Happenstance

这张专辑以情这个永恒的话题做主题，也因为Rachael Yamagata刚经历了一段破碎的感情，而使专辑整体呈现出一种消极、颓废的黑暗色彩。虽然叙述的是个人的、隐秘的情感生活，但Rachael Yamagata在词作上却摒弃了所有的“为赋新词强说愁”的文人情结，转而以非常简单直接的词汇毫无顾忌的述说着自己的痛苦、悲戚，越是简单越是容易入胜，在一段段排比、反复的文字冲击下，你甚至可以看见躲在音乐背后面对鲜血却不禁浮现出一丝冷笑的Rachael Yamagata。

这种冷笑在《Letter Read》里伴着Rachael Yamagata魔幻般的钢琴断奏敲击听来，就更容易叫人毛骨耸然，而这种内在的张力，确实是在Tori Amos之后就很难再听到了。当然，除了Rachael Yamagata在专辑里展现的创作才华之外，曾为Dave Matthews Band和John Mayer等大牌担任制作人的John Alagia同样功不可没，正是他在编曲上的平衡能力加上Rachael Yamagata爆发力十足的声线条件，才能使专辑里许多反复强调情感伤害性的“恨情歌”因此而更显得层次分明又多彩多姿。

这是Rachael Yamagata的首张专辑，也是一张很难具体归类风格的专辑，无论是《Paper Doll》和《Meet Me By the Water》里的低调民谣摇滚，还是《1963》里Elton John式的华丽钢琴摇滚，是《Even So》里大提琴勾勒出的黑色戏剧化吟唱，还是洋溢着一点点爱琴海风情的《I Want You》，又或者只是像《Worn Me Down》这样大大咧咧的美国高速高路摇滚乐，Rachael Yamagata的每一声沙哑的哀怨，转折时的嗓音变形和高音爆音喷泄时的飞沙走石都能将这些元素一一理顺，成为仇恨的所有因子，也难怪她的前男友会因为她的歌声而哭泣了。而她的声音也再次让人纪念起Tori Amos曾经年少的岁月，那么，趁着Rachael Yamagata还未老去的时候，还是让她尽情把我们折腾个够吧！

Happenstance is Yamagata's debut long-player; it is a logical and delightful follow-up to her acclaimed, self-titled EP. It features 13 listed tracks that are either self-penned or written in collaboration with producer John Alagía (John Mayer, Josh Kelly) and mentor/guitarist Kevin Salem. The cuts "Worn Me Down" and "Reason Why" carry over, but they have been completely re-recorded. It is an unabashedly lush, deeply textured pop record that makes no apologies for its radio-friendliness or its adornments. This album's elegance reflects a willingness to overreach—emotionally as well as in production. Yamagata's voice is full of elliptical slides and slurs; it swoops, croons, rasps, and whispers; it looks for the crack in a lyric in order to reveal the depth behind it. One can hear that same quality in vocalists such as John Martyn, Billie Holiday, the young Rod Stewart, Dinah Washington, Maggie Bell, and Jeff Buckley. That context embodies within it a certain kind of approach, one that fuses grace with grit, and passion with pathos, but also the slow, erotic burn of control and restraint, where heartache becomes the river on which everything is carried; it is given a voice, an unvarnished utterance. In its grain, phrasing is also a vehicle: for something that lies just beyond the scope of actual words pointing down and in, not out. It contains the pastoral languor of a summer afternoon combined with the emotional intensity of a gleaming stiletto opening a vein. The similarity here is in the quality of performance. Listeners can definitely hear traces of her influences, but these are woven into a fabric that serves the song, not the singer.

These tomes are haunted with the poetry of time-worn ghosts: Unrequited love, dislocation, desire, loss, anger, all drift and hover here, but sometimes, these songs offer the acceptance that allows these spirits to move on. There is a striking melodic and lyric balance weighted by the tension held between idealism and the sad, world-weariness of an assaulted, oft-betrayed heart. "Worn Me Down," with its killer U2 hook and deep strings, is the obvious single, but it's far from the best track here. The new version, with organic drums, spacy keyboards, and Salem's lead guitar shimmer, would be an anthem were it not for its lyric honesty. The strummed acoustic guitar that introduces "Meet Me by the Water" carries within it the murky terrain between a country ballad and jazzy pop song. In the middle of the track, Yamagata's piano makes room for Salem's slide guitar as he places a melody line from Stewart's "Mandolin Wind" down in the bridge. The lean blue-eyed soul in "1963" offers an entirely different dimension to Yamagata's vocal prowess that makes it a tough, sensual love song. "Even So" offers its confession of betrayal in a deliberately slow, gradually revealing narrative that cuts deep, revealing the harsh truth in the lyric without artifice. The album officially ends with "Quiet," a forlorn lullaby that glides into desolation in waltz time. Oliver Kraus' cello and the two pianos carry the melody and vocal lines into a kind of finality that never rules out the beauty of memory or the glimmer of hope that lies in all brokenness, the truth of which is borne out by a final, hidden track. Happenstance is a fine debut offering; Yamagata delivers the full weight of her talent as it now stands.