翻譯：Alice Song

校正：Lynn Liu/Ryan-Chopin

Ariana Grande is determined to be a light on her fourth album. And no one has needed that light more than Grande herself. The last year has marked a tumultuous, even transformative, period for the 25-year-old pop superstar. In May, 2017, her concert in Manchester, England was the site of a terrorist bombing in which 23 people were killed. As she recovered from the post-attack trauma, Grande experienced the dissolution of a toxic relationship with rapper Mac Miller.

快速度過傷痛后的A妹（Ariana Grande）發(fā)行了她音樂生涯中最好的唱片。Ariana Grande回歸平靜，從《sweetener》中衍生樂趣。A妹打造第四張專輯時(shí)，增添了她正迫切需要的創(chuàng)新。去年，可以說是這位25歲流行歌手人生一大轉(zhuǎn)折。2017年五月，她在英國曼徹斯特舉辦演唱會(huì)后，場館中發(fā)生了恐怖分子炸彈襲擊事件，23人遇難。當(dāng)她從襲擊事件的傷痛中緩過來之后，又結(jié)束了與說唱歌手 Mac Miller不美好的戀情。

Sweetener?is not the sad, serious ballad-heavy album many probably expected Grande to make, but it sure is the one she needed to. It’s a refreshing, cohesive package, following three albums of sometimes messy but always fun attempts at placing her own personality in the pop landscape. She’s let her ponytail down, metaphorically and literally (check the album’s cover) and let joy lead the way. Whether she’s flaunting her accomplishments (the gleeful “Successful”) or relishing her “soulmate” on the sweet and tender “Pete Davidson,” a song that gets the point across with its title alone, she’s found her serenity.

Pharrell Williams和Max Martin的 Wolf Cousins可謂《sweetener》的最強(qiáng)合作者。毫無疑問，Martin和Williams找到了讓A妹奪人眼球的關(guān)鍵——不拘泥于花哨形式，突出她的完美嗓音。讓人驚喜的是，他們以獨(dú)特的編曲方制作了這張唱片，使它成為A妹有史以來最專注也最具個(gè)人特色的唱片，也使得A妹誘人的簡單表達(dá)方式，成為她除了能參與百老匯音樂劇以外的又一喜人天賦。

Pharrell Williams and Max Martin’s Wolf Cousins songwriting and production camp are the most prolific collaborators on?Sweetener. Already sure pop bets, Martin and Williams get to the core of what makes Grande worth paying attention to, letting her voice take the lead instead of drowning it in genre gimmicks. Their unique approaches to song-structure surprisingly help make it her most focused and personality-encapsulating LP yet, letting Grande’s easy way with trap phrasing find a home next to her flair for Broadway-esque dramatic runs.

《sweetener》隨著“raindrops”拉開序幕，這實(shí)際是一段三十秒的阿卡貝拉，節(jié)選自四季合唱團(tuán)（the Four Seasons）的“An Angel Cried”。它作為專輯開篇曲目，預(yù)示了專輯的全新風(fēng)格。盡管有一點(diǎn)混雜，但A妹的嗓音在不加修飾時(shí)依舊宛如天籟。下一首歌與威廉姆斯合作的單曲風(fēng)格一轉(zhuǎn)，是一首偏藍(lán)調(diào)，混和著放克的“Blazed”，然后是有著明顯Missy Elliott風(fēng)格的“Borderline”（盡管歌曲中Missy的部分相比較少）。同名曲（“sweetener”）是一支歡快提神，很抓耳的單曲，而“R.E.M”則是舒緩又深情，帶著一絲性感挑逗與不切實(shí)際，A妹早該嘗試此風(fēng)格，這也非常適合她。

Sweetener?begins with a manifesto of sorts: a reworking of the Four Seasons’ “An Angel Cried” — titled “Raindrops” here and turned into a 30-second acapella premonition of what’s to come. While a bit out of place, Grande’s voice sounds absolutely superb with pop production stripped away. It’s followed by a heavily R&B leaning collection, mixing funky, clubby moments like the Williams-assisted “Blazed” and the Missy Elliott-featuring “Borderline” (though the latter’s appearance is much too short). The title track is a bouncy, almost wickedly catchy highlight, while the luxurious “R.E.M.” is a soulful, sexy romp that is the platonic ideal of the type of song Grande could and should be making for years to come.

前期發(fā)行的“The Light is Coming”是專輯中的敗筆，有趣的節(jié)奏沒必要被一遍遍地重復(fù)，導(dǎo)致本想強(qiáng)調(diào)的聲音反而被節(jié)奏淹沒了，這個(gè)聲音取自賓夕法尼亞州市政廳的一次鄉(xiāng)村集會(huì)（威廉姆斯以前就用過兩次這個(gè)小樣了，Rihanna的合作單曲“Lemon”就采樣過）。

Early release “The Light is Coming” is a weak spot: a fun beat swallowed by the repetition of an unnecessary, overly prominent voice sampled from a viral moment during a?raucous town hall in Pennsylvania during the Obamacare debate (Williams has used samples from this clip twice before, including on the hit Rihanna collaboration “Lemon”).

值得一提的是，《sweetener》的黑暗時(shí)刻并不那么苦澀。“Breathin”是對“憂慮”進(jìn)行的不同尋常的探索，而“Everytime”則是一首動(dòng)聽的，自我反思的分手抒情曲。聽來漸入佳境的單曲“God Is a Woman”可謂是整張專輯中的經(jīng)典。然而這首位于“C位”的單曲，五味雜陳，找到了唱片中眾多情歌和其他傷感歌曲感官上的平衡。“Goodnight n Go”改編自A妹最喜歡的藝術(shù)家之一——Imogen Heap的同名歌曲。這是A妹一展歌喉的重要時(shí)刻，就在她把合唱團(tuán)的男高音的假聲處理得那么流暢時(shí)，她也是在給歌曲的劇情（一個(gè)女孩愛上她的朋友）和她自己都下了一個(gè)賭注。

The darker moments on?Sweetener?are never too bitter, thankfully. “Breathin” is an exceptional exploration of anxiety, while “Everytime” is a gorgeous, self-reflective break-up ballad. The slow-burning single “God Is a Woman” feels even more sublime as part of the total package. The centerpiece of the album, however, mixes the sour and the sweet, finding ?the balance between the sensual romance of the album’s plentiful love songs and the aching heartbreak of the others. “Goodnight n Go” reworks a song of the same name by one of Grande’s favorite artists, Imogen Heap. It’s a breathtaking moment of vocal interpretation from the singer, who raises the stakes both for the song’s storyline (about a girl falling in love with her friend) and for Grande herself as she makes the chorus’ falsetto seem easy.

找尋光芒總是比受困于黑暗更難，但是在《sweetener》中我們能發(fā)現(xiàn)，A妹輕而易舉走出了陰霾，難能可貴的是她能將其付諸現(xiàn)實(shí)。A妹找尋的那束光敦促著她繼續(xù)前行，并創(chuàng)造出了她有史以來最好的唱片，同時(shí)，也是2018年歐美流行樂壇中最強(qiáng)有力的唱片之一。