The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Friday, October 18, 2019 — 5

The alias Blood Orange is etched in Dev 
Hynes’s discography. He does embrace other 
noms de plume, though, and assigns each to a 
signature style. But “Lightspeed Champion,” the 
spacy, genre-defying brand that carved a delicate 
niche in the R&B and soul game, never gained 
the traction that Blood Orange has. The latter’s 
dreamy, sometimes melancholic synth-pop has 
given Hynes the recognition he deserves from 
artists Empress Of, Carly Rae Jepsen and A$AP 
Rocky. And since the release of Negro Swan last 
fall, Hynes has been on a creative streak, releasing 
an EP Angel’s Pulse this summer and Fields last 
Friday. 
Fields is a significant departure from any work 
previously released. A classical music album, it’s 
published under Hynes’s official name alongside 
Third Coast Percussion. Hynes composed all the 
music in a digital audio workstation and sent the 
recordings and sheet music to the members of 
Third Coast Percussion to arrange and orchestrate 
for their own instruments. “This was the first 
time I’ve written music that I’ve never played, 
and I love that,” Hynes said in a press release. 
“It’s something I’ve always been striving to get to. 
Seeing what Third Coast Percussion had done with 
these pieces was magical.” This relationship is 
symbiotic, with Third Coast Percussion partaking 
in the collaborative energy and increasing the 
potential to reach new groups of people. 
An 11-song-suite titled “For All Its Fury” gives 
way to “Perfectly Voiceless” and “There Was 
Nothing,” the two final tracks on the album that 
each individually span more than ten minutes. The 
songs of the suite have been regularly performed 
live along with “Perfectly Voiceless,” which was 
intended as a musical 
interlude. 
Despite the new 
packaging, the album 
doesn’t stray too far 
from the conventions 
of a Blood Orange 
album. 
Within 
its 
dreamy 
membrane 
are 
songs 
that 
reach for particular 
emotions 
within 
us, 
striking 
the 
good and the bad 
in 
equal 
measure. 
A 
contemplative 

aura radiates throughout the project as one song 
leads to another, especially within the “For All 
the Fury” suite. The songs are characteristically 
sparse and embody a minimalistic appeal, keys 
and flutes beckoning in a new emotion the way 
synths generally would in a Hynes album. At 
its core, this album, especially within the suite, 
strives to tell a story. 
Intro track “Reach” is sheer. It wades in a pattern 
of sparse glockenspiel and sharp xylophones 
that loop over a subdued, humming percussion 
that slowly gives way to plinking bells. There’s 
a wistful, nostalgic energy as the song gently 
invites listeners to follow along in the eleven track 
journey. Conversely, its follow-up “Blur” conveys a 
somber side. The title is fitting, as a hazy buzz that 
revs with only a few chimes to offset the tension 
dominates the track. This general pattern of 
zigzagging from serenity to anxiety develops the 
album track by track. It triggers and blends both 
emotions well, most notably in “Curl,” a brief track 
with a background sound akin to a car trudging 
through the snow. All of this culminates at the end 
of the suite with eponymous “Fields.” It traverses 
effortlessly through xylophone and glockenspiel 
based choruses that build over one another. In its 
last stretch, a chaotic rhythm with too many beats 
at once — a fascinating conundrum, given the 
minimalist appeal of the entire album. 
Concluding with “Perfectly Voiceless” and 
“There was Nothing” is questionable. The tracks 
are undeniable standouts, especially the former, 
but they operate on a different plane than the very 
cohesive “For All Its Fury” and keenly differentiate 
themselves with their combined 23-minute length. 
Though they borrow similar elements from the 
suite, they’re more lavish and stretch themselves 
over longer schemes like a slow burn. 
As an introductory project between Dev Hynes 
and Third Coast Percussion, Fields functions as 
a stunning mashup 
between forces. The 
album 
effortlessly 
embraces the magic 
of 
both 
artists 
in 
its 
captivating 
portrayal of emotions 
and 
diligent 
instrumentals. 
Despite 
its 
sparse 
appeal, 
this 
burgeoning 
branching-off 
from convention is 
rich, 
exciting 
and 
addictive.

Another compelling album
& iteration of Dev Hynes

ALBUM REVIEW

The CW’s new teen mystery series “Nancy Drew” is 
far more CW than it is Nancy Drew. Despite the similar 
character names and occasional cheeky references to the 
original book series’s titles, there is not much carrying the 
iconic girl detective’s legacy in this gritty reboot.
The series premiere of “Nancy Drew” opens on the 
titular sleuth’s hometown legend of a beauty queen who 
committed suicide the night she won her title. Nancy 
wins the same crown years later and spots the girl’s ghost 
in a cemetery, and the story transitions into Nancy’s 
abandonment of her teenage mystery solving after the 
death of her mother.
Still living at home a year after graduating high school, 
Nancy spends her time waiting tables at a local diner 
with George, her manager and former classmate, and 
Bess, a city girl summering in the beach town. She also 
is revealed to be casually hooking up with the show’s 
version of book character Ned Nickerson, who now goes 
by “Nick” and is a mechanic with a dark secret. After these 
four and the diner’s dishwasher stumble upon the body of 
a rich socialite from out of town, they become the prime 
suspects in her murder investigation.
As the group of less-than-friends works to clear their 
names to the police, Nancy finds herself reluctantly 
reentering the amateur detective game and uncovering 
secrets about the victim, the other suspects and even her 
own family members. Mounting evidence reveals that the 
ghost of the tragic beauty queen may be seeking revenge 
on the town and ends the episode looming over Nancy 
as she kneels over the 
recovered dress the girl 
wore when she died.
“Nancy Drew” itself 
is not a bad show. In fact, 
it has plot twists and 
character reveals fellow 
CW show “Riverdale” 
wishes it could pull off. The 
mystery is compelling, the 
setting is spooky and the 

characters are more complex than expected. Where the 
show falters, however, is in its strange relationship to the 
rest of the Nancy Drew franchise.
Throughout the premiere, the show makes it 
exceedingly clear this isn’t your grandmother’s Nancy 
Drew. The title character maintains almost none of her 
iconic traits of optimism and friendly resourcefulness and 
substitute it with aloofness and intense arrogance to prove 
Nancy’s struggle with grief has warped her personality. 
While the original book series’ happy disposition may 
seem out of place in modern television, the overt attempts 
(particularly the gratuitous sex scenes) to make the show 
edgy are ridiculous and almost laughable.
Again, on its own, the show could work. It lays a 
foundation for the kind of drama and intrigue that thrives 
on the CW network and embraces the fun of a local urban 
legend as a backdrop. However, by forcing the Nancy 
Drew label onto a show that desperately tries to shirk all it 
represents, it feels like the writers are struggling to strike 
a balance between old and new.
“Nancy Drew” really, really doesn’t want to be 
“Nancy Drew.” So why does it bother? With the success 
of “Riverdale” and “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,” 
it’s easy to assume these shows work because they are 
updated versions of popular classics. By embracing more 
adult themes for shows aimed at teenagers, “Nancy 
Drew” assumes it can gain a following through overlaying 
salacious material on a wholesome series. Unfortunately, 
this combination misses the mark and suffers because of 
it.
If “Nancy Drew” wants to justify its attachment to 
its source material, the solution lies in returning to what 
made the books so timeless: focusing on the thrill of a 
mystery, rather than the complexities of the characters. 
Sure, the Depression-era 
Nancy Drew may not 
be memorable on her 
own, but the escapism 
of her stories captivated 
audiences for a reason. 
“Nancy Drew” could do 
the same; it just has to 
focus on being fun, not 
inexplicably steamy and 
comically ominous.

‘Nancy Drew’ is having a
televised identity crisis

DIANA YASSIN
Daily Arts Writer

TV REVIEW

“Fractured,” directed by Brad Anderson 
(“The Machinist”), is a psychological thriller 
meant to make viewers doubt themselves and 
their observations. It follows Ray Monroe, 
played by Sam Worthington (“Avatar”), in a 
hospital that has no record of his six-year-
old daughter having 
ever been admitted.
Though the movie 
begins 
slowly, 
it’s 
well worth the wait. 
Throughout 
the 
entire first quarter 
of the movie, the 
film 
is 
saturated 
with 
dark, 
muted 
colors, 
slowly-
building piano music and unnerving action 
that makes the audience aware of the trauma 
that awaits. When it does, it takes a turn that 
no one is expecting.
Worthington’s dedication to the portrayal 
of Ray Monroe is what makes the story and 
character so believable. The movie centers 
around this man, lost and confused in a rather 
terrifying and unnatural situation, which 
makes Worthington’s role crucial to making 
the story plausible and moving it forward. 
Because we see events unfold from his 
perspective, we are naturally seeing what he 
sees, believing what he believes. The audience 

can’t help but side with him, and that’s 
the point. “Fractured” makes the audience 
sympathize with a man lost in a confusing 
world, then makes them doubt him and then 
brings it back to sympathy (before finally 
ending with doubt once more).
While there are surely other stories and 
movies that are similar in plot and maybe even 
in direction, the unsettling nature of this film 
is truly what makes it stand out. The film is 
purposefully slow and dragged-out so as to 
make the audience 
wonder how it will 
end. 
And 
after 
a 
solid ending begins 
to slowly form and 
the audience begins 
to feel confident in 
their understanding 
of how the plot will 
unfold, 
the 
movie 
takes a turn that 
is wholly unexpected at the time and yet 
completely predictable after the fact.
The 
ending, 
though 
not 
completely 
satisfying in the traditional way, is somehow 
perfect. It drives home the idea that no one 
can really understand anything or believe 
what is even right in front of his or her face, 
which makes it completely satisfying in its 
own right. The chilling final scene left me in 
shock as I wondered how I missed something 
so obvious. Coupled with Worthington’s 
stellar performance as Ray Monroe, that 
single moment of shock and wonderment 
makes the movie worth watching.

‘Fractured’ makes for a
spooky, satisfying whole

SABRIYA IMAMI
For The Daily

THE CW

Fractured

Netflix

NETFLIX

FILM REVIEW

ANYA SOLLER
For The Daily

Fields

Devonte Hynes, Third Coast 
Percussion

Domino Records

When Billboard removed “Old Town Road” from 
the Hot Country chart in early April, media and 
listeners alike were quick to shout racism. And with 
good reason. Lil Nas X is Black and country music 
is known for its whiteness and conservatism. Then, 
when Blake Shelton released his single “Hell Right” 
near the end of the record-breaking “hip-haw” hit’s 
reign, the lyrics “Then the girl from the small town 
took off the ‘Old Town’/ put on a little Hank Jr.,” 
reignited the argument that country music is racist, 
after Hank Jr. compared Obama to Hitler and was 
removed from EPSN. As a white, life-long country 
music fan, I followed the saga closely and was 
disappointed in Billboard and Blake. In the midst of 
country music’s identity crisis, why else would only 
the Black country rapper be excluded? While there’s 
no excuse for Lil Nas X’s unequal treatment, I’ve 
found the full story to be a bit more complicated than 
it looks at first glance. 
Today’s country music stars include Hootie and the 
Blowfish frontman Darius Rucker, R&B influenced 
Kane Brown and traditional-leaning up-and-comer 
Jimmie Allen. All Black men, all successful under the 
country label. Additionally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t 
acknowledge the powerful Black men in country 
that came before them, including Charley Pride and 
Ray Charles. Pride recorded 30 number one hits 
spanning 1966 to 1987 and Charles’s 1962 release 
Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music sold 
extremely well. (All this said, it should be noted there 
aren’t any Black women in mainstream country music 
today, likely because of the compounded difficulties 
they face from being part of both a gender and race 
that the genre marginalizes.)
But country music isn’t just whiteness with a 
few token Black male artists. Country music is 
fundamentally both Black and white. Hear me out. In 
the early stages of country music, black artists were 
often left out, which painted the entire genre as one 
just for white individuals. Additionally, the banjo 
has African roots. There’s plenty more to the story 
of country music’s origins, but regardless, it’s clear 
that at its birth the genre was never the ultra-white 
Anglo-Saxon Protestant music it’s been made out to 
be today. 
So what is country music then? Country artists 
and fans have been arguing about this over radio 
waves and in YouTube comments for years. What 
“real” country music is always seems to be what was 

happening 20 years ago, no matter the decade. Still, 
instruments like the banjo, fiddle and acoustic guitar 
are generally understood as “country.” Working-class 
themes and rural imagery are also accepted as well 
as lyrical storytelling. These loose requirements also 
tend to push that country music reflects “real life” 
and has a deeper meaning. But again, all of these 
“rules” have exceptions and conditions like having 
“meaning” are up for interpretation.
“Old Town Road” doesn’t tell a story. It doesn’t 
feature a fiddle or a banjo and I’m not sure what its 
“deeper meaning” is. But this doesn’t let the Nashville 
executives who kicked it off the chart off the hook. 
In other ways, “Old Town Road” is absolutely country 
music. Another piece of its history, the reason that 
“country” was recorded in the first place was to make 
money. Lil Nas X’s commercial success is the stuff 
Nashville dreams about. Also, the artist himself has 
a “country”-esque origin story as he is both from the 
South and self-made. Finally, in a genre where what’s 
authentic is constantly up for debate, the artist’s self-
identification as “country” holds a lot of weight. If 
Lil Nas X says his song is country music we should 
believe him like we believe Sam Hunt.
Ultimately, Lil Nas X’s juggernaut defies genre. 
That’s part of what made it so popular. However, 
if the success of “The Git Up” by Blanco Brown, a 
Black country rapper, is any indication, the genre 
was already making room for “Old Town Road” 
predecessors. The hip-haw “Cupid Shuffle” spent five 
weeks atop the Hot Country chart and was generally 
made welcome by the country music community. 
Although both songs can be dismissed as fun, Tik 
Tok-ready genre-blending earworms, refuting the 
idea of country music as white music is not only 
empowering but historically accurate. 
So, what were the intentions behind Billboard’s 
removal of “Old Town Road” from the country chart? 
Likely a mixture of racism and genuine anxiety over 
the preservation of “authentic” country music. But, as 
noted before, attempts at either are futile. The genre 
has never been fully white and is characteristically 
ever-changing. Even songs supposedly poised 
against the rise of artists like Lil Nas X actually 
lean in to what he’s doing. Remember “Hell Right,” 
the Blake Shelton song that takes a jab at “Old Town 
Road” from the beginning? It uses autotune in its 
pre-chorus. That’s why I’m expecting to hear a lot 
more about “the horses in the back” against hip-hop 
instrumentals in the future.

‘Old Town Road’ revisited

MUSIC NOTEBOOK

KATIE BEEKMAN
For The Daily

Nancy Drew

Series Premiere

The CW

Wednesdays @ 9 p.m.

Read more online at 

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