原文標題：
Shake it off
Has Taylor Swift peaked?
The musician is at the height of her commercial, but not her creative, power
通通甩掉
泰勒·斯威夫特是否已達到了巔峰？
這位音樂家正處於她的商業巔峰，但還沒有達到她的創作巔峰
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TAYLOR SWIFT has a strong
claim
to being the most popular entertainer of the 21st century—and perhaps of all time.
泰勒·斯威夫特有實力成為21世紀最受歡迎的藝人--甚至可能史無前例。
Five of the ten most popular albums in America in 2023 were hers, according to Luminate, an analytics firm.
根據分析公司 Luminate 的數據，2023年美國10大最受歡迎專輯中，有5張都是泰勒·斯威夫特的。
Ms Swift’s albums have now
cumulatively
racked up
384 weeks in the top ten of the Billboard chart, beating a record previously held by the Beatles.
她的專輯在Billboard排行榜前十名中連續在榜384周，打破了披頭四樂隊之前的紀錄。
She is halfway through the most lucrative concert tour ever. A film version of it grossed over $260m at the box office last year.
目前，她正進行史上最賺錢的演唱會巡演。去年，她的巡演電影版票房收入超過2.6億美元。
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On April 19th she released a double album entitled 「The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology」.
4月19日，她發行了一張名為【苦難詩社：選集】的雙專輯。
Over the course of 31 songs, Ms Swift wields her
scalpel
and
dissects
every inch of her recent relationships.
在這31首歌曲中，斯威夫特女士揮舞著手術刀，詳盡剖析了最近幾段感情的每一個細節。
Few songwriters have been better at
transmuting
heartbreak into hits.
很少有詞曲作家能像她一樣，將失戀的心碎轉化為熱門金曲。
(「The high」, as she sang on 「Blank Space」, has surely always been 「worth the pain」.)
（正如她在【空格】中所唱的那樣，「高價值的事情值得經歷痛苦」。）
Unfortunately, on this album, she has
eschewed
danceable pop for something as downcast as the title implies.
遺憾的是，在這張專輯中，她放棄了以往那些令人忍不住想隨之起舞的流行樂曲，
轉而選擇了與專輯名稱一樣充滿憂郁色彩的音樂風格。
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Gone are the irresistibly
catchy choruses
of 「I Knew You Were Trouble」 and 「We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together」, replaced with dreamy synths,
muted
drums and
languorous
vocals.
【我知道你是大麻煩 】和【我們再也回不去了】中令人難以抗拒、朗朗上口的齊聲合唱已經消失，取而代之的是夢幻般的合成器音效、低沈的鼓聲和慵懶的嗓音。
Ms Swift can do melancholy and wistfulness well.
斯威夫特擅長表達憂郁和惆悵的情緒。
Yet 「The Tortured Poets Department」 is
mournful
without being memorable.
然而，雖然【苦難詩社】流露出了哀愁之情，但不足以讓人銘記。
For a woman who launched her career as a
precocious
country-singing teen, her new lyrics sound
jarringly
immature, with unimaginative
rhymes
.
對於一個以早熟鄉村歌手身份出道的女歌手來說，她的新歌詞顯得不和諧也不成熟，韻腳也顯得平淡無奇。
「Like I lost my twin / Fuck it if I can’t have him,」 she sings in 「Down Bad」.
例如在【Down Bad】這首歌中，她唱道：「就像我失去了我的雙胞胎姐妹/ 如果不能擁有他，那就算了。」
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It is a sign of her stardom that many Swifties rushed to buy the record anyway: within a day of its release 「The Tortured Poets Department」 sold 1.4m copies in America.
無論如何，許多黴黴粉依然在爭先恐後地購買這張專輯，這足以證明泰勒·斯威夫特的巨星地位：在專輯釋出不到一天的時間裏，【苦難詩社】就在美國售出了140萬張。
But some are breaking ranks to confess that they think the songs are underwhelming and samey .
但也有一些粉絲打破常規坦白地表示，這些歌曲平淡無奇且千篇一律。
Is Ms Swift falling into the trap that ensnares those who reach the highest echelons of their fields, from auteurs to chief executives?
斯威夫特是否陷入了高層次巔峰困境？例如從電影導演到執行長，似乎無人能幸免。
Perhaps no one—including her songwriting collaborators—wants to tell music’s biggest star that her tunes are bland.
也許沒有人——包括她的歌曲創作合作夥伴——願意告訴這位音樂界最耀眼的明星，她的曲子平淡無奇。
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On 「I Can Do It With A Broken Heart」 she boasts that she is 「so productive, it’s an art」.
在【I Can Do It With A Broken Heart】一曲中，她自信滿滿地稱自己 "如此高產，簡直就是一門藝術"。
Indeed it is quite common for great artists at the height of their fame to release lengthy double albums: think of the Beatles’ 30 songs on the 「White Album」 or Bruce Springsteen’s 20 on 「The River」.
事實上，偉大的藝術家在名聲最盛之時釋出長篇雙專輯並不罕見：比如披頭四樂隊的【白色專輯】中有30首歌，布魯斯·斯普林斯汀的【河流】中也有20首。
But both of those could have benefited from more selective editing and still have become the treasured classics that they are today.
然而，這兩張專輯若能經過更精細的剪輯，依然能夠成為如今備受推崇的經典之作。
For Ms Swift, it is the quality of her output, not the quantity, that has set her apart from her peers.
對於斯威夫特來說，正是她作品的品質，而非數量，讓她在同行中脫穎而出。
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Ms Swift’s latest offering is some way short of her usual standard.
斯威夫特的最新作品與她一貫的水準有些差距。
In one of the songs, she claims to be in 「her glittering prime」.
在其中一首歌曲中，她自稱正處於「光輝燦爛的巔峰時期」。
Fans both devoted and casual may wonder if the
lustre
is fading.
無論是鐵粉絲還是路人粉，都會懷疑她的光芒是否正在逐漸黯淡。
（恭喜讀完，本篇英語詞匯量493左右）
原文出自：2024年4月27日【The Economist】Culture版塊
精讀筆記來源於：自由英語之路
本文轉譯整理: Irene
本文編輯校對: Irene
僅供個人英語學習交流使用。
【補充資料】
（來自於網路）
【苦難詩社】【THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT】是泰勒·斯威夫特的第11張錄音室專輯，由泰勒·斯威夫特、傑克·安東諾夫和雅連·德斯納制作。標準版收錄16首歌曲，於2024年4月19日透過共和唱片公司發行。加曲版（THE ANTHOLOGY版本）收錄31首歌曲，於標準版發行2小時後上線各大音樂播放平台。首日美國銷量超過160萬張。2024年4月21日報道，【苦難詩社】一上線即打破歷史紀錄，其在串流媒體Spotify上的單日播放量達3億次。
【重點句子】
（3個）
Few songwriters have been better at transmuting heartbreak into hits.
很少有詞曲作家能像她一樣，將失戀的心碎轉化為熱門金曲。
Is Ms Swift falling into the trap that ensnares those who reach the highest echelons of their fields, from auteurs to chief executives?
斯威夫特是否陷入了高層次巔峰困境？例如從電影導演到執行長，似乎無人能幸免。
For Ms Swift, it is the quality of her output, not the quantity, that has set her apart from her peers.
對於斯威夫特來說，正是她作品的品質，而非數量，讓她在同行中脫穎而出。
自由英語之路
