6

Thursday, May 19, 2016
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
ARTS

MUSIC REVIEW

‘Scandal’ hype 
slowly derailing

By ALEX INTNER

Summer Managing Arts Editor

During the season five episode 

of “Scandal” titled “Thwack,” the 
story seemed to be zipping along. 
Then, 
with 
a 

“Thwack,” 
all 

momentum 
completely 
collapsed. Olivia 
Pope 
(Kerry 

Washington, 
“Django 
Unchained”), 
who has been 
held up as a white hat for justice 
(despite some dark marks on her 
name), murders the former Vice 
President of the United States. 
The episode revisits a point of 
huge emotional turmoil in Olivia’s 
kidnapping and was actually doing 
quite well up until the “Thwack,” 
but it changes her character in a 
completely unnecessary manner.

This episode is representative 

of the fifth season of “Scandal” 
as a whole. Every time the drama 
seemed to be taking a step forward 
in both regaining narrative focus 
and creating a compelling story, it 
took two back. For every episode 
focusing on a presidential debate, 
there was one pulling the show 
deeper into the B-613 hole. It’s 
frustrating 
because 
there 
are 

points at which the series puts out a 
moment, sometimes a fleeting one, 
which reminds me of why I loved it 
in the past, but those are starting to 
become fewer and farther between.

Many of “Scandal” ’s problems 

seem to revolve around one key 
group of characters, and the finale 
doubles down on keeping them 
around as key parts of the show. One 
of the major conflicts was an inane 
story involving Jake Ballard (Scott 
Foley, “The Unit”) trying to get 
Olivia to save him from her father, 
Rowan (Joe Morton, “Eureka”). It 
ends up not with an Olivia win, but 
rather with Rowan getting what 
he wanted all along: Ballard on the 
Republican ticket alongside Mellie 
Grant (Bellamy Young, “Criminal 
Minds”).

I’m tired of B-613 as both a group 

of characters and a plot device. The 
series uses it to artificially inflate 
the drama, but I can only listen to 
so many monologues from Rowan 

about how he’s not only doing this 
for his own power, but rather for the 
the people he cares about. There’s 
only so many times I can see Rowan 
commit some horrible act to gain 
power. There’s only so many times I 
can see Olivia lose to these people. 
The show views these characters as 
viable antagonists, but it’s repeating 
the same devices over and over 
again until they lose their impact.

Though Rowan and Jake were 

involved 
the 
whole 
way, 
the 

election storyline was a glimmer 
of hope among the B-613 bullshit. 
The Republican battle between 
Mellie and Vice President Susan 
Ross (Artemis Pebdani, “Another 
Period”) 
made 
for 
compelling 

television. The plot twisted and 
turned in a traditional “Scandal” 
manner, as the characters plotted 
to win their ideal candidates the 
nomination. The campaigns fought 
bitterly, stabbing each other in 
the back and digging up dirt on 
each other, and the ups and downs 
of their candidacies were highly 
entertaining.

What especially made the fight 

engrossing was how it tested the 
relationship between Olivia and 
Abby (Darby Stanchfield, “Mad 
Men”) by pitting them against one 
another. Their friendship has always 
been a powerful core of the show. 
Olivia has always been a mentor 
to Abby, so to see them battle, 
and to see Abby betray Olivia by 
thinking about using Liv’s abortion 
against her and accidentally telling 
President Fitzgerald Grant (Tony 
Goldwyn, “Tarzan”) about it, pained 
my heart. It brought a new level to 
the relationship, and, in a season 
in which the series used quite a bit 
of repetitive storytelling, it made a 
huge difference.

All “Scandal”’s problems are a 

damn shame, because there’s still 
a great show somewhere in there. 
Shonda Rhimes (“Grey’s Anatomy”) 
and crew have driven themselves 
too far into the weeds. The finale 
pushed further into the depths of 
this terrible storyline, which doesn’t 
leave much hope that it can course-
correct and save itself. Maybe 
there’s a glimmer in the next season 
only being 16 episodes, instead of 
22 (requiring tighter storytelling), 
but unless they dump B-613, the 
potential could easily be lost.

‘Pool’ a graceful release

Radiohead brings 
a much-welcome 
maturity to “Pool”

By ANAY KATYAL

Summer Senior Arts Editor

Radiohead has a long history of 

its releases containing a rare level 
of profundity. And in their thirty-
some year exis-
tence, 
their 

staying power 
is only a testa-
ment to their 
continued 
lyrical and cre-
ative 
solidity. 

With A Moon 
Shaped Pool, it 
was hard for 
fans to know what to expect — 
the band’s illustrious discography 
has commented on arguably every 
major aspect of life and society 
one could imagine. But in their 
ninth release thus far, Radiohead 
exchanges continued social com-
mentary for material only tell-
ing of their everlasting ability to 
work both listener’s minds and 
ears. Contained within A Moon 
Shaped Pool is a kind of wisdom 
that can only be afforded to a band 
whose content and thoughts have 
garnered 
continued 
relevancy 

decades after its release, provid-
ing listeners with an exploration 
of their emotions, thoughts and 
ideals. The band has always flirted 
with experimentation, but, in Pool, 
Radiohead brings a change of con-
tent that serves as the perfect hom-
age both to the kind of material 
they’ve put out and the reputation 
it has cemented for them. It’s an 
enlightening level of maturity from 
a band already lauded for its astute 
body of work.

Much of Pool’s material has 

either been leaked in some form or 
teased by the band at various con-
certs over the past two decades. 
In the album’s opener, “Burn the 
Witch,” the band crafts a time-
less, but pointed, political mes-
sage, using the imagery of a lynch 
mob to frame the song’s message 
as a critique of the devolvement of 
Western society’s social discourse. 
Though recordings of the song have 
floated around for a little over a 
decade now, the song is as apt with 
today’s controversies over trans-
gender bathroom use and institu-

tionalized xenophobia as it is with 
the kind social issues that plagued 
society at the cusp of the new mil-
lennium. The string arrangements 
and subtle use of electronica (a 
contrast from Radiohead’s last few 
releases) bring to life the kind of 
melancholy engendered by those 
very social issues before descend-
ing into sounds of feral anger, illus-
trative of the state of the modern 
West’s political scene.

If Radiohead’s last few releases 

have been outward critiques of the 
various ill components of society, 
Pool is an exploration of the emo-
tions and feelings tied to those 
components. Rather than continu-
ing to criticize from the stands, the 
band has taken the opportunity to 
introspect on their longstanding 
thoughts and feelings, exchang-
ing lyrics with linear meaning 
for layered instrumentation that 
expresses their emotions better 
than any words could. Expansive 
and diverse in content, the album 
permeates with a divergent sound. 
“Ful Stop” and its vengeful synth 
descend into a palpable madness, 
juxtaposed with Thom Yorke’s sig-
nature moans and the band’s token 
interlacing guitar rhythms; “Tin-
ker Tailor Soldier Sailor Rich Man 
Poor Man Beggar Man Thief,” in 
all its reverberating glory, strad-
dles the line between acoustic and 
electronic sound, creating a rich 
sound bursting with wry feelings 
of dread and sadness. The instru-
ments throb, the lyrics wail and 
the listener unwittingly embraces 
sounds wrought with deep-seated 
emotion.

Closing the album is a much 

storied (and sought after) piece by 
Radiohead — crude concert record-
ings of “True Love Waits” have 
been floating around the internet 
for around two decades now, and 
the lack of an official studio release 
(bar its appearance on their 2001 
live album I Might Be Wrong) was 
met with the constant chagrin of 
Radiohead’s most loyal patrons 
(and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t 
among those complaining). The 
album’s version is bare-boned and 
raw, with nothing but a piano back-
ing Yorke’s croons. “I’m not living, 
I’m just killing time,” Yorke sings in 
a rather personal and transparent 
display of his psyche. Though the 
rich guitar and emotional depth in 
Yorke’s singing on past versions are 
still sorely missed relative to Pool’s 
spin on the track, the revealing 

humanity of “True Love Waits” is 
still a welcome addition to the bar-
rage of emotional fervor contained 
within A Moon Shaped Pool.

While Radiohead’s discography 

has a set of established fan 
favorites (ask a few Radiohead fans 
what their favorite songs are and 
you’ll probably find an amusing 
pattern), few underpin the band’s 
thematic approach as much as OK 
Computer’s “The Tourist.” Though 
its importance doesn’t really lie 
in its relative musical excellence 
(with plenty of other masterful 
songs it has to rub shoulders 
against on OK Computer alone), it’s 
a song emblematic of a philosophy 
that’s remained a constant in 
Radiohead’s work. With Jonny 
Greenwood’s 
shoegazey 
guitar 

anchoring the song and Yorke 
crooning lyrics like “Hey man, 
slow down, slow down / Idiot, slow 
down,” the song begs people to take 
a step back and savor what’s around 
them. Considering that, to judge a 
Radiohead record so closely after 
its release is a fairly futile task. 
With their penchant for layered 
lyrics and imagery that takes even 
the keenest of fans months (or 
even years) to fully comprehend, 
drawing an immediate appraisal 
out of thin air for a band like 
Radiohead, especially in today’s 
world of throw-away consumption, 
is a big ask. Even in my pre-
adolescent years, listening to In 
Rainbows thirty-some times in 
a row (while also wallowing in 
my budding angst) was the only 
way I could draw a conclusion as 
to what made the album so great. 
Considering that A Moon Shaped 
Pool is effectively the band’s most 
pointed, thoughtful and mature 
work to date, enjoying it like any 
other mainstream record out today 
would be doing both the band and 
its album a disservice. In their 
effort to erase themselves from 
the internet and tease the album’s 
release with a more orchestral 
single than what fans are used to, 
Radiohead harkens back to simpler 
days, separating any potential 
distractions from their work and 
boiling down their art to a rather 
bare, humble form — the strongest 
echo of the band’s undying credo 
to date. With its lyrical focus and 
messages of social and emotional 
consciousness, what’s the use of A 
Moon Shaped Pool if we can’t slow 
down a bit and embrace it for what 
it’s for?

A

A Moon 
Shaped Pool

Radiohead

XL Recordings

B-

Scandal

Season 5 Finale

Thursday at 9 p.m.

ABC

TV REVIEW

