I agree with a lot you said. This album sounds a lot like Tipping Point or its out takes especially those sing songy hooks. They are plain corny when you are trying to make a hard core statement.

Definitely not enough Thought on here, who sounds like a guest on his own record. His vocals need to be be turned up louder as well. After hearing this I felt the same way I did after TP. It was nice but when it's The Roots I expect more than that. It seems that after Phrenology they went somewhat low tech with TP, which is understandable. Game Theory combined the best of low and high tech but with Rising, they went to the low tech again.

After some more listens I will check in again. No matter what the verdict turns out to be on this I will forever love The Roots from making Phrenology, Do You Want More and Game Theory and also a nod to ?uest for co-producing Electric Circus.

I hope that the near universal acclaim the cd is given on these boards translates into larger sales than their last few cd's which were greeted with mixed opinions.