身处中年危机的“男孩们”
经过了10年的在荣誉下的沉寂后，Nick Carter和他的早已“成年”的团体——后街男孩带着一张让我们听了想打盹的新专辑回到了我们的视野，从音乐上讲，"This Is Us"并不是一张失败的专辑，因为其有一定的突破。但甚至是音乐界最强的制作人（ T-Pain、Max Martin等一些众所周知的名字都印在了专辑上面）也不能够帮助BSB成长，使得这张专辑还是拥有深深的teen-pop痕迹，但背离了millennium中的流行曲风。
After nearly 10 years of glorious silence from Nick Carter and his group of overgrown 'tweens, the Backstreet Boys are back with the latest in a long line of snooze-worthy albums. "This Is Us" isn't as much a musical failure as it is an evolutionary one: Even some of the most talented producers in the industry (T-Pain and Britney-maestro Max Martin are but a few of the famous names on the track listings) are unable to help the Backstreet Boys grow up, leaving the album with the same teen-pop sound that left popular music at the turn of the millennium.
组合出道的前几年，BSB似乎拥有光环环绕着。组合的颠覆之作——"Millenium,"的发行为他们赢得了一系列巨大成就，从"I Want It That Way" 到"Larger Than Life"——堪称流行乐的杰作：组合的歌词甜蜜而不腻 (例如："Now I can see that we're falling apart / from the way that it used to be")，既适合在K歌时演唱又适合当作摇篮曲。这种CD你既可以和朋友聚会时听，又适合你在接一个女孩的时候在车里播放。
For the first few years of the group's existence, the Backstreet Boys were gods among men. The release of "Millenium," the band's sophomore album, brought a slew of chart-busting hits - from "I Want It That Way" to "Larger Than Life" - lauded almost universally as pop masterpieces: The group's lyrics were sweet without being saccharine ("Now I can see that we're falling apart / from the way that it used to be"), and its music was perfect for both karaoke nights and lullabies. It was the kind of CD that you could listen to with the boys and still leave in the car as you went to pick up a girl for a date.
"This Is Us"同"Millenium" 完全不一样：幼稚、自我放纵、甚至让人听了毛骨悚然。专辑里的最具吸引力的"PDA,"似乎是最具神秘感的：在公开场合表示爱意的一首颂歌，这首歌的歌词好像是从一本色情刊物里抄袭来的：“我们在俱乐部、餐馆、杂货店或者电影院/接吻，用我的双手像抚摸战利品一样抚摸你。”人们可以想象，一个30多岁的男人至少应该对创作了一首如此荒唐的色情歌曲感到尴尬，但这个组合居然煞费苦心地、详细地为我们诠释着：“从大厅到露台，从星巴克到Navo，很龌龊.”是的，真是龌龊！
"This Is Us" is everything that "Millenium" was not: childish, self-indulgent and downright creepy. The album's catchiest tune, "PDA," is perhaps its weirdest: An ode to public displays of affection, the song has lyrics that seem to be lifted from a porno: "We'd be at the club, the restaurant, the grocery store or the movies / kissing and touching with my hands all over your booty." One would assume that men in their mid-30s would feel at least a bit of embarrassment at crafting such a ridiculously lecherous song, yet the group describes its exhibitionism in painstaking detail: "From the lobby to the patio / From the Starbucks to the Navo / Hmm, nasty." Yes, nasty indeed.
这张专辑唯一的优点在于，与BSB自身参与制作的很少。将金钱和荣誉都用在了该用的地方，一些优秀的制作者给了这张专辑不少的补救，Jim Jonsin,（Lil' Wayne的 "Lollipop" 和T.I.的 "Whatever You Like,"的幕后制作人）将他标志性的和弦同主题结合起来，使得歌曲至少有那么一点优美。OneRepublic的Ryan Tedder——制作了Beyonce'的"Halo"的魔法师——尽了极大了努力以完善"Undone" 。组合的最早制作人 Max Martin则回避了他惯用的史诗般的音乐，而改用如同糖衣包裹着的幼稚音乐。至于T-Pain在"She's a Dream," 中的客串，是唯一可以拯救这首的因素。
The saving grace of the album, fittingly, has little to do with the Backstreet Boys themselves. Putting its money and fame to surprisingly good use, the group corralled a talented bunch of A-list producers to give the album some much-needed legitimacy. Jim Jonsin, the man behind Lil' Wayne's "Lollipop" and T.I.'s "Whatever You Like," brings his trademark synth-and-string combo to the title track, making it at least somewhat palatable; OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder - the magician who crafted Beyonce's "Halo" - tries his very hardest to give "Undone" some maturity; and Max Martin, the group's original producer, shies away from his usual epic sound in favor of something more akin to candy-coated kid's music. As for T-Pain's guest appearance on "She's a Dream," well - it's all that can be done to save the song.
最初。很高兴世界上最受欢迎的男孩组合决定继续做音乐，但听到"This Is Us"之后，我真心希望BSB能够停止，用他们自己的话说："这除了是个错误外，什么都不是”（"ain't nothing but a mistake."）
While it was initially nice to learn that the world's most famous boy band had decided to stick with this whole music thing, after listening to "This Is Us," I almost wish that the Backstreet Boys had called it quits. In the band's own immortal words, it "ain't nothing but a mistake."
（非音乐媒体，就是八卦网站） |
发表于 2009-10-24 12:22:43
发表于 2009-10-24 12:27:27
发表于 2009-10-24 15:04:03