【搬运】【译】滚石Rolling Stone评Khalid 2019年专辑《Free Spirit》

2023年8月6日发(作者：舒固卿)

天空的遥远-

翻译：Winnie Hess

校对：Ryan-Chopin

推送：Lynn Liu

一位R&B创新者想知道他的处女作在后续发展中的意义。

Khalid Robinson’s 2017 debut LP, American Teen, was a coming-of-age record that made young-dumb brokeness feel like the only way to go. At 19, Khalid had appeared on tracks by Kendrick Lamar and Future, and he was tight with Kylie Jenner. Yet he perfectly inhabited the world of an average high school kid as he tried to make sense of his messy emotions over Eighties-loving R&B tracks. The results reduced Drake-size ambition to the relatable scale of a dude who sang about living with his folks.

halid Robinson在2017年发布首张唱片《American Teen》，这张专辑可谓其成长的记录，让听过“Young Dumb”这首歌的听众感觉“broke（心碎）”（译者注：这首歌的副歌部分就唱到“Young dumb broke”）是青春必经之路。Khalid在19岁就与Kendrick Lamar和Future进行了合作，并且他和Kylie Jenner关系也不错。不过在他试图弄清楚自己对80年代的R&B歌曲的复杂情绪时，他完美地融入进了一个普通高中生的世界。结果就是他从想成为将像Drake那样的大牌，变成了一个唱着与家人和谐生活的家伙。

A gifted artist with a searching voice that can suggest a stoner Sam Cooke, Khalid further developed his pop chops on last year’s Suncity EP, nodding to reggaeton and Coldplay-esque melody. That wide-ranging talent is on display all over his second LP. The best moments recall American Teen’s airy feel and warm charisma. “Talk,” produced by U.K. house duo -Disclosure, is a gorgeously bloopy synth-soul strut; on “Right Back,” Khalid extends an invitation to hang at the beach, over a sparkling track that smoothly interpolates Big Pun’s Nineties classic “Still Not a Player.”

Khalid是一位才华横溢的艺术家，他深沉的嗓音让人联想到“灵魂乐之王”Sam Cooke。Khalid在去年发布的唱片“Suncity”中进一步发掘了自己的流行音乐天赋，他本人也在向雷鬼顿音乐和乐队Coldplay风格的旋律致意。他在第二张专辑中展示了自己的众多才能，其中最出色的音乐时刻能让人们回想起《American Teen》轻快的感觉和发散出的温暖魅力。“Talk”由英国电子音乐组合Disclosure参与制作，这首合成灵魂乐华丽得刺耳，却支撑着专辑的基调。在“Right Back”中，Khalid发出了去海滩的邀请，在这首散发光芒的曲目中，他流畅地篡改了90年代Big Pun的经典曲目“Still Not a Player”。

The credits to Free Spirit include Norse hitmakers Stargate, and Portugal. The Man producer John Hill. Yet despite some noteworthy cameos — John Mayer on the feathery disco tune “Outta My Head,” Father John Misty assisting on production for the maudlin “Heaven” — the LP isn’t overly burdened by the bold-faced guest spots you’d expect on a follow-up by an artist coming off a Top 10 debut. Instead, it gets tripped up by a different sophomore pitfall: Now that he isn’t an underdog, Khalid lapses into a little too much new-star introspection, exploring an ivory-tower aloneness that can recall the Weeknd’s goth-‘n’-B. On “My Bad,” he tries to stir some drama out of missing your texts because he was working too late at the studio, with nothing to ease his angst but some limpid George Benson guitar flicks. Elsewhere, why-me reflections like “Alive” and “Hundred” feel like solo late-night Uber rides into the dark heart of the soul.

《Free Spirit》的加分项要属有挪威热单制造者Stargate和Portugal. The Man的制作人John Hill加盟。专辑里还有一些值得注意的客串，John Mayer参与了轻柔的迪斯科小调“Outta My Head”的制作，Father John Misty协助制作了伤感的“Heaven”。专辑并没有因为过多的客串而负重，而你可能会期待这些合作能让这张专辑有单曲进入前十。

相反，它落入了另一个有两年经验的人的陷阱，由于他的音乐成绩也不逊色了，Khalid陷入了过多的新手才有的反省，想在“My Bad”里挖掘出一中象牙塔般的孤寂感，让人听了能联想到Weeknd。他试图想从“想你的来信了”这一点引出一些戏剧性，而因为他在演播室工作得太晚了，除了George Benson几首平静的吉他曲之外，没有什么能缓解他的焦虑。在其他歌里，“Alive”和“Hundred”这样的自我反思让人感觉像是他在深夜独自在优步打了个车，便驶入了灵魂深处的黑暗。

The self-examining gloom gets thicker as the record proceeds. But Khalid remains a sympathetic guy; see “Self,”where he shifts from bluesy grumble to flighty falsetto as he observes, “My raw emotion make me less of a man?” turning self-doubt into a critique of phony masculinity.

随着曲目一首首播放，自我反思的阴霾越来越厚，但Khalid仍然是一个富有同情心的人。在“Self”中，当他察觉到“悲伤的情感让我不太man”的时候，他的声音从布鲁斯式的抱怨转变成了轻浮的假声，从而把对自我的怀疑变成了对虚假男子气概的批判。

That openness also comes through on the bonus track “Saturday Nights,” also on Suncity; Khalid’s voice vaults beautifully as he sings to a girl with a rough home life and a job she hates. It’s a sweet song with a classic message: Growing up is hard to do. Free Spirit reminds us just how weird it can be.

这种开放言论在曲目“Saturday Nights”和“Suncity”中也有所体现。Khalid若是给一个生活艰难、工作不如意的女孩唱歌，他的声音会非常动听，而他唱的这首动听的歌传达了一个你我熟知的信息：成长并不简单。《自由精神》这张专辑让我们感觉这一信息是多么的奇葩。

迟到千年歌词-