【搬运】【译】叉婊Pitchfork评 Solange 2019年专辑《When I Get Home》

2023年8月6日发(作者：伍国仲)

月光小夜曲-

Solange的第四张个人专辑没有显得急躁冒进，反而充满了氛围感和冒险精神。Solange凭借自己高超的音乐技巧和制作功底，巧妙运用了从灵歌爵士到Gucci Mane式饶舌的所有元素，并在这张专辑中重现了自己的家乡。

In a T Magazine interview with Solange published last fall, writer Ayana Mathis described the making of the new album as taking the singer back to “a kind of Houston of the mind.” It’s a city that figures heavily in Knowles family mythology as the birthplace of Solange and her sister. At the time of the interview, we didn’t know the name of the record, When I Get Home, which indicates that this is an album about return. Now we have music and an accompanying short film that reconstructs the Houston of Solange’s mind.

《T》杂志在去年秋天对Solange进行了一次采访，作者Ayana Mathis将Solange新专辑的制作描述为歌手“脑海中的归乡之旅”。作为Solange和姐姐Beyoncé的出生地，休斯顿这座城市在Solange家族的历史中扮演了非常重要的角色。采访进行的时候，专辑的名字——《When I Get Home》——当时我们还不得而知，但是现在再来看，毋庸置疑这张专辑是围绕“回归”展开的。现在我们不仅能听到整张专辑，还能观赏到配套的音乐电影，而在电影中，Solange重建了自己回忆中的休斯顿。

It’s not literal objectification of the past so much as a future memory of the city, an ephemeral mental grid. See-sawing bass booms from phantom slabs, wood-grained and candy-painted per local tradition. Synthesizers and samples ricochet off the tall, empty office buildings of downtown Houston, reverberating to the heavens. Black cowboys gallop through the dusk—the clip of hooves a drumbeat. Space refuse is treasure. And snatches of vocals from hometown rappers Devin the Dude and Scarface float like murmurs from passing car windows.

配合这张专辑的音乐电影并不是对于过去的回忆进行简单的具象化，而是展示了对于休斯顿这座城市的一种未来想象，或者说，一次短暂的精神旅行。幻影般此起彼伏的板击低音隆隆声、木制的纹路、糖果般色彩……这些都来自于当地的传统音乐。合成器、音乐小样与休斯顿城中心空荡荡的写字楼办公室、传至天空的回响互相交织，奏成一曲乐章。黑人牛仔在夕阳下来回奔驰——马蹄也踏出了鼓点。来自太空的废弃物在歌里也成了宝藏。专辑里还有来自同乡饶舌歌手Devin the Dude和Scarface的演唱片段。

Three years after releasing the soul-baring opus A Seat at the Table, Solange has ditched traditional song structure and world-weary lyrics for a sonically and thematically ambiguous record that feels freer, and less burdened by the white gaze. Although Houston is the beating heart at its core, much like New Orleans pulsed through A Seat, the music’s spectral, free-associative quality suggests that the idea of “home” is less rooted. Solange offers a fundamental lesson of those who leave: Home isn’t something you can possess, it lives on without you. Perhaps she also understands that we can’t trust our memories and so Solange gives her music motion. We slide into this “Houston of the mind,” on a repeated refrain that reinforces the slipperiness of recall: “I saw things… I imagined/Things… I imagined.”

继三年前发行了Solange袒露心灵之作《A Seat at The Table(桌前的一个座位)》之后，她摒弃了传统的歌曲编排方式和充满厌世情绪的歌词，挣脱了恐黑主义的挟裹，打造出一张更加自由大胆、令人捉摸不定却又从未偏离主题的专辑。尽管休斯顿作为Solange的家乡在专辑充当着主题核心的角色，这张专辑中如鬼影般缭绕不已、随性组合的气质却决定了“家的感觉”的根蒂并不是非常深，就像《A Seat at The Table》之中也贯穿着新奥尔良风格一样。Solange在专辑中给那些背井离乡的人上了一堂非常基础的课——家不是你能够占有的，就算你不在，家还是能够伫立。也许Solange也明白我们有时不能太过相信自己的记忆，所以她让自己的音乐灵动了起来。Solange不断重复着副歌“I saw things… I imagined/Things… I imagined（我看见了想象中的东西……）”，强调着回忆的顺滑，于是我们也一同滑入了这个“意识中的休斯顿”。

The music is so in motion it’s hard to pin down. Its obliqueness does not give it automatic significance; instead, like in jazz or drone music, engaged listening instigates feeling. Because Solange doesn’t offer a clear thesis like on A Seat at the Table, the onus falls on the listener to get close and make their own meaning. That can be a liberating creative impulse, particularly for a pop star who is widely considered an auteur. Solange and her musical collaborators—for what it’s worth, nearly all men aside from Abra and Cassie—duck and weave through various time signatures, burying Easter Eggs beneath bold keys, Moog magic, and textured drum lines that embellish the omnipresent low end. There are samples, background vocals, and additional personnel credits to people representing Houston’s past, present, and future: from Phylicia Rashad and the poet Pat Parker, to Solange’s young son Julez Smith II, who has a production credit on the interlude “Nothing Without Intention.”

这张专辑中的音乐灵动到根本无法被固定住。音乐自带的倾斜感没有让音乐自主地拥有歌手想要表达的思想，不过，像爵士或是极简主义音乐那样，当你投入地聆听之时，这些音乐同样能引起情感上的共鸣。在这张专辑中，Solange没有再像在上一张专辑里那样把主题思想明确提出，因此听众必须自主地去探寻音乐背后的意义。这样可以释放出一种创造的冲动——特别是对于一个被广泛认为是一个电影导演的流行歌手来说。Solange和她的合作艺人除了Abra和Cassie几乎全部都是男性艺人，这些音乐在几个极具标志性的时间点之间编制穿插，将复活节彩蛋埋在了这些大胆的音调之下，魔幻的穆格电子合成器、具有质感的鼓点都将无处不在的断点润饰得天衣无缝。音乐中充满了各种采样、背景人声和附加对代表着休斯顿过去、现在和未来人们的赞颂，从Phylicia Rashad到诗人Pat Parker，再到Solange的小儿子Julez Smith II（他参与了口白“Nothing Without Intention”的录制）

When I Get Home is exploratory, but still kind of glossy. The melodies on “Down With the Clique” and “Way to the Show” could be rearranged remnants from her first album Solo Star, released in her teen pop days. Pharrell, the king of sheen, shows up with his signature four-count intro on “Sound of Rain,” a song that perfectly channels the kitschy, pixelated optimism of late ’90s/early aughts futurism. He also brings his toolkit staples of tightly wound drums and syncopated piano for “Almeda,” an early fan-favorite because of an unexpected feature by a baby-voiced Playboi Carti who raps about diamonds shining through the darkness on a track where Solange heralds black ownership. We’re in Houston, so only one track hints at the time Solange recently spent in Jamaica. “Binz” is a wall-slapper, waist-winder, booty-popper. The airy three-part harmonies that have been her true calling card since covering the Dirty Projectors’ “Stillness Is the Move” ascend over a dense arpeggiated bassline, and then give way to playful back-and-forth toasting between Solange and The-Dream that echoes the incantations of Sister Nancy: “Sundown, wind chimes/I just wanna wake up on C.P. time.”

《When I Get Home》极具冒险精神，但也有一点流于形式。“Down With the Clique”和“”这两首歌的旋律可能是从Solange早期发行的第一张专辑《Solo Star》中的弃曲中改变过来的。百变制作人Pharrell在“Sound of Rain”中带着他极具标志性的四声计数开场出现，这首歌完美地运用了各种制作技术，将流行于上世纪末的未来主义做了像素化的处理。他还给“Almenda”带来了急促鼓点和钢琴断奏，这会是一首让粉丝瞬间爱上的歌，因为在这首Solange歌颂黑人的资源占有的歌曲中，Playboi Carti出其不意来了一段娃娃音饶舌，唱着钻石的光芒能穿透黑暗。听到这里，我们已经到过休斯顿，但是只有一首歌能接轨一点Solange前不久在牙买加度过的日子。“Binz”是一首能让人想拍响屁股、扭动腰肢、倚墙聆听的音乐。这如空气般和谐的三部分自Solange翻唱了Dirty Projector的“Stillness Is The Move”以来便成为了她的名片，其歌声跨越一条稠密的低沉琶音线，然后引出了Solange与The-Dream之间你前我后交杯般回响的Sister Nancy的咒语：“Sundown, wind chimes/I just wanna wake up on C.P. time（夕阳西坠，风声似钟；我只想在开普敦的时区醒来。）”

Solange is frolicking here, using a freeform template that aspires to the endlessly uplifting magic of Stevie Wonder, the psychedelic pleasures of chopped and screwed music, or the spiritual jazz of Alice Coltrane and the Arkestra of Sun Ra. One of her chief collaborators throughout is John Carroll Kirby, whose solo music could only be described as New Age. Standing on the Corner, a young New York City jazz group, provide some sublime moments of drama and tension—a perfect template for the gestural, post-modern, Kate Bush-esque choreography that Solange prefers.

Stevie Wonder的歌曲好似无尽上升的魔法，Solange在靠近这一自由模式时显得顽皮不已。将音乐旋紧又砍碎的乐趣让人迷醉，其中还有Alice Coltrane 和Sun Ra中Arkestra的影子。Solange在整张专辑中最主要的合作者是John Carroll Kirby，他的风格经常只能被形容为新世纪音乐。Standing on the Corner——一支来自纽约的新兴爵士乐队——为专辑中增添了不少令人叹为观止的极具戏剧性或张力的时刻，这也是一种完美形象的后现代体现，如Solange最爱的Kate Bush式舞蹈编排。

When I Get Home is particularly beautiful as an ambient piece that’s unencumbered by the emotional catharsis of A Seat at the Table—but it is missing a palpable thesis statement. Fourteen of the album’s 19 tracks clock in at under three minutes, but the patchwork effect suggests a more stream-of-consciousness bricolage than, say, Tierra Whack’s idea-led brevity. She’s got a lot of ideas, but I’m still left wondering what this album can tell us about her aesthetic practice. (Despite its title, the interlude “Nothing Without Intention” doesn’t provide a clue.) But this need for direction only matters because A Seat at the Table felt so urgent.

听众不需要再吸收到像在《A Seat at the Table》里负重的情感宣泄，《When I Get Home》作为氛围感强的音乐来说尤其动听，但是音乐主体性也显得不再那么清晰可见。整张专辑19首歌中有14首歌的时长都没有超过3分钟，但这种拼贴的效果却显得比Tierra Whack那种由一个观点导出的时长较短的音乐更加能够凸显拼贴的意识流感。她的想法很多，但是我始终在思考这些音乐能告诉我们她的哪些审美实践（除了“Nothing Without Intention”这首歌完全没有提供任何线索）。但如果不是《A Seat at the Table》让人感觉异常的急迫，这种对于主体方向的需要也显得不是非常重要。

Here, Solange is unhurried. The album rewards repetition, in listening and in execution. Repetition can cue a meditative state; it can also be code. “I saw things I imagined, things I imagined,” she sings on the opener. “We were down with you, down with you,” she continues on “Down With the Clique.” And by the time she switches up the single phrase repetition on “Almeda,” listing with pride, “brown skin, brown face, black skin, black braids,” the album is half over and the mood, the dream state, resets.

在专辑中，Solange收放自如、不紧不慢。这张专辑在被聆听和演绎的过程中，适当的重复得到了最好的效果。这样的重复在引人进入一种冥想的状态，也可以被当作是一种密码。“I saw things I imagined, things I imagined。（我看到想象中的东西。）”她在专辑的开场曲中唱道。“We were down with you, down with you。（我们和你一样失落。）”她于“Down With the Clique”中在此句开始重复。但在“Almeda”中重复模式有所调整，这次是一些词组在不断地被重复着（“brown skin, brown face, black skin, black braids（棕色皮肤、棕色脸庞，黑色皮肤，黑色辫子）”），此时整张专辑已经播放过半，音乐情绪、梦境状态也随之被重置了。

Some spiritual traditions use repeated mantras or prayers to invite awareness and presence, others as a way to invoke the past or alter the future. Design principles teach that repetition communicates unity and cohesion—enter “My Skin My Logo,” where Solange trades admiring verses with a cooing Gucci Mane, whose name conjures an endless monogram of interlocking Gs. The song itself is childlike and loving; the macho rapper softening his nursery rhyme-flow for something that sounds like an actual nursery rhyme. It’s through repetition that Solange resurrects a timeless, formless Houston of her mind. She uses the device extensively and almost compulsively, trying to remember, trying harder not to forget, and trying even harder to situate these traditions within a wider context of black music and culture in America.

一些精神传统使用重复的咒语或祷告来凝聚人们的注意力并唤起自我感知，或者作为援引过去或改变未来的方式。设计学准则认为重复能够紧密联系和加强团结——歌曲“My Skin My Logo”中，Solange将抓耳的主歌部分与Gucci Mane的咕咕声融合在一起，主要是Gucci的名字刚好合上Solange的名字组成了“GS”无尽的字母串联歌词(译者注：歌曲中Solange的歌词部分总是以“Gucci”开头，Gucci歌词部分总是以“Solo”开头)。歌曲本身幼稚而可爱，这位颇具男子气概的饶舌歌手将自己幼儿读物般的音乐韵流柔化。正是通过重复，Solange得以将自己脑海中那个永恒而无形的休斯顿重现。Solange重度甚至过度使用这一技巧，只是希望去铭记，不要遗忘，更是希望将这些传统定位在更加宽广的美国黑人音乐、黑人文化之中。

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