The debut album from the celebrity production duo is a somber departure from their EDM days—a lifeless, anodyne pop record that wallows in basic feelings of regret andnarcissism.Commercial EDM thrives on triumph, each one greater than the last, andthe Chainsmokershave a bootstrap story as big as any in the game. When Drew Taggart and Alex Pall released “#SELFIE” in December 2013, they were relative nobodies trying to make a dent on the EDM scene. A month later,Steve Aoki’s Dim Mak label picked up the single—a novelty song about social media that suggested women are somehow more vain and annoying than men—and things started happening for the duo. But, like the viral spread ofBaauer’s “Harlem Shake,” the success of “#SELFIE” and its attendant backlash threatened to eclipse their fledgling career.
烟鬼的首专是他们EDM生涯的灰暗的开端——一张毫无生机、平淡乏味，充斥着懊悔与孤芳自赏情绪的流行专辑。商业电子音乐在不断成长，一次比一次更加成功，而烟鬼自力更生的故事与行业中其他人一样感人。当Drew Taggart和Alex Pall在2013年12月释出“#SELFIE”时，他们只是两个试图在EDM时代中留下痕迹的小人物。一个月后，Steve Aoki的厂牌Dim Mak收录了这支单曲——一支讲述了女人在社交媒体中似乎比男人更自负和恼人的新奇的单曲——然后这个组合的命运就发生了转机。但是，就像全球大火的Baauer的哈林摇，“#SELFIE”的成功所带来的后果和大众强烈的反对威胁到了他们初生的事业。

翻完直接发出来了，没有润色所以读上去很生涩惹

好难翻啊…我要死了

楼被吞了吗

This stylistic and emotional maturation is a big part of the narrative the Chainsmokers tell about themselves as party bros made good. The first lines we hear on the album are an apology: “You know I’m sorry,” sings a wounded, suspicious Taggart, sounding more like an emo singer than a superstar DJ, and it sets the brooding tone for an album preoccupied with breakups and betrayals. Musically,Memories… Do Not Openis of a piece with all of their output post-“Roses,” the single that marked their big shift. There are no big-room bangers, no concussive drops, no coked-up-mosquito-with-a-vuvuzela synth riffs.DiploandSkrillex’s big hit forJustin Bieber, “Where Are Ü Now,” serves as the template for their pneumatic pads and processed vocals. With few exceptions—like “Break Up Every Night,” a peppy pop-rock number that could be a more caffeinatedMAGIC!, or “Last Day Alive,” which features the country duo Florida Georgia Line in the musical equivalent of a poster of fighter jets—the duo and their 32 credited co-writers keep the tempos slow and the moods muted. It is an anodyne pop record for a post-EDM world, one where trap and trop-house mix with pale imitations of theMigosflow andColdplay’s cornball sentimentality. None of it sounds anything like “#SELFIE,” but its worldview is barely any bigger than that song's narrow perspective; toggling between cheap thrills and bitter recriminations with all the emotional stakes of a drunken beach fight caught on Snapchat.

在The Chainsmokers讲述他们的派对兄弟的故事中，体裁上和感情上的化脓占据了很大的部分。我们在新专辑上听到的第一句歌词是一句道歉：“你知道，我很抱歉，”展现了一个受伤的，多疑的Taggart，听上去更像是一位抒情歌手而不是一位DJ巨星，而且也为这张充满分手与背叛的专辑奠定了忿懑的基调。从音乐上来说，Memories…Do Not Open是标志着他们巨大转变的单曲“Roses”之后的同类歌曲的集合。没有big-room bangers（一种以简约韵律为特色的电子乐形式），没有具有冲击性的drop，没有嗑嗨了的蚊子吹着呜呜祖拉（这个我真的不知道怎么翻，可能就是表示一种音效）的合成器反复音节。Diplo和Skrillex为JB制作的大hit“Where Are Ü Now“就是他们气动的音效和处理过的声音的范本。当然也有例外——像“Break Up Every Night“，一首精力充沛的流行摇滚歌曲，听上去更像是喝了咖啡因的MAGIC！，或者是“Last Day Alive”，和乡村组合Florida Georgia Line合作，就像是一张战斗机的海报——这个组合和32位合作写手保持着缓慢的节拍和柔和的情绪。这对于后EDM时代是一张平淡无奇的流行专辑，是trap和trophouse与对Migos的flow苍白无力的模仿和Coldplay粗俗陈腐的多愁善感的组合。这张专辑没有一首歌听起来与“#SELFIE”相似，但是它的世界观不比那支单曲狭窄的观点大到哪里去；在cheap thrills和Snapchat上看到的海滩醉汉斗殴的的情感上的反责之间切换。

Taggart first sang on one of the duo’s songs with “Closer,” and its success seems to have encouraged him to take more of the spotlight here. His voice is capable, deep and boomy, and he hasa way with reaching down for the low notes that faintly resembles theCrash Test Dummies. His chief quality, though, in song as in interviews, is a kind of everydude relatability, mapped out in conversational lines like, “Fuck it, yeah, I said it.” It is indicative of the Chainsmokers’ irony: a #nofilter vernacular sung through countless vocal filters.

Taggart在组合的歌曲“Closer”中第一次献唱，这首歌的成功似乎鼓励了他去唱更多的歌（原文吸引更多的灯光）。他的声音可以胜任，十分低沉并且很景气，并且他有办法唱出略微像Crash Test Dummies的低音。然而他在歌中的歌词质量就像他在采访中的一样，是一种每个人都有的能力，把口语对话像地图一样展开，“去他妈的，yeah，我这么说。”可以看出Chainsmokers有这样的一个矛盾：用过滤过（修过）的声音唱着没有过滤过的方言。

Only “Paris” comes close to what they achieved with “Closer.” It’s enlivened by a similar ear for detail that flickers between the specific and the universal, and its us-against-the-world chorus has a way of reaching even the inner teen of even the most hardened listener. But too many of their songs writhe around in pettiness. “She wants to break up every night/Then tries to *** me back to life” takes the art of the couplet to a new low—though whether that’s lower than the same song’s “She’s got seven different personalities/Every one’s a tragedy” may depend upon your views on assonance, make-up sex, and mental-health shaming. “Wake Up Alone” wastesJhené Aikoon a song about worrying that once you’re rich and famous, people will only want to have sex with you for being rich and famous. And “It Won’t Kill Ya” pulls out all the stops—swaggering trap beats, horn fanfare, dolorous piano—for a song about hooking up before last call.

只有“Paris”十分接近“Closer”。它用了相似的音效，却有更多闪烁于现实和宇宙之间的细节是这首歌更有生气，并且它的我们与全世界抗争的副歌更能触及那些对什么都无所谓的听众内心的青春。但是他们的歌大多数写的十分小气。“她每晚都想和我分手，然后在和我来一场补救性爱（这个是意译）“这句歌词将对句的艺术带到一个新低的境界——然而这句是不是比同一首歌里的另外一句她“有七种不同的人格，每一种都是悲剧”更low需要读者你们自己去判断，这取决于你们自己对谐音，补救性爱和令人羞愧的精神健康的看法。“Wake Up Alone”将Jhené Aiko的歌声浪费在了这首担忧一旦你十分成功并且有钱，人们会因为这个想和你做爱的歌曲上。“It Won’t Kill Ya”使出了浑身解数——大摇大摆的trap beats，吹牛一般的号声，忧伤的钢琴——用在了一首关于在最后一通电话之前翻云覆雨的歌上。

For two guys who sell reckless abandon as a lifestyle, they're just not very fun to be around. The smirk they wore on “#SELFIE” is dwarfed by the massive chip on their shoulder—both as Artists Who Demand to Be Taken Seriously and more exhaustingly as Dudes Who Can’t Seem to Catch a Break. The narcissism comes to a head on “Honest,” in which the song’s protagonist is tugged between his faithful girlfriend and the temptations of life on the road. “Bloodstream” might best encapsulate the album’s spiritual void. You don’t need to read the duo’sexegesis(“We are often criticized for being ‘party boys’ in what seems to be an attempt to discredit our artistry, when in fact, our partying has led to some of our most sobering songwriting moments”) to grok that it’s another song about the perils of fame. “Those things that I said/They were so overrated/But I, yeah, I meant it/Oh yeah, I really ***ing meant it.” I’m not sure “overrated” means what he thinks it means here ifhe’s complaining that people have blown the duo'spoorly thought-through public statementsout of proportion.

对于两个以鲁莽的抛弃的生活方式为卖点的人，他们并不是你想一起相处的人。在“#SELFIE”中他们的假笑被他们肩膀上大量的薯片（芯片？我也不知道翻那个）所遮掩——既是想要被严肃对待的艺人，又是不能把持住自己的艺人。在“Honest”中这种自恋情结涌入大脑，这首歌的主角在一个深爱着他的女孩和生命路上的风景的诱惑之间变换。“Bloodstream”可能最好的压缩了专辑的精神空白。你不需要阅读组合的注释（“我们经常被批评是派对男孩，这看上去是为了败坏我们艺术才能的声誉，然而事实上，我们的派对时光给了我们一些最清醒的写歌时间）去知道这又是一首关于成名的危害的歌曲。“那些我说过的事情，他们都评价过高。但是那就是我要表达的意思，是的，我tm表达的就是这个意思。”我不确定“评价过高”在这里是否和他所认为的意思一样，如果他们只是在抱怨人们在批判他们那些未经完全思考的想法。

但是所有的这些并不是凭空发生的。尽管有着贯穿整张专辑的伤心的钢琴旋律的优势，The Chainsmokers仍然像一个制作和人生格言一样的音乐录影带的精心打扮自己的表演过火的演员。而这也是他们为什么如此流行的原因。烙印在他们首专的厌倦于获胜的悔恨与他们不满的啃食着现代文化有很大的关系，就像过时的少年把戏，命运多舛的情人和spring break blackout episodes（这个真心不知道想表达什么）一样。在它闪耀的伪装之下，Memories… Do Not Open是一个自我厌恶的潘多拉魔盒，既想用他们的方言俗语，也想让它显得十分有意义。没有人敢说他们的音乐有水平，就像“#SELFIE”，这只是一个流行文化的报告，而且我们也始终理解不了那个笑话（开头提到的）。但是他们音乐的几十亿次播放并不能否认：他们的手指触碰到了美国基本的，倒退的脉搏。