搬運(yùn)自：微信公眾號(hào)【評(píng)論搬一堆】（在原文基礎(chǔ)上添加了英語原文與排版調(diào)整）

翻譯：Simon Joanne

校對(duì)：Tyler smith

排版：SpencerC

On her fourth album, the Canadian pop star is doing what she does best, calibrating lovesick or lovelorn synthpop that’s neither too hot nor too cold—and sometimes, regrettably, only lukewarm.

在這位加拿大流行歌手的第四張專輯中，Carly Rae Jepsen把她最擅長(zhǎng)的東西發(fā)揮到了極致，用合成器流行樂將單相思與失戀苦的差別校準(zhǔn)明晰，不過最后結(jié)果有點(diǎn)顯得不溫不火。

Carly Rae Jepsen?ties up bright, ribbony pop songs with the magnetism of a person who’s a little too modest to be a pop star. She goes for the big feelings, and as a result, inspires near-rapturous devotion. Jepsen’s most ardent fans feel called to defend her, to?arm her with a sword, to catalyze the moment that will reveal her magic beyond doubt. With 2015’s?E?MO?TION, they nearly had it; I’ll go one further and say that its follow-up, the overflow collection?E?MO?TION Side B, is the better listen.?Dedicated, Jepsen’s fourth full-length album, returns to her signature combination of self-aware innocence and mature restraint, though its greater purpose is not always quite clear. She’s doing what she does best, calibrating lovesick or lovelorn synthpop that’s neither too hot nor too cold—and sometimes, regrettably, only lukewarm.

Carly Rae Jepsen用一種似乎謙遜得不像一個(gè)流行歌手的個(gè)人魅力將閃亮、條狀的流行歌曲束牢系緊。她傾向于抒發(fā)大的情感，結(jié)果是引發(fā)了幾乎是熱烈的奉獻(xiàn)。Jepsen最狂熱的粉絲感覺使命在召喚自己來為Jepsen辯護(hù)，手執(zhí)刀劍來守護(hù)她，并努力促成她必定展現(xiàn)的魔法的時(shí)刻的到來。當(dāng)「E?MO?TION」在2015年發(fā)行之時(shí)，他們幾乎已經(jīng)做到了。但我要說，其續(xù)作也可以說是多余曲目的合輯也可以說是「E?MO?TION」的下半部分，并且聽起來還要好一點(diǎn)?！窪edicated」，Jepsen的第四張個(gè)人全長(zhǎng)專輯，回歸到了她混合她自覺到的單純與成熟帶來的約束的獨(dú)特標(biāo)識(shí)，盡管其更為深刻的意圖并沒有顯得非常明晰了然。她正在把她最擅長(zhǎng)的東西發(fā)揮到極致——用合成器流行樂將單相思與失戀苦的差別校準(zhǔn)明晰，不過最后結(jié)果有點(diǎn)顯得不溫不火。

Dedicated?takes a more relaxed approach to Jepsen’s well-established penchant for ’80s pop. By her own description, the album began under the working title of “Music to Clean Your House To,” a characteristically unassuming goal. The windshield-wiper synths that open “Julien” or the casual autopilot of “Automatically in Love” point to Jepsen’s other guiding aesthetic: “chill disco,” a mood that vaunts sparkling melodies over writing that can feel short on intrigue. Each of these upbeat yet tasteful jams is sturdy enough to spur you through another load of laundry, and light on the kind of indulgent flourishes that spawned “Run Away With Me”?saxophone memes. The total effect is glossy, but the individual moments shine a little less; few lines here have the breathless potency of, “Late night watching television/But how’d we get in this position?”

「Dedicated」用一種更為輕松的方式達(dá)到了Jepsen對(duì)80年代流行樂成熟的偏愛。用她自己的描述，這張專輯一開始是在“你在家里打掃衛(wèi)生時(shí)候會(huì)聽的歌”這個(gè)標(biāo)題之下開始制作的——這完全是個(gè)典型的謙遜的目標(biāo)。開篇「Julien」的擋風(fēng)玻璃雨刷器合成器、「Automatically in Love」里的隨機(jī)自動(dòng)駕駛儀都指向了Jepsen所引導(dǎo)的另一種審美——“弛放迪斯科”，一種在吹噓著耀眼旋律并使人在神秘氣氛感覺不到時(shí)間流逝的創(chuàng)作的心情。音樂中每一種陽光美味的果醬都足夠堅(jiān)固到能刺激你再洗一道衣服，還有這種放縱的繁榮上的光芒引起了「Run Away With Me」里的薩克斯管模因?？偟膩碚f，其效果是光彩奪目的，但單個(gè)看的時(shí)候，這種效果又會(huì)小打折扣；有一些歌詞還是有一種令人窒息的震撼力，比如：

“Late night watching television/But how’d we get in this position?（深夜時(shí)分看著電視，但我們是怎么達(dá)到這里的？）”

Everything in Jepsen’s world always comes back to love, and in the past, the feeling was usually unrequited. That’s changed now; on?Dedicated, love is more assured of itself, and for the first time, distinctly sexy. Rarely has her singing sounded so breathy and astonished. “No Drug Like Me” describes the intoxication of new love as a dry-mouthed truth serum; “The Sound” can play like a plea for spoken commitment, or something altogether more carnal. “Like pressure points my love can ease him in my hands,” Jepsen sings on “Everything He Needs,” an unlikely and lightly risqué flip of “He Needs Me,” the Harry Nilsson-written song performed by Shelley Duvall’s Olive Oyl in the 1980 film?Popeye. “Want You in My Room,” a scene-stealing Jack Antonoff production, wields its pitch-shifted hook like a conspiratorial voice disguise. “I’m like a lighthouse/I’m a reminder of where you’re goin’,” Jepsen sings, the kind of clever line that’s often missing here. She’s also used it before, on?E?MO?TION’s “All That,” so she must really mean it.

在Jepsen的音樂世界中，所有事物最后都會(huì)歸為愛，而在過去，這種感覺通常是沒有回報(bào)的。但是現(xiàn)在不同了，在「Dedicated」中，愛變得更為堅(jiān)定，而且第一次，變得直白而性感。她的演唱很少如此有如此濃重的呼吸聲和受到震驚的感覺。「No Drug Like Me」將對(duì)于新歡上癮般的依戀描述為一種讓口腔干燥的真相血清；「The Sound」可被看作是一種對(duì)于口頭承諾的懇求，或者總的來說是一種較為肉欲的感覺。“Like pressure points my love can ease him in my hands（就像壓力點(diǎn)一樣，我的愛可以讓他在我手中放松）”Jepsen在「Everything He Needs」中唱道，帶有一種有點(diǎn)不真實(shí)的、輕微的色情色彩，“He Needs Me（他需要我）”這首在1980年的電影《大力水手》中由Harry Nilsson創(chuàng)作、Shelley Duvall飾演的Olive Oyl演唱的歌曲。「Want You in My Room」一首搶鏡頭的Jack Antonoff制作的作品，把它轉(zhuǎn)換音調(diào)的鉤子像一個(gè)充滿陰謀的聲音偽裝一樣揮舞。“I’m like a lighthouse/I’m a reminder of where you’re goin’（我就像一座燈塔，我為你指引著方向），”?Jepsen唱道，這種巧妙的歌詞經(jīng)常被忽略掉。在「E?MO?TION」的「All That」她曾經(jīng)也這樣做過，這說明她一定是認(rèn)真的。

Though an album of coy disco romance is a good thing, at times?Dedicated?strains in other directions. The pastel EDM-pop bounce of “Now That I Found You” comes closest to the reckless joy of Jepsen’s single “Cut to the Feeling,” a song impossible to improve on. “Happy Not Knowing” takes a more classically CRJ approach to romance with its “please don’t tell me” appeal to a crush, but perhaps the territory is too familiar. “I’ll only go so far/I don’t have the energy/To risk a broken heart/When you’re already killing me,” Jepsen sings, because she’s loved and lost, and she mostly just sounds bummed about it. These should be some of the album’s best songs, but they feel wiped clean of the messy ambiguities that fog up real emotions.

盡管作為一張浪漫羞澀的迪斯科專輯其本身很不錯(cuò)，但「Dedicated」依然在其他方面有所偏離。蠟筆般多彩活力的電子流行「Now That I Found You」最接近其單曲「Cut to the Feeling」的那種無顧后果的歡愉，這首歌幾乎沒有進(jìn)步的空間。「Happy Not Knowing」用了一種更加Jepsen式的方式表現(xiàn)了讓“請(qǐng)別告訴我”更加浪漫的一種迷戀，不過她也可能對(duì)這方面太過熟悉了。“I’ll only go so far/I don’t have the energy/To risk a broken heart/When you’re already killing me（我只能到達(dá)這一步了，我已經(jīng)筋疲力盡，無法再孤注一擲，而你已經(jīng)讓我無法喘息）,”Jepsen唱道，因?yàn)樗日粣壑?，同時(shí)也是迷茫無助的，只不過她大概是太過于灰心喪氣了。這些歌應(yīng)該成為全專最佳，但他們似乎被去除了一種真實(shí)情感中混雜的摸棱兩可的混亂因素。

As with?E?MO?TION, Jepsen wrote a lot of songs for this album—more than 100—and ultimately a few too many made the cut. Some of the weakest tracks are swallowed up in their expertly interlocked sequences of pre-chorus and chorus; the verses to “Right Words Wrong Time” feel like afterthoughts. The extra distractions hide potential sleeper hits like the funk-lite of “Feels Right” and the balmy, vulnerable “Real Love,” which deserves to be a standout. But by the time the album ends with last November’s single “Party for One,” it’s been displaced, lost in the shuffle of a transitional album with its heart set but its mind not yet quite made up.

加上「E?MO?TION」，Jepsen已經(jīng)為這張專輯寫了一共超過100首歌——最終只有少部分歌曲得到了使用。他們之中的有些歌被吞沒在了熟練的副歌-前副歌的互鎖序列之中。「Right Words Wrong Time」的主歌部分就像一種反思。其他分散注意力的因素隱藏在潛在的睡眠沖擊之后，就如「Feels Right」的放克線和溫和、脆弱的「Real Love」這首本該成為亮點(diǎn)的歌。但在專輯用最后一支十一月的歌「Party for One」結(jié)束之前，它已經(jīng)被替換、消失在了這張過渡性專輯的拖沓之中，心境已定而心意卻未決。