原文标题：
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·斯威夫特是否已达到了巅峰？
这位音乐家正处于她的商业巅峰，但还没有达到她的创作巅峰
[Paragraph 1]
TAYLOR SWIFT has a strong
claim
to being the most popular entertainer of the 21st century—and perhaps of all time.
泰勒·斯威夫特有实力成为21世纪最受欢迎的艺人--甚至可能史无前例。
Five of the ten most popular albums in America in 2023 were hers, according to Luminate, an analytics firm.
根据分析公司 Luminate 的数据，2023年美国10大最受欢迎专辑中，有5张都是泰勒·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.
她的专辑在Billboard排行榜前十名中连续在榜384周，打破了披头士乐队之前的纪录。
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，她正进行史上最赚钱的演唱会巡演。去年，她的巡演电影版票房收入超过2.6亿美元。
[Paragraph 2]
On April 19th she released a double album entitled 「The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology」.
4月19日，她发行了一张名为【苦难诗社：选集】的双专辑。
Over the course of 31 songs, Ms Swift wields her
scalpel
and
dissects
every inch of her recent relationships.
在这31首歌曲中，斯威夫特女士挥舞着手术刀，详尽剖析了最近几段感情的每一个细节。
Few songwriters have been better at
transmuting
heartbreak into hits.
很少有词曲作家能像她一样，将失恋的心碎转化为热门金曲。
(「The high」, as she sang on 「Blank Space」, has surely always been 「worth the pain」.)
（正如她在【空格】中所唱的那样，「高价值的事情值得经历痛苦」。）
Unfortunately, on this album, she has
eschewed
danceable pop for something as downcast as the title implies.
遗憾的是，在这张专辑中，她放弃了以往那些令人忍不住想随之起舞的流行乐曲，
转而选择了与专辑名称一样充满忧郁色彩的音乐风格。
[Paragraph 3]
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.
【我知道你是大麻烦 】和【我们再也回不去了】中令人难以抗拒、朗朗上口的齐声合唱已经消失，取而代之的是梦幻般的合成器音效、低沉的鼓声和慵懒的嗓音。
Ms Swift can do melancholy and wistfulness well.
斯威夫特擅长表达忧郁和惆怅的情绪。
Yet 「The Tortured Poets Department」 is
mournful
without being memorable.
然而，虽然【苦难诗社】流露出了哀愁之情，但不足以让人铭记。
For a woman who launched her career as a
precocious
country-singing teen, her new lyrics sound
jarringly
immature, with unimaginative
rhymes
.
对于一个以早熟乡村歌手身份出道的女歌手来说，她的新歌词显得不和谐也不成熟，韵脚也显得平淡无奇。
「Like I lost my twin / Fuck it if I can’t have him,」 she sings in 「Down Bad」.
例如在【Down Bad】这首歌中，她唱道：「就像我失去了我的双胞胎姐妹/ 如果不能拥有他，那就算了。」
[Paragraph 4]
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.
无论如何，许多霉霉粉依然在争先恐后地购买这张专辑，这足以证明泰勒·斯威夫特的巨星地位：在专辑发布不到一天的时间里，【苦难诗社】就在美国售出了140万张。
But some are breaking ranks to confess that they think the songs are underwhelming and samey .
但也有一些粉丝打破常规坦白地表示，这些歌曲平淡无奇且千篇一律。
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层次巅峰困境？例如从电影导演到首席执行官，似乎无人能幸免。
Perhaps no one—including her songwriting collaborators—wants to tell music’s biggest star that her tunes are bland.
也许没有人——包括她的歌曲创作合作伙伴——愿意告诉这位音乐界最耀眼的明星，她的曲子平淡无奇。
[Paragraph 5]
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，她自信满满地称自己 "如此高产，简直就是一门艺术"。
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」.
事实上，伟大的艺术家在名声最盛之时发布长篇双专辑并不罕见：比如披头士乐队的【白色专辑】中有30首歌，布鲁斯·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，这两张专辑若能经过更精细的剪辑，依然能够成为如今备受推崇的经典之作。
For Ms Swift, it is the quality of her output, not the quantity, that has set her apart from her peers.
对于斯威夫特来说，正是她作品的质量，而非数量，让她在同行中脱颖而出。
[Paragraph 6]
Ms Swift’s latest offering is some way short of her usual standard.
斯威夫特的最新作品与她一贯的水准有些差距。
In one of the songs, she claims to be in 「her glittering prime」.
在其中一首歌曲中，她自称正处于「光辉灿烂的巅峰时期」。
Fans both devoted and casual may wonder if the
lustre
is fading.
无论是铁粉丝还是路人粉，都会怀疑她的光芒是否正在逐渐黯淡。
（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量493左右）
原文出自：2024年4月27日【The Economist】Culture版块
精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路
本文翻译整理: Irene
本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用。
【补充资料】
（来自于网络）
【苦难诗社】【THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT】是泰勒·斯威夫特的第11张录音室专辑，由泰勒·斯威夫特、杰克·安东诺夫和亚伦·德斯纳制作。标准版收录16首歌曲，于2024年4月19日通过共和唱片公司发行。加曲版（THE ANTHOLOGY版本）收录31首歌曲，于标准版发行2小时后上线各大音乐播放平台。首日美国销量超过160万张。2024年4月21日报道，【苦难诗社】一上线即打破历史纪录，其在流媒体Spotify上的单日播放量达3亿次。
【重点句子】
（3个）
Few songwriters have been better at transmuting heartbreak into hits.
很少有词曲作家能像她一样，将失恋的心碎转化为热门金曲。
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层次巅峰困境？例如从电影导演到首席执行官，似乎无人能幸免。
For Ms Swift, it is the quality of her output, not the quantity, that has set her apart from her peers.
对于斯威夫特来说，正是她作品的质量，而非数量，让她在同行中脱颖而出。
自由英语之路
