Thursday, April 9, 2020 — 5 Arts The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com MCA NASHVILLE MUSIC REVIEW If you were a country music fan in 2014, you either loved, or loved to hate, Sam Hunt. His unabashed devotion to mashing R&B into country music and his clean cut, city-boy image made for scathing fan debate fodder. Whether you sang along to his clever twists of phrasing out loud or under your breath, Hunt’s music was unavoidable. Nearly every track on his debut album Montevallo became a hit. Then, for the most part, he disappeared. Hunt’s return with his sophomore effort Southside finds him with some explaining to do and with the potential to become even more divisive. Despite having nearly six years to put it together, Southside is incredibly messy. Following up a massive success is tricky enough, and Hunt’s lack of commitment to any particular direction only exacerbates the problem. The result is a Frankenstein’s monster of an album. Not only are there chunks of country, pop and R&B, but songs released in years past have been haphazardly sewn onto the body of work as well. The project is falling apart at the seams; Southside feels like it’s trying to separate into two different albums. The album opener “2016” is promisingly subdued. Hunt retraces the choices he made that year, now wishing he could “put the whiskey back in the bottle / put the smoke back in the joint” and devote all of 2016 to his longtime on-again, off-again girlfriend (now wife), Hannah. It’s refreshing. Hunt swaps his cool guy persona and heavy reliance on hip-hop beats for an honest, apologetic country sound. Logistically, “2016” is a useful explanation for why Southside took so long. Hunt has struggled a lot with fame and preserving his relationship — experiences that should amount to a substantive album. That’s why the next track and current single “Hard to Forget” is such a let down. It’s irritatingly catchy radio candy. Listening through the album, one can’t help but feel duped. For every glimmer of hope that a mature and grounded Sam Hunt will emerge, there’s a song like the patronizing “That Ain’t Beautiful” that dashes it. The potential for a self-aware, growth- centered album peeks through in Southside, but so does an album that’s merely trying to replicate his earlier Montevallo — and Hunt’s indecision leaves him with neither. One throughline in Southside is that country fans’ genre quarrels have clearly gotten under Hunt’s skin. Traditional country instrumentation has been lathered over top of this R&B-driven record a bit unevenly. On the tail end of the otherwise pop heavy “Young Once,” the listener catches a fiddle solo. “Hard to Forget” samples the 1953 country song “There Stands the Glass” by Webb Pierce. “Let It Down” pulls off the country R&B combination best. Hunt talk-raps until the chorus bursts into a recognizably country riff complete with pedal steel, dobro and banjo. For all of Southside’s identity crises, the album’s biggest head-scratcher is its inclusion of the track “Body Like a Back Road,” which was a hit two years ago. Alongside “Downtown’s Dead,” another single from 2018, these tracks feel like zombies on a project that’s supposed to breathe new life into Hunt’s artistry. That’s why “Breaking Up Was Easy in the 90’s” elicits a sigh of relief. The social media savvy break up anthem confirms that Hunt still has it. “It” being the ability to smooth-talk his way into an infectious just-barely-country song. The only forgivable inclusion of an old Hunt song is the album closer “Drinkin’ Too Much.” Like “2016,” this song has shock-value. “I’m sorry I named the album Montevallo,” Hunt confesses, Montevallo being the name of his wife’s hometown. He goes on to detail their rocky relationship, then calls her out by name, even though he acknowledges that she wants her privacy. It’s painful and raw and unfair. Still, “Drinkin’ Too Much” holds the key to why Hunt’s country rap experiment worked in the first place — the genres intersect in brutally honest storytelling. With Southside, Hunt holds onto his titles: the first mainstream country rapper, the most controversial artist in Nashville and, yes, the “Drake of country music.” But he’s sloppy about it. Hopefully it won’t take another six years for him to get a little more vulnerable. Sam Hunt’s ‘Southside’ is a monster of an album KATIE BEEKMAN Daily Arts Writer FILM NOTEBOOK Revisiting Hollywood and Bollywood, side by side SABRIYA IMAMI Daily Arts Writer I grew up watching Bollywood movies. I sang the songs even though I didn’t know what I was saying, I did the dances despite the fact that I couldn’t (and still can’t) dance and I watched the stories unfold onscreen, enthralled by the colors, the music and the beauty. It wasn’t until I was older, maybe a teenager, when my mom burst my naive childhood perception of Bollywood by saying: “You know these are all copies of American movies, right?” No. I did not know that. However, once I came to that realization and began watching some of those American movies, I was shocked by how similar they were. I decided to rewatch some of these Hollywood and Bollywood pairings to compare them and see just how similar they were once placed side by side. “Hitch” (2005) and “Partner” (2007) “Partner” is by far the most obvious remake of its Hollywood counterpart, “Hitch.” Both feature a “cool guy” who fixes up a “not-so-cool guy” with the girl of his dreams even though she’s way out of his league, while simultaneously falling in love himself. I mean, there are some scenes that are exact recreations of the original: the boardroom scene, the whistling scene, even the scene where Albert (Kevin James, “Paul Blart: Mall Cop”) sprays water on his pants is exactly copied in “Partner” when the same thing happens to Bhaskar (Govinda, “Happy Ending”). The two films are so similar that the creators of “Hitch” may have threatened suit against the creators of “Partner.” There are some differences though, I’ll admit. For example, I don’t recall a five-minute segment of a missile chasing Alex (Will Smith, “Men in Black”) on a jet ski in “Hitch,” do you? Well, that did happen to Prem (Salman Khan, “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai”) in “Partner.” There also isn’t a mob boss who’s after Sara (Eva Mendes, “The Other Guys”) in “Hitch,” though there is one after Naina (Lara Dutta, “Don 2”). Despite the shocking similarities — and some glaring differences — “Partner” is much less refined than “Hitch.” Salman Khan cringily swaggers as a “love guru,” whereas Will Smith confidently strides in his role of the “date doctor.” Kevin James thoughtfully pauses in his character’s attempt to win over Allegra Cole (Amber Valletta, “Gamer”), but Govinda thoughtlessly obsesses in his pursuit of Priya Jaisingh (Katrina Kaif, “Dhoom 3”). The characters in “Partner” feel like caricatures compared to their more mature and believable Hollywood counterparts. The whole film is a little ridiculous, complete with awful special effects and scenes that leave you in jaw-dropped horror due to the sheer awkwardness unfolding on screen. However, I’ll admit: It’s hilarious. “When Harry Met Sally” (1989) and “Hum Tum” (“Me and You,” 2004) I know that there’s a Bollywood movie called “When Harry Met Sejal” that is a more obvious remake of the classic rom-com “When Harry Met Sally,” but “Hum Tum” is definitely the original remake. Similar to “When Harry Met Sally,” “Hum Tum” follows two characters who run into each other many times over the course of their lives until they fall in love. Not surprising in Bollywood, though, “Hum Tum” is much more unnecessarily dramatic than “When Harry Met Sally.” There were even parts of “Hum Tum” that my mom used to skip because she thought it would be too sad for us to watch. Another difference between the two films is that “Hum Tum” has a cartoon aspect in it; Karan’s (Saif Ali Khan, “Kal Ho Naa Ho”) comic book characters Hum and Tum fight and debate often on whether or not girls and boys can be just friends, which is of course, a common topic for debate in “When Harry Met Sally.” The relationship between Rhea (Rani Mukerji, “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai”) and Karan is a little more chaotic than Harry (Billy Crystal, “Forget Paris”) and Sally’s (Meg Ryan, “Sleepless in Seattle”), too. They “meet” more times and face more difficulties than their Hollywood versions because they don’t become friends for a while. And when they do become friends, Karan tries to set Rhea up with one of his friends, not realizing that she likes him. All in all, it is very dramatic. I won’t lie, though: Maybe it’s because I watched “Hum Tum” before I watched “When Harry Met Sally,” or maybe it’s because “Hum Tum” has some really great songs, but I like “Hum Tum” more. That might be blasphemous to Hollywood traditionalists, but I honestly don’t care. “John Tucker Must Die” (2006) and “Ladies vs. Ricky Bahl” (2011) “John Tucker Must Die” is probably one of the best examples of a cliche high school rom- com. There’s a basketball star, a cheerleader, a shy nobody … basically all the essentials. “Ladies vs. Ricky Bahl” isn’t quite like that, I’ll admit, but there are some huge similarities, the most prominent being that there are three girls who team up and recruit a fourth girl to get revenge on a guy. The biggest difference, though? In “John Tucker Must Die,” the male protagonist is a high school playboy, and in “Ladies vs. Ricky Bahl” the guy is a high- stakes conman. So in “John Tucker,” the girls want revenge on John (Jesse Metcalfe, “Christmas Under the Stars”) because he was cheating on all three of them at the same time, but in “Ricky Bahl” the girls want to con Ricky to get their money back from him. These movies aren’t the exact same — that’s clear. But the endings of the films are probably what set them apart the most. “John Tucker” ends with Kate (Brittany Snow, “Pitch Perfect”) parting somewhat amicably with John Tucker and moving on to a different love interest, whereas “Ricky Bahl” closes with Ishika (Anushka Sharma, “Band Baja Baaraat”) and Ricky (Ranveer Singh, “Band Baja Baaraat”) beginning a genuine, con-free romantic relationship. These movies may be pretty different, but they’re similar enough that it’s hard not to draw comparisons between them. However, I’ll admit: “John Tucker Must Die” has that iconic rom com appeal which makes it a little more enjoyable and lighthearted than “Ricky Bahl.” “Dead Poets Society” (1989) and “Mohabbatein” (“Love Stories,” 2000) When I found out that people compared “Dead Poets Society” and “Mohabbatein,” I wasn’t sure that I agreed. After watching the films, I’m still not totally sure that I do. However, there are some obvious similarities that you can’t ignore. In both films, there is a teacher who has unconventional ideas and changes the lives of his students by teaching them to defy conformity. In “Dead Poets Society,” Mr. Keating (Robin Williams, “Mrs. Doubtfire”) teaches his students about individuality through literature and poetry … but in true Bollywood fashion, Raj Aryan (Shah Rukh Khan, “Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham”) teaches his students about individuality through music and love. That isn’t entirely surprising, given the fact that the title “Mohabbatein” literally means “love stories.” “Dead Poets Society” is an incredible, meaningful film that has you sobbing by the end, but “Mohabbatein” is not even close to that. It’s three and a half hours of cheesy, forced love stories and very few good songs, which is what really makes it a Bollywood disappointment to me. ‘Southside’ Sam Hunt MCA Nashville Records Read more online at michigandaily.com