scintilla

partI 资料 - 关于这个人

这是AMG上MacKenzie Wilson写的人物简介，权当练习，如果有不对请指正吧。

Singer/songwriter Rachael Yamagata grew up listening to Carole King, Roberta Flack, James Taylor, and the like, for music was the one thing in Yamagata's life that remained consistent. Although her parents divorced when she was two, she had a wonderful childhood and she credits her parents for doing such an amazing job. Finding a balance between her German-Italian mother's apartment in New York City and the Washington, D.C., home of her third-generation Japanese father was a task, but it readied Yamagata for a way of life that would eventually lead her to a professional singing career.

By the time she reached college in the mid-'90s, Yamagata had one year of piano lessons and a spiral notebook full of songs under her belt. Not sure of what she really wanted to do, Yamagata headed to Northwestern to study French. Within a year, she switched to being an Italian theater major at Vassar, but sporadic changes loomed ahead. When her acting coach at Vassar moved to Barnard College at Columbia University, Yamagata thought she'd go too. She eventually decided to head back to Northwestern instead, to join their theater program. During her junior year, she befriended the funk band Bumpus.

Bumpus was a mainstay on the club circuit in Chicago. From the start, Yamagata thought she'd like to be a part of the band. After seeing countless shows and attending band practices for several months, Yamagata finally landed a gig singing with Bumpus. She'd spend six years writing and recording three albums with the band and touring the country. By 2001, Yamagata felt like her time with Bumpus had run its course. She had a solid batch of songs that weren't fitting in with the band's funkafied formula, so she went solo. In September 2002, Yamagata landed a deal with Arista's Private Music and her self-titled EP arrived in October. Her first full-length album, Happenstance, followed in June 2004.

『猪猪的无责任翻译：Rachael Yamagata是一位创作歌手。在她成长的过程中主要接触的是如Carole King，Roberta Flack，James Taylor这一类歌手。音乐是她生命中永久的存在。虽然Rachael的父母在她两岁时就离婚了，但她依旧感谢父母令她有一个快乐的童年。Rachael拥有德国－意大利血统的母亲住在纽约市，而他的父亲是日本第三代移民，则住在华盛顿。她一直在二者之间寻找平衡，而这也使得她最终走上了专业歌手之路。

九十年代中期Rachael进入大学。在这期间她学习了一年的钢琴，练习了许多歌曲。但当时Rachael对于自己将来究竟要做什么并没有明确的概念，于是她又到Northwestern大学学习法文。而一年之内她又到Vassar学习意大利歌剧。但生活中总是不断地有这样那样的变化发生，当她的临时指导老师离开Vassar去哥伦比亚大学的Barnard学院时，她也曾经打算追随。不过最终Rachael还是决定回到Northewestern加入歌剧课程。在大学的前两年她和funk乐团Bumpus建立了密切的关系。

Bumpus是芝加哥主要的俱乐部巡回表演乐团。Rachael一开始就打算加入，在几个月中看了无数的现场表演并参加了乐团的练习后，她最终成为Bumpus的特约演唱嘉宾。在接下来的六年中她和这个乐团一起写歌，制作了3张专辑并到各地演出。2001年的时候，Rachael和Bumpus之间似乎已经不能再合作了，她的许多歌并不适合乐队的风格，于是她变单飞了。2002年9月Rachael和Arista’s Private Music签约，同年10月发表了个人同名EP。而她的第一张专辑《Happenstance》于2004年6月发表。』

功课（红色是新学的或者不太确定的部分）
－ credit for应该是称赞的意思吧。虽然Jason觉得这里应该叫讽刺，不过他没有看到全文，还是觉得“称赞”放在这里合适一点；
－ spiral notebook原来就是那种边上有一圈罗纹的记事簿；
－ Italian theater可是意大利歌剧？
－ gig据说只是个俚语，表示特约；
－ run its course我还满没把握的，似乎有两种意思，结束或者顺其自然；
－ funkafied formula大概也就是和funk这种音乐形式有关的吧，也是不确定。

[ 本帖最后由 scintilla 于 2006-6-20 12:57 编辑 ]

scintilla

part II 关于这张碟



艺人：Rachael Yamagata
唱片：Happenstance
厂牌：RCA
时间：2004年
曲目：
01.Be Be Your Love
02.Letter Read
03.Worn Me Down
04.Paper Doll
05.I'll Find a Way
06.1963
07.Under My Skin
08.Meet Me by the Water
09.Even So
10.I Want You
11.Reason Why
12.Moments With Oliver
13.Quiet
14.(Hidden Track)

这就是近日令我念念不忘的女声。不厌其烦向许多人推荐，希望对方也能从其中获得乐趣。的确，很久没有一个外国女人能给我这样的感觉了。隐约地想到第一次听Tori Amos的Silent all these years或者Suzanne Vega唱着In Liverpool。而Rachael依旧有些不同，她是略带沙哑的，一下又一下撞击你的神经。阴天的周六下午，可以一遍又一遍听着这张专辑，抽一根烟，也许什么都不想。

整体上是带着惆怅与绝望的音乐。那一点看似明快的摇滚只是一时的发泄，剧烈的钢琴更是偶尔的歇斯底里，大部分时候都似无意识的自言自语，简单的排比，感受不到愉快的气氛。一如黑白专辑封面上阴郁的侧脸。为什么会这样呢？在这两天做功课的过程中很容易地找到了答案。英文简介实在不够直白，她并不是单纯地离开了Bumpus，她是离开了作为乐团吉他手的男友。破碎的爱情造就了这张阴暗的专辑。如此痛苦，当我和她一起哼着be be your love，声调细碎婉转到窒息。

[ 本帖最后由 scintilla 于 2006-6-20 12:58 编辑 ]

scintilla

TOM上面有一个貌似很专业的乐评，大家有兴趣可以自己去看：http://music.ent.tom.com/1030/1093/200599-59585.html

& 这就是Karen莫小姐“一个人睡”的原曲be be your love
简直惊艳到爆，无论是用唱机播用电脑播听mp3，无论大声小声。辗转反侧细微动人。

有意者可以点击－>试听<－

Be Be Your Love

If I could take you away
Pretend I was queen
What would you say
Would you think I'm unreal
'Cause everybody's got their way I should feel

Everybody's talking how I, can't, can't be your love
But I want, want, want to be your love
Want to be your love, for real
Everybody's talking how I, can't, can't be your love
But I want, want, want to be your love
Want to be your love for real
Want to be your everything

Everything...

Everything's falling, and I am included in that
Oh, how I try to be just okay
Yeah, but all I ever really wanted
Was a little piece of you

And everybody's talking how I, can't, can't be your love
But I want, want, want to be your love
Want to be your love, for real
Everybody's talking how I, can't, can't be your love
But I want, want, want to be your love
Want to be your love for real

Everything will be alright
If you just stay the night
Please, sir, don't you walk away, don't you walk away, don't you walk away
Please, sir, don't you walk away, don't you walk away, don't you walk away

And everybody's talking how I, can't, can't be your love
But I want, want, want to be your love
Want to be your love, for real
Everybody's talking how I, can't, can't be your love
But I want, want, want to be your love
Want to be your love for real

And everybody's talking how I, can't, can't be your love
But I want, want, want to be your love
Want to be your love, for real
Everybody's talking how I, can't, can't be your love
But I want, want, want to be your love
Want to be your love for real

I want to be your love, love, love

[ 本帖最后由 scintilla 于 2006-6-20 12:59 编辑 ]