REVIEW: The Roots - How I Got Over

The Roots - How I Got Over
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The Roots have released nine, count 'em nine, full-length studio albums. They've also released two EPs and two live albums. Before I was ever a fan, they were playing house gigs at poetry slams, forging relationships with the likes of Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Common, and more. On top of that, legendary Roots crew percussion man ?uestlove was the lynchpin for all the acts at Dave Chappelle's Block Party, and the Roots remain the flyest house band ever on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.

Ok, so I'm a fan.

More recent releases from The Roots (Phrenology, Game Theory, and Rising Down) have often left me guessing. It's not that I don't like them, but the crew's journey through more experimental rock beats and disjointed tracks have never measured up to the powerful, tight, and rhythmically unmatched jazz markers The Tipping Point and Things Fall Apart (at least for this writer).

Enter How I Got Over, which contains some experimenting (see "Right On", which features Joanna Newsom), but is also a return to the deep and poetic grooves of records past. The Roots have even gone far enough to make tracks seamlessly flow into one another; the first three tracks on the album have varying vocals, but are definitely a package deal.

How I Got Over is a tribute to formulas that have worked for this group in the past, but it's a masterful one. There is an unreachable authenticity to ?uestlove and friends when they embrace instrumentation and go for more tangible layering than the buzzing and waving distortion of recent records. Black Thought maintains his power on the mic here (full disclosure: I've never been a lyrics freak), and while this record dips into some emotionality (see "Dear God 2.0"), it's his controlled and sage-like tone that holds your ear to the track.

The record has high points in "Dear God 2.0", "How I Got Over", and "The Fire"-feat John Legend. But beyond a song or two that snag your ear and make your head bob, this album is an opus. It's a combination of the Philadelphians' understanding of their hip-hop roots, the pop tunes they've recently tried out (see Rising Down's "Birthday Girl"), and some of the more experimental moments in transitions between songs. The Roots aren't just making more of the same music. After nine records, they're still building, and they're still evolving.