時尚雙語:酷玩樂隊：把美好的日子變得更加美好

In a 2005 piece in the Times, Jon Pareles called the British rock group Coldplay “the most insufferable band of the decade,” and he placed the blame on the band’s front man and singer, Chris Martin, whom he called a “passive-aggressive blowhard.” Earlier this year, in a study sponsored by the hotel chain Travelodge of the bedtime habits of 2,248 people in the U.K., Coldplay topped a poll of music choices that would help people fall asleep. Coldplay apparently relieves what Travelodge called the “pressures of modern living.” Martin may use the same metric to judge his band’s music. On , you can find a handwritten note, dated “Thursday 12 June London,” that addresses the recent release of the band’s fourth studio album, “Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends.” “I feel very relieved that the album is finally released out into the big wide world today,” it says. “I hope there’s songs on there that will make a shit day slightly less shit, or a good day even better.” The album sold more than seven hundred thousand copies in the first week of its release in the United States. (Since the group’s début album, “Parachutes,” was released, in 2000, news items about the troubled entertainment conglomerate EMI routinely correlate the health of the corporation with the health of Coldplay.)

Is Coldplay warm milk or just quietly dependable? Don’t ask Martin, who has transformed the English art of diffidence into a masochistic religion: “We owe them a career, really,” he has said of Radiohead. He has also said, “Like millions of people in the world, I can’t listen to Coldplay.” He’s half right about Radiohead—Coldplay exhibits a taste for melancholy and smeared, stretched-out sounds that leads straight back to Thom Yorke and his friends. The main antecedent is U2, who invented the form that Coldplay works within: rock that respects the sea change of punk but still wants to be as chest-thumping and anthemic as the music of the seventies stadium gods. Translated, this means short pop songs that somehow summon utterly titanic emotions and require you to skip around in triumphant circles and pump your fist, even if it is not entirely clear what you are singing about.

The link to U2 has been made explicit on “Viva la Vida,” which was co-produced by Brian Eno, the man who moved U2 from a feisty, soccer-chant style into the expansive and hypnotic sound that has defined the rest of their career. The problem is that Coldplay doesn’t seem to have unplumbed depths, or a voice as distinctive as either Bono’s or the Edge’s, whose guitar is U2’s second vocalist. The guys in Coldplay are a sweet bunch, and their best songs are modest affairs. “Yellow” was the track that made them famous eight years ago. There’s some guitar work that echoes the Edge’s—chiming, small chords played high on the neck and repeated, over and over, pushing the song away from the divisions of song form and closer to the ecstasy of the drone (when it works)—but the core of the song is Martin serenading someone with the oldest trick in the book: “Look at the stars, look how they shine for you, and all the things that you do.” It’s a big fat “Aw!,” and it gets me every time.

“Yellow” is one of Martin’s few straightforward lyrics. For the band’s second album, Martin started singing in free-floating slogans. “Am I part of the cure? Or am I part of the disease?” is a line from “Clocks,” perhaps the group’s loveliest song. The music evokes the song’s name, revolving around three circling and falling piano arpeggios. The payoff comes when Martin stretches out the words “you are” in a falsetto sung over the piano figure. You are what? Go figure, and I haven’t the slightest idea what is going on with the “tides” and the “clocks” in the lyrics. Doesn’t matter. “Clocks” is a big-budget “Ooh!” with lots of pretty lights—it works. At the end of the song, Martin repeatedly sings, “Home, home, where I wanted to go.” There’s the only part you need take note of—an essentially conservative sentiment, and probably a comfort zone for a guy who grew up thinking he wasn’t particularly cool and lost his virginity at the age of twenty-two.

I’ve always wanted to like Coldplay for just that attribute. They’re a band of nice young lads being rewarded for niceness. But on the band’s third album, “X&Y,” a need to Signify Something began to overwhelm the charm. The little bouquet of roses on the doorstep became an oversized vessel filled with cloying, synthetic gas.

The title track of “Viva la Vida”—also known as the “iPod song,” because it is used in an Apple ad—is easily the best thing about the album. Don’t go to the lyrics for any cues; it is entirely obscure why such a jaunty, upbeat song would be referencing “Roman cavalry choirs” or revolutionaries or St. Peter. Martin is the king? Was the king? Whatevs. Coldplay knows how to build a song that draws you in with easy, karaoke-ready moves. I spent a weekend hearing an eight-year-old and an eleven-year-old sing the song (fighting about the lyrics, and sometimes rewriting them), and I never tired of the melody. After that, though, you are on your own. There are Eno touches that catch the ear: the chattering strings and bell-like keyboards that close out “Death and All His Friends,” or the timbre of the instrumental “Life in Technicolor,” which sounds like it’s emanating from the end of a long metal tube. “Technicolor” is one of the album’s few concise, concentrated pieces of writing; the rest sounds both incomplete and puffed up, like scraps of previous records scrambled and rearranged. This upending of their style isn’t even radical enough to be bad. “Viva la Vida” is an album that keeps going out of focus, a series of disconnected pieces that is impossible to hold on to. And why are they wearing all those vaguely military jackets? What’s with Liberty leading the people on the cover? They must know that beyond the cozy confines of London there are a couple of major conflicts going on. It does not feel like the moment, especially for such a vague band, to be playing with any symbols of war.

2005年的一期泰晤士報中，喬恩帕雷利斯(Jon Pareles)把英國搖滾組合酷玩樂隊稱爲“十年內最難以忍受的樂隊”，而且歸咎於樂隊的名譽負責人和歌手馬丁，並稱他做“消極好鬥的吹牛大王”。今年早些時候，由連鎖酒店Travelodge贊助的一份研究對2248名英國人的睡眠習慣進行了調查，研究表明酷玩樂隊名列牀頭音樂的首位。他們的音樂能明顯減輕該酒店所謂的“現代生活壓力”。其實馬丁也可以使用同樣的標準去評判他樂隊的音樂。 在上，你能發現將一張手寫的便條，寫着"6月12日星期四 倫敦"，並論及最近發佈的第四張樂隊專輯《Viva la vida or Death and all his friends》。網站上寫道：“今天我感覺到非常寬慰，專輯終於得以流入這個萬千世界”。我希望上面有歌曲能夠使糟糕的日子變得沒有那麼糟糕，把美好的日子變得更加美好。專輯在美國發布後，首個星期已售出超過七十萬張。 (自2000年樂隊的首張專輯《Parachutes》發佈以來，新聞消息總會說酷玩的命運關乎娛樂巨頭EMI的生死)。

究竟酷玩樂隊是EMI的救命稻草還是僅僅比較可靠呢？問馬丁也沒用。他把英式的羞怯風格轉爲對忍受虐待的信仰。 "我們確實搶了他們飯碗"，談到電臺司令時他這麼說道。他也說過"像世界上數百萬人一樣，我不能去聽酷玩的音樂"。不過他只說對了一半，酷玩樂隊的音樂的確偏好一種邋遢而又模糊的延長音，能讓人直接聯想到電臺司令的湯姆約克（Thom Yorke）和他的隊友。其實這種效果的鼻祖主要是U2，是他們創造了酷玩樂隊現在的演奏風格：這種搖滾顧及到了朋克的巨大改革，但仍然追求一種讓人心跳加速的，像進行曲那般的效果，正如70年代室內搖滾天王的音樂。換言之，就是指那種短小的流行歌曲，雖然你不完全知道在唱什麼，但它總能激起你巨大的情感，讓你激動得蹦蹦跳跳，振臂高呼。

布賴恩伊諾（Bryan Eno）監製的《Viva la vida》已經展示了專輯與U2的關係，因爲布萊恩曾經把U2原來活躍的足球音樂風格改造成深邃的催眠音樂風格，而後者則造就了他們以後的職業生涯。但問題是酷玩樂隊似乎沒有如此深度，也沒有波諾（Bono）或刀子（the Edge）那樣有特色的嗓音，而且U2他們能把吉他演奏得像伴唱。酷玩那些傢伙都很輕柔，他們最好的曲目也顯得不慍不火。 《Yellow》他們八年前的成名曲。當中有幾段吉他彈得像刀子演奏的鐘音，就是不斷重複在琴頸高處的小和絃。它使歌曲遠離了各種音樂流派而更加接近低音所帶來的迷幻效果(如果成功的話)。但該首歌曲的核心在於馬丁用經歲月洗練的歌詞所吟唱的這段小夜曲："Look at the stars, Look how they shine for you, and all the things that you do."然後是豐富飽滿的一聲"ah-"，每次都能觸動我的心絃。

馬丁直抒胸臆的歌曲爲數不多，《Yellow》是其中之一。在樂隊的第二張專輯中，馬丁開始使用較爲自由的歌詞。"Am I part of the cure? Or am I part of the disease?"這句歌詞來自可能是酷玩最動人的歌曲——《Clocks》。 旋律照應了歌曲名，一直圍繞着三個重複的鋼琴下行琶音。 而高潮出現在馬丁隨着鋼琴用假聲唱出的"you are"。但曲中的"你"是什麼呢?自己去猜吧。歌詞中的什麼"tides"和"clocks"我還完全沒有頭緒。不懂也沒關係，重磅大碟《Clocks》在一片歡呼與光芒中的隆重推出取得了巨大成功。而在歌曲的結尾，馬丁反覆低唱"Home, home, where I wanted to go。" 只有那部分你才注意到他的那一份本質上深藏的情感，潛藏在小夥的心底的安全區域：這是一個從小就自認不是特別酷的男孩，是一個22歲時擁有了初夜的男孩。

我總想出於這一點而去喜歡酷玩樂隊：他們是一夥因善良而獲得回報的年輕男孩。 但是樂隊的第三張專輯"X&Y"，一種張示某種東西的慾望開始掩蓋他們的魅力。 猶如門前臺階上的一小束玫瑰變成了一個發漲的罐頭，還充滿了令人反胃的人造毒氣。

《Viva la Vida》的同名歌曲也叫"iPod歌"，因爲蘋果公司用來做了廣告。它無疑是該專輯的亮點。但爲什麼這首輕鬆活潑的，積極向上的歌曲竟與"羅馬騎兵唱詩班"或革命者或聖彼得扯上了關係？這的確讓人很費解，你也不要期望在歌詞中能找到頭緒。馬丁是那國王嗎? 曾經當過那國王嗎?管他呢。酷玩樂隊知道如何去創造一首歌，能夠用簡單的卡拉OK節奏把你吸引住。我聽着8歲和11歲的小孩唱這着首歌度過一個週末(雖然他們歌詞都不熟，有時還改詞)但我從不厭煩這首歌的旋律。 然而一曲終了，只有你獨自一人能夠感受到。曲中不乏伊諾式的悅耳魅力：低訴的絃樂與鐘聲般的鍵盤能將"死神和他所有朋友"都關在門外；而純器樂曲《Life in Technicolor》的音色，則像從一個長金屬管的末端中發出的絕響。《Life in Technicolor》也是專輯裏少數短小精悍的曲目之一，其它的曲目聽上去又空虛又不完整，像前一專輯的片段被打碎之後再重組，然而當中的破壞元素又夠不上叛逆。《Viva la Vida》這張專輯將繼續淡出人們視線，這一系列斷斷續續的專輯是很難讓人追隨的。另外他們爲什麼都穿上那些曖昧的軍裝?封面上帶領着人民的除了自由是什麼? 他們一定知道在舒適的倫敦之外還有幾起主要的衝突在進行着。但把戰爭的元素加進演奏當中，特別是對於這樣一支風格模糊的樂隊，好像還不是時候。