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

翻譯：JenniferC

審譯：Emma.Z

排版：SpencerC

For much of 2015, repeated delays and a lack of solid information started to make?Rihanna’s?Anti?feel like pop’s mythical creature. Now that we know it’s real, we can hear the singer’s eighth LP for what it is: a sprawling masterpiece of psychedelic soul that’s far more straightforward than its tangled rollout. The three full years since 2012’s?Unapologetic?– the longest break Between releases in Rihanna’s career – turned out to be exactly what she needed to make a rich full-length statement. After more than a decade as a superstar of the singles chart, Rihanna has become an album artist.

2015整整一年，專輯的發(fā)行不斷推遲，小道消息滿天飛，Rihanna的《Anti》似乎成為了流行音樂界的一個謎。好在現(xiàn)在專輯真真切切地發(fā)行了，我們也聽到了Rihanna的第八張LP：雖然不同歌曲被捆綁在一張專輯里，但其背后的思想靈魂卻充斥著嗑藥美學(xué)的意味，肆意游走，真誠坦率，堪稱杰作。自2012發(fā)行《Unapologetic（毫無歉意）》之后的整整三年，是Rihanna職業(yè)生涯中發(fā)行專輯間隔時(shí)間最長的一次。而事實(shí)證明，這三年蟄伏恰到好處。十多年來，蕾哈娜一直是單曲榜上的超級明星，如今她的專輯同樣可以征服聽眾。

Anti?is first and foremost an experience built on vibes. Where previous LPs?were built around clear peaks, here the songs fit together into a fluid landscape of seamless transitions – check the flow on the excellent mid-album run of after-hours joints from “Desperado” to “Woo” to “Needed Me.” Every song sounds like our collective fantasy of Rihanna: a carefree island girl lounging in a cloud of smoke, asserting a brand of independence that’s wholly her own. On “James Joint,” she assures us that she’d “rather be/Smoking weed/Whenever we breathe/Every time you kiss me” in her most dulcet tones. “You been rollin’ around/Shit, I’m rollin’ up,” she asserts on the biting kiss-off track “Needed Me.” Clearly, the stoned party goddess we’ve seen on Instagram and Snapchat is pretty close to the real Rihanna.

《Anti》是Rihanna第一張用“氛圍”貫穿的專輯。她之前的專輯都有明確的高潮，其他歌曲圍繞高潮展開，但這張專輯中,不同歌曲自然融合、無縫銜接，形成一道流暢優(yōu)美的風(fēng)景。專輯中間的歌曲和前面的風(fēng)格剝離開來，無論是“Desperado（亡命之徒）”，“Woo（呼）”還是“Needed Me（需要我）”，都符合我們想象中Rihanna的形象：一個海島女孩，懶洋洋地躺在煙霧之中，向世人宣揚(yáng)著自己獨(dú)立的主張。在“James Joint（詹姆士的窩點(diǎn)）”中，她吟唱道：“rather be/Smoking weed/Whenever we breathe/Every time you kiss me（每當(dāng)呼吸/每當(dāng)你親吻我/我寧愿/抽大麻）”而在戛然而止的歌曲“Needed Me（需要我）”中，她唱道：“You been rollin’ around/Shit, I’m rollin’ up（你無休止地纏著我/而我只是冷漠相對）”?；蛟S，那個在Instagram和Snapchat上喝的酩酊大醉的派對女王才是真正的Rihanna。

Anti‘s beats are more muted than the flashier productions of her past work, which leaves room for the album’s biggest revelation: Rihanna’s show-stopping vocal performances. One year ago, on one-off single “FourFiveSeconds,” she belted in a raw, raspy tone that expressed levels of soul the previous decade of her career had only hinted at. Here, she follows through on that promise, singing powerfully and with a deeper emotional density than she’s revealed before. On the bluesy late-album highlight “Higher,” when she sings “This whiskey got me feelin’ pretty” over a dusty strings sample from producer No ID, she could be crooning in a smoky post-war jazz club.

和過去廣為流傳的“酒吧嗨曲”相比，《Anti》的節(jié)奏更靜，把更多的空間留給了這張專輯最有意義的部分——拋開表演成分的Rihanna最純凈的演唱。一年前，在單曲“FourFiveSeconds（四五秒）”中，她用質(zhì)樸、尖銳的聲音吟唱，表達(dá)了她在過去十年職業(yè)生涯中的心路歷程。而在這張專輯中，她延續(xù)了“FourFiveSeconds”所表達(dá)的內(nèi)容，和以往相比，她的演唱更有力、情感更濃厚。在專輯末尾布魯斯風(fēng)格的“Higher(更高）”中，Rihanna伴著NoID制作的弦樂唱道：“This whiskey got me feelin’ pretty（威士忌喝得我有些飄飄然）”，此時(shí)的她就仿佛置身二戰(zhàn)后煙霧繚繞的爵士俱樂部。

Rihanna serves up a one-two punch of left-field choices in the album’s second half, giving doo-wop a modern spin with ease on “Love on the Brain” and -finding a new hypnotic pull in a Tame Impala song on “Same Ol’ Mistakes,”?Anti‘s most shocking track. It’s a faithful take on Australian psych-pop mastermind Kevin Parker’s 2015 tune, but Rihanna’s mellow vocals make it worlds more inviting and compelling.

At her core, though, she’s still a hitmaker. Single “Work” isn’t even her best collaboration with Drake – that would be 2011’s expansive house ballad Take Care” – but it’s an impeccably catchy glide across a subtle, syrupy dancehall beat. The sexy, deep synth-pop of “Desperado,” meanwhile, could easily make it a club hit by summer; and Rih has her?Purple Rain?moment on the shimmering, funky “Kiss It Better,” which serves as the album’s most direct pop moment by far.

在專輯的第二章，Rihanna給我們接二連三地帶來了許多奇思妙想——在“Love on the Brain（陷入愛海）”中改良嘟沃普和聲，使其更加現(xiàn)代也更加愜意；在專輯的華彩部分“Same Ol’ Mistakes（相同的錯誤）”中，她使得這首Tame Impala樂隊(duì)的歌曲更加迷人。和澳大利亞迷幻流行樂領(lǐng)軍人Kevin Parker（Tame Impala樂隊(duì)成員）2015年演唱的歌曲相比，Rihanna的版本是對前人忠實(shí)的致敬和演繹，但她的聲音更醇厚，讓這首歌扣人心弦。實(shí)際上，Rihanna仍舊是一個熱門單曲制造機(jī)。《Anti》中的“Work（工作）”其實(shí)還不是她和Drake最好的合作——那該是2011年那首熱情洋溢、頗具民謠特色的“Take Care(保重）”，不過“Work”也不錯，在微妙變化、甜美動人的舞廳節(jié)奏背后，我們還能感受到無可挑剔的滑音。而性感深沉的合成樂“Desperado（亡命之徒）”，則很可能成為這個夏日夜店中的動感嗨曲。在專輯最明顯的流行樂“Kiss It Better（好好吻我）”的強(qiáng)勁節(jié)奏中，Rihanna也迎來了她仿佛Purple Rain（紫雨）（美國搖滾歌手Prince曾獲奧斯卡和格萊美獎的知名歌曲）般的高光時(shí)刻。

Ultimately,?Anti‘s sound is more than just another new costume for a singer who’s dabbled in everything from flirty teen-pop to aggressive trap over the last decade-plus. This is an album that forces us to question the boxes we’ve placed Rihanna in all along. Is she queen of the clubs or a break-up balladeer? Are her pop instincts sharper than her hip-hop ones? The answer, as provided here, is all of the above and more. After years as a singer largely defined by her production, it finally feels like Rihanna is in charge of her own sound, remaking pop on her own terms. As she puts it bluntly on the glitchy groove “Consideration,” which opens the LP: “I got to do things my own way, darling.”

歸根結(jié)底，對于過去十幾年里在青少年流行樂和動感樂曲都有所涉獵的Rihanna來說,《Anti》絕不只是歌手給自己換上另一種風(fēng)格那么簡單。它讓我們思考：我們過去對Rihanna的定位是否正確？她是夜店女王，還是分手民謠歌手？她的氣質(zhì)和天賦更適合流行樂，還是嘻哈？答案就在專輯里，也在別處。曾經(jīng)，Rihanna要仰賴自己的作品才能得到“歌者”的名號，但現(xiàn)在她有了主動權(quán)，可以自己掌控自己的聲線，重新定義“流行樂”。就像專輯的打頭曲“Consideration（體諒）”中唱的那樣，“I got to do things my own way, darling.（親愛的，我得按自己的方式做事）”。