of mariachi, gospel, and rural folk. Rather than the airy, light sounds of their recentIn the AirandTwilight, the new record has a spacious, almost minimalist sound that seems to echo with the sound of the nominal ghosts. Departed friends and lovers, the weight of history, and personal demons all seem channeled by the Sparks. From the apparitions that haunt the aisles of the "24-Hour Store" to the stench of death in "Far From the Road" to the sense of resignation that accompanies loss in both "The Bottomless Hole" and "Gail with the Golden Hair", ruin and decay-- spiritual, mental, and physical-- are central themes of the record. Maybe it's the clean air, but the Sparks are in better voice than ever before, too. Brett's rich baritone-- which also shined while voicing feelings of claustrophobia, personal insignificance, and mental breakdown onThrough The TreesandMilk and Scissors-- is better suited for these lush, spacious arrangements than it was for the band's most recent work or its roots-rock beginnings. Their harmonies, too, have improved dramatically, with Rennie now favoring a wavering falsetto rather than her typical affected, sometimes abrasive, and potentially off-putting growl. Morbid but still melodic, the sharp imagery and deft storytelling of Rennie's lyrics set her apart from most of the depressive, post-Plath acoustic pluckers and bores with which the band often is lumped in. And both her sense of fractured romanticism and tangible grasp of loss and consequence make her writing effortlessly better than the emotive types parading in the punk dives for whom pain and discomfort seems bandied about as fashion or a calling card. It's not, of course-- it's private and difficult to grasp, an unseen specter like the ghosts that haunt this record.