美国国家公共电台 NPR Forget 2016 — Here's Some Of 2017's Best Music

 

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: 

Finally today, let's start the new year off with some music. Last week we brought you the hits from 2016, so this week we're going to look ahead at 2017 and check out some fresh new music.

(SOUNDBITE OF SINKANE SONG, "U'HUH")

MARTIN: Well, that was a good start. That is a song called "U'Huh" by the artist Sinkane. That's just one song NPR Music's Stephen Thompson has been jamming out to, and he's going to tell us more. Welcome back, Stephen Thompson. Happy New Year, thanks for joining us.

STEPHEN THOMPSON, BYLINE¹: Happy New Year to you, too. It's great to be here.

MARTIN: So Sinkane, came tell me more about them.

THOMPSON: Well, Sinkane's a really interesting musician. I believe based in Brooklyn now, but he's lived in London, in Sudan, in Ohio. And I think his music reflects kind of that globe-trotting nature.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "U'HUH")

SINKANE: (Singing) Well, I'm the first to say. It's all going to be all right. Been feeling that weight. It's all going to be all right. It's always been this way. It's always going to be all right. There ain't no golden days. We're always going to be all right. Kulu shi tamaam.

THOMPSON: If you're going to start off a discussion of the music of 2017, if you're looking at 2017 in general, you want a song where the chorus² says everything is fine, we're all going to be all right.

MARTIN: (Laughter) Absolutely. So he sings and plays all the instruments himself?

THOMPSON: Yeah, he's just a really, really talented and interesting guy. And I think that the music reflects that kind of searching nature. None of his songs sound like they're coming from one place in the world.

MARTIN: Speaking of, you know, getting music from the world and enjoying it, there's a band out of Mali that you want to talk about.

THOMPSON: Yeah, they're called to Tinariwen. They've been around for ages and really come of the worldwide consciousness³ in the last 10 or 15 years. They play I guess what you would call, like, desert blues⁴. They're from the Sahara Desert region in Northern Mali. And they're touring musicians who have sort of traveled the world over the course of the last, gosh, like nearly 40 years. And what I love about this particular song which is called "Sastanaqqam" is it sounds incredibly epic⁵ and flowing, and it feels like it manages to be searching and compact⁶ at the same time.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SASTANAQQAM")

TINARIWEN: (Singing in foreign language).

THOMPSON: And the guitars are killer⁷. So you can hear how it can be sort of trance inducing⁸ and to be brought into kind of a trance in a song that is that - that is that short. It's a three-minute, like, it's the length of a pop song.

MARTIN: Thanks for that. So let's go to something I think that might be a little bit more familiar to folks, a little hip-hop.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SHOTGUN")

LITTLE SIMZ: (Rapping) Company is maybe all I needed right now, and you're an easy target. Don't take that the wrong way, but ride shotgun with me.

SYD: (Singing) When I'm out you know I got one. If you don't, then you better cop one 'cause I always keep them rolling shotgun, shotgun, shotgun.

MARTIN: I think we've heard her before. This is...

THOMPSON: Little Simz. She's a singer and rapper from the U.K. And it's a little bit of a fudge to call this a 2017 record because it technically⁹ came out on December 16th, but we're going to let it slide because she's still - she's just still being heard for the first time. She just has this really kind of twisty wordplay that still feels like very just musical. It has that like a - almost a sweet quality to it, and she's a wonderful, wonderful live performer.

MARTIN: All right. We are going around the globe here. And next you have a Canadian band for us called...

THOMPSON: Japandroids. Like you said, they're a Canadian rock band, and their songs are all about, like, just, like, living the fullest possible life. And each song just feels like this kind of roll the windows down anthem¹⁰. But when you pick them apart, they have this real feeling to them. As a, you know, like kind of a dude in his 40s, these songs that are about, like, staying young even though you're getting old, they really speak to me directly. So the album and the song we're going to play here is called "Near To The Wild Heart Of Life."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NEAR TO THE WILD HEART OF LIFE")

JAPANDROIDS: (Singing) And it got me all fired up to go far away and make some music from the sound of singing, baby. Oh, oh. And it got me all fired up.

THOMPSON: So you get a lot of - in the chorus is you get a lot of (singing) whoa, whoa.

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: We need that.

THOMPSON: And we need that...

MARTIN: We need that right now.

THOMPSON: ...Especially in an album coming out in, like, late January, you know?

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: Absolutely, sludge season. All right, and so you've taken us around the world and we love that, but you cut right back to D.C., a local D.C. band, tell us more.

THOMPSON: Yeah, bringing it all home. The band is called Priests¹¹. And you listen to the song and it's got like kind of a real garage rock quality to it, kind of just like a classic, almost vintage rumble¹², but then the voice comes in. It's a woman named Katie Alice Greer, and she's got so much soul and power in her voice, and you just immediately think she is a rock star.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JJ")

PRIESTS: (Singing) ...And wrong. But I always felt like overrun and come baby, I think I kind of know what you're made of.

MARTIN: We got to go because we're rocking out in here so...

(LAUGHTER)

THOMPSON: We're having a moment.

MARTIN: ...We're having a moment. That's Stephen Thompson of NPR Music giving us a look ahead to some music of 2017. Stephen Thompson, thank you.

THOMPSON: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JJ")

PRIESTS: (Singing) ...Normal day. You were just a rich girl all live in a very big jacket on a very big...

MARTIN: For Sunday, New Year's Day, that's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Michel Martin. Let's keep the conversation going in the new year. Hey, make it a resolution to tweet us on Twitter @npratc. You can tweet me @nprmichel. We are back next weekend. Thank you for listening. We hope you have a great week.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 chorus   

n.合唱，合唱队，齐声

参考例句：

• Never before have I heard this song sung in chorus.我从来没有听过这首歌的合唱。
• The children repeated the words after her in chorus.孩子们跟她齐声朗读单词。

3 consciousness   

n.意识，觉悟，知觉

参考例句：

• The experience helped to change her social consciousness.这种经验有助于改变她的社会意识。
• He lost consciousness at the first whiff of ether.他一嗅到乙醚便失去了知觉。

4 blues   

n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐

参考例句：

• She was in the back of a smoky bar singing the blues.她在烟雾弥漫的酒吧深处唱着布鲁斯歌曲。
• He was in the blues on account of his failure in business.他因事业失败而意志消沉。

5 epic   

n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的

参考例句：

• I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗，而写了这个小故事。
• They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。

6 compact   

adj.紧密的，简明的，紧凑的；v.使紧凑，压缩

参考例句：

• It was a compact package.这是个捆得很紧的包裹。
• The article is compact and well organized.文章严密，又很有章法。

7 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

8 inducing   

产生诱导作用的

参考例句：

• The doctors attempted to reduce his high fever by inducing diarrhea with a purgative. 医生们尝试用通便药物催泻以使他退烧。
• The artificial ways of inducing sleep are legion, and are only alike in their ineffectuality. 人为的催眠法多不胜举，唯一的相同处是全都无效。

9 technically   

adv.专门地，技术上地

参考例句：

• Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说，这是最先进的设备。
• The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说，西红柿是一种水果，尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。

10 anthem   

n.圣歌，赞美诗，颂歌

参考例句：

• All those present were standing solemnly when the national anthem was played.奏国歌时全场肃立。
• As he stood on the winner's rostrum,he sang the words of the national anthem.他站在冠军领奖台上，唱起了国歌。

11 priests   

n.（基督教和罗马天主教的）神父( priest的名词复数 )；牧师；（非基督教会的）教士；祭司

参考例句：

• the ordination of women priests 女司祭的授职礼
• The clergy remain divided on the issue of women priests. 在女性教士的问题上，牧师们意见不一。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 rumble   

n.隆隆声；吵嚷；v.隆隆响；低沉地说

参考例句：

• I hear the rumble of thunder in the distance.我听到远处雷声隆隆。
• We could tell from the rumble of the thunder that rain was coming.我们根据雷的轰隆声可断定，天要下雨了。