翻译：@饥可
by： Katherine St. Asaph
原文链接：https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/lady-gaga-chromatica/
凭借无与伦比的才华，这位流行天后带着一张令人难以置信的有趣而又极具个人色彩的专辑回到了她的流行舞曲生涯，这张专辑时而怪诞，时而戏剧化，时而野心勃勃。
With incomparable flair, the pop diva returns to her dance-pop days with a fabulously fun and deeply personal album that is at turns bizarre, theatrical, and ambitious.
Lady Gaga离开了地球，她现在住在Chromatica星球上。是的，这是StefaniGermanotta(Gaga本名)全部重新转变成Lady Gaga ：怪诞、戏剧化、充满野心。她全身包裹电极，用一个“Gaga星系”(ga-ga-galaxy)的大脑运作，给我们这些生活在地球上的凡人送来舞蹈音乐响炮。Chromatica是她自2011年以来的第一张流行音乐专辑，不同于A Star is Born原声带中的除了Why did You Do That之外的部分和2016年Joanne中无听觉特色的音乐，Chromatica中找不到世俗的歌谣。具体来说，根据Gaga的说法，“Chromatica”是一种遥远的粉色棱镜般的Mad Max星球，在这里世俗的歌谣是非法的。谁不喜欢建设一个新世界呢?
Lady Gaga has canceled Earth. She lives on planet Chromatica now. Yes, this is Stefani Germanotta’s return to all that is Lady Gaga: bizarre and theatrical and ambitious, swathed in electrodes, operating with a ga-ga-galaxy brain, delivering dance bangers for us canceled Earthlings. Chromatica is her first pop-pop album since 2011; unlike the non-“Why Did You Do That?” parts of the A Star is Born soundtrack and the beige acoustica of 2016’s Joanne, there’s not a ballad to be found. Specifically, according to Gaga lore, “Chromatica” is some kind of far-flung pink-prism Mad Max planet where “ballads are illegal.” Who doesn’t love world-building?
然而，虽然Chromatica回归了Gaga的舞曲流行音乐时代，但这并不意味着现在的情况与之前完全相同。她的首张专辑《The Fame》发行已经12年了，当时“EDM”(电子舞曲)还只是公司的宣传术语，舞曲的意思是“stompy electroclash”(笨重的电子撞击乐)。2020年，Lady Gaga的一张舞曲专辑以90年代经典舞曲的形式发行。谁敢尝试做这样的专辑呢？那就是Lady Gaga，她是当今为数不多的可以被称为“天后”的流行巨星之一。当Gaga唱歌的时候，她唱出来的不是让人打寒颤的声音，不是偶像般的甜美嗓音，而是不畏惧去任何地方，无论那里有嘶哑刺耳的声音或低声的命令或野性的绝望。这就是为什么她的硬摇滚调情在很大程度上奏效了，也是为什么Chromatica比其他艺术家的即兴舞曲更有内涵。歌中的nu-house(好像是种disco曲风)是由歌曲制作人掌控的，如果有太多的nu-house，歌手甚至被认为是装饰品，但是Gaga没有这样的风险。即使没有过多的自我参照，这里的一切也不会出错。首单Stupid Love挽救了Do What U Want中剧烈震动的音序器，加快了节奏，并将Gaga以往的首单像五朔节花柱飘带一样围绕着它: Bad Romance即将到来的巨大影响力，Born This Way的旋律，以及Applause的狂妄。
But while Chromatica is a return to Gaga’s dance-pop days, that doesn’t mean quite the same thing now. It’s been 12 years since her debut album The Fame, released when “EDM” was just corporate jargon and “dance” meant stompy electroclash. In 2020, a Lady Gaga dance album comes out as an unabashed revival of ’90s house music. But if anyone’s earned a trip to the house, it’s Lady Gaga, who is among the few big pop stars today who can legitimately be called a diva. When Gaga sings, she sings out: not chill, not Idol-pretty, but unafraid to go there, whether there be throaty rasps or sotto-voice commands or feral desperation. It’s why her hard-rock dalliances largely worked, and why Chromatica feels more substantial than other artists’ throwaway dance turns. So much nu-house is producer-driven, its vocalists reduced to decorations if even credited; there is no risk of this with Gaga. Everything here would be unmistakably her even if self-reference didn’t abound. Lead single “Stupid Love” salvages the juddering sequencer of “Do What U Want,” kicks up the speed, and weaves Gaga’s past lead singles around it like Maypole streamers: the oncoming-juggernaut heft of “Bad Romance,” the melodic contour of “Born This Way,” the conceit of “Applause.”
另一条关于Chromatica的评论是，这是Gaga最私人的专辑。你可能还记得Joanne也被称为Gaga“最私人的专辑”。那时候，它是“个人化”的，就像所有流行歌手的不插电专辑都被称为“个人化”一样: 所有的安排都有原声吉他，自动调音也被保留为有品味的润色。Chromatica失去了吉他，但肯定背负了沉重的主题: 创伤后应激障碍(PTSD)触发因素、抗精神病药物、性侵犯。事实上，Lady Gaga自The Fame以来的大部分音乐都是非常个人化的。类似Telephone或Hair这样闪亮而又带有毒性的歌曲，Gaga录制了三种以伤口为核心的歌曲：对The Fame Monster的人格化恐惧，Born This Way的某些部分中比起平淡的事物更暗黑更像魔兽，2013年Artpop的失利一团糟。她的歌中反复出现: 支离破碎的身份，士兵的空虚，饮用眼泪，被触碰时奄奄一息。艺术常常是混乱的，是由创伤造成的特定的混乱。即使当Gaga穿上怪异的服装，或者写一些关于Judas或Swine的高概念歌曲时，这种技巧也会失效。这就是为什么她的专辑保持得出奇的好。它告诉我们，从2010年代初开始，哪些Gaga时刻重新出现在当下的文化记忆中: 是Monster歌中那面无表情、喘着粗气的前奏介绍，还是被抖音变得更加低俗、更加血腥的Bloody Mary。
The other line about Chromatica is that it’s Gaga’s most personal album. You may recall that Joanne was also called Gaga’s “most personal album.” That time, it was “personal” in the same way all pop stars’ unplugged albums get called that: the arrangements had acoustic guitar, and the AutoTune was kept to a tasteful touch-up. Chromatica loses the guitars but certainly handles heavy subject matter: PTSD triggers, antipsychotic meds, sexual assault. In fact, most of Lady Gaga’s music since The Fame has been very personal. For every shiny, poppy song like “Telephone” or “Hair,” Gaga’s recorded three more with wounds at the core: the personified fears of The Fame Monster, the parts of Born This Way that are more darkwave or Warcraft than bubblegum; the bitter mess of 2013’s Artpop. Themes recur: fragmented identity, soldiers to emptiness, drinking tears, dying a little when being touched. The art is often messy, the specific mess of art written from trauma. Even when Gaga dons freaky costumes or writes high-concept songs about Judas or swine, the artifice cracks. It’s why her albums hold up surprisingly well. It’s telling which Gaga moments have resurfaced from the early 2010s into current cultural memory: the deadpan, panting intro to “Monster,” or the sludgy-gothy “Bloody Mary,” which TikTok made even sludgier and gothier.
Chromatica逆转了这一效果。这是最闪亮和完美的舞厅音乐，一种由疼痛和逃避主义，高弦和麻木的跳动组成的流派。但是Gaga的歌词是直白的，几乎没有宗教隐喻和伪装。在Chromatica上的两首高概念歌曲中，一首是故意装傻的Babylon，另一首是立即将隐喻拉回现实的Alice: 第一句歌词是My name isn't Alice，这首歌里的人物不是白兔，而是人们头脑中更可怕的生物。“911”中的紧急情况指的是奥氮平，一种快速起效的抗精神病药物，Gaga说它救了她的命。这首歌以一种冰冷、僵硬的节奏开始，她的声音毫无感情，用声音编码。整首歌听起来很不协调，当甜美的合唱到达时，听起来就更不协调了。复调永远不会随着旋律完全分解，最痛苦的台词(“Wish I laughed and kept the good friendships”)被抛到一边，几乎被听众错过。但这些都是美妙的细节，你现在就可以跳过去，之后再去领略。
Chromatica reverses this effect. This is house music at its most shiny and immaculate, a genre made from ache and escapism, high strings and numbing throbs. But Gaga’s lyrics are plainspoken, mostly free of religious metaphors and pretense; of the two high-concept songs on Chromatica, one is deliberately silly (”Babylon”) and the other (”Alice”) immediately yanks the metaphor back into reality: The first words are “my name isn’t Alice” and the song is inhabited not with white rabbits but the more terrifying creatures inside one’s mind. The emergency in “911” refers to olanzapine, a fast-acting antipsychotic that Gaga says saved her life. The track begins with a cold, stark beat, her vocals affectless and vocoded. The whole thing sounds off, and when the sweet, singsong chorus arrives, it just sounds off even more. The counterpoint never quite resolves with the melody, and the most painful lines (“Wish I laughed and kept the good friendships”) are tossed off, almost missable. But these are wonderful details, ones you can dance through now, then catch later.
尽管Gaga强调Chromatica是一张需要从头到尾听的专辑，但它的顺序有点偏差。与Ariana Grande)合作的Rain On Me的高潮部分提前了十来首歌，相比之下，Free Woman和Fun Tonight的能量差得太远了。在第二部分中，Plastic Doll，你只要读一下标题就能猜出它的基本概念——对名声的过于敏感。Sour Candy是与韩国流行音乐巨星BLACKPINK打破次元壁合作的歌曲，它足够时髦，但在Lady Gaga的专辑中，尤其是在这张专辑中，它显得格格不入。部分原因是因为这首歌Gaga没有在一分钟之前出现，部分是因为我们确实听说过: Sour Candy至少是第四首流行歌曲采样了在Maya Jane Cole的What They Say。还有一个不可避免的事实，那就是Chromatica是一张专门为大型集体舞池设计的专辑，就在“骄傲月”(Pride month)之前发行，这是一种盛大的庆祝气氛，而在这一年里，这些东西都不像过去那样存在了。(应该是指今年发生了太多不好的事情，不适合狂欢庆祝)
For all Gaga’s emphasis on Chromatica being an album meant to be heard start-to-finish with no skips, the sequencing is a bit off. The string interludes, composed with Morgan Kibby (M83, White Sea), separate the albums into three acts, each with its own filler. The climactic redemption of Ariana Grande collab “Rain On Me” comes about ten tracks too early, and “Free Woman” and “Fun Tonight” lose energy so close together. In act two, “Plastic Doll”—the basic idea of which you can guess just by reading the title—would have been too on-the-nose on The Fame. “Sour Candy,” the break-the-internet collaboration with K-pop superstars BLACKPINK, is sassy enough, but on a Lady Gaga album, and particularly this album, it feels out of place. That’s partly because there’s no Gaga until over a minute in, partly because we’ve literally heard it before: “Sour Candy” is at least the fourth pop song built on a sample of Maya Jane Coles’ “What They Say,” Then there’s the unavoidable fact that Chromatica is an album explicitly made for big communal dancefloors, released just before Pride month, a big celebratory mood, in a year when none of those things quite exist like they used to.
Chromatica的两个最强的音轨几乎完全相反。想象一个轴心from bizarro transcendence to pure transcendence(不懂啥意思)，Sine FromAbove都在左边。每一个单独的部分都是有意义的。Lady Gaga和Elton John? 是的，他们如同神族，他是比Tony Bennett或Bradley Cooper更活跃的合唱搭档。Elton John和Swedish House Mafia(瑞典电子舞曲乐队)? 这是2013年的想法。An ode to a literal sine wave, dropping decibels from the heavens? (一首正弦波的颂歌，从天堂降下分贝?)如果有人会这么写歌词，那一定是Gaga。把所有东西都切断开，歌曲最后来个鼓和低音相切? 借用戏子的话说，这是一个巨大的错误——但它是如此之大，以至于很难说它是错误的。
Chromatica’s two strongest tracks are near-total opposites. Imagine an axis from bizarro transcendence to pure transcendence; “Sine From Above” is all the way at the left. Each individual part of it makes sense, kind of. Lady Gaga and Elton John? Sure; they’re godfamily, after all, and he’s a livelier duet partner than Tony Bennett or Bradley Cooper. Elton John with two-thirds of Swedish House Mafia? That was the idea, back in 2013. An ode to a literal sine wave, dropping decibels from the heavens? If anyone would write that, it’d be Gaga. Attacking that theme with zero-irony gusto that Eurovision would co-sign, going for it and never looking back? Chopping everything up for a drum-and-bass tangent at the end? To borrow the theater-kid saying, it’s big and wrong—yet so big, it’s hard to call it wrong at all.
如果说Sine From Above runs on WTF(给人的感觉是What The Fuck?)，那么Enigma则是给人熟悉的感觉：每一个音乐和情感的节拍都准确无误地出现，就好像夜店舞曲熟能生巧一样。它很巨大，像是有万有引力。不凑巧的是，这首歌的副歌让人想起了另一首关于英雄恋人的歌曲(指的是David Bowie的Heroes)。这首歌正好是Gaga的另一个身份:Enigma是她最近在拉斯维加斯演出的名字。并且在合唱部分之上的萨克斯片段让人想起Born This Way中E Street已故成员Clarence Clemons。而且，最重要的是，它抓住了人们对见到彼此的渴望。在Chromatica星球上，Enigma是超凡脱俗的：它的大气层里充满了紫色、龙的眼睛和幽灵。从迪斯科到舞厅，再到lady gaga的舞曲，都是这种动力。这种动力让音乐瞬间变得更强烈、更美妙，甚至在人工的，最亮的灯光下，也有一种完全的人情味。
If “Sine From Above” runs on WTF, “Enigma” runs on familiarity: Every musical and emotional beat arrives precisely on cue, as if the club had muscle memory. It’s massive, it has a gravitational pull. Uncoincidentally, the chorus recalls a certain other song about being heroic lovers, just for one night. It slots right into Gaga canon: Enigma is the name of her recent Vegas residency, and the snippets of sax that crest above the choruses recall the late E Street Band member Clarence Clemons on Born This Way. And, crucially, it nails the desire of meeting someone in all its urgency. On planet Chromatica, “Enigma” is otherworldly: the atmospheres light up violet, dragon’s eyes and phantoms abounding. It’s the same drive that’s powered dance music, from disco to house to Gaga—turning a moment heightened, more fantastic, and, even at its most strobe-lit and artificial, somehow entirely human.
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