I was sitting in the bath while reading this post and the post Bombastic wrote referencing the decline in vitality in albums released by The Roots since Phrenology and an idea popped into my mind which could explain the increasing level of stiffness in their music.

Dilla is no longer a contributor.

As much as Game Theory is a protest of the Bush-era politics of its time, it could be argued that the anger and frustration in that record was informed by Dilla's passing.

The following four were made without ANY influence from Dilla, who was in many ways Quest's ultimate collaborator. Quest's ability to create landscapes for The Roots was never in question, but Dilla had a way of making those albums sound both of their time but forward leaning.

These last three records have been forward thinking and artistically interesting, but lacking the spark and emotion of their early albums had, especially TFA and Phrenology.

So, even though the band is probably as skilled and hungry as the band ever have been, without Dilla's yin to ?uest's yang The Roots aren't going to be able to strike that balance of protest and soul music that they were great at making in their prime.