on these past three records and then of course in terms of the show.

He seems happy tho.

>They can be as dark and experimental as they'd like, but I'd
>really like a Roots album to have more than five or six Black
>Thought verses total.
>
He killed 'The Dark (Trinity)', as did Quest on drums, that's prolly my only true standout cut.

>That said, I do like this album, though not nearly as much as
>their previous efforts. I'm not at all in the camp of "The
>Roots have been getting worse for years." I thought "HIGO" was
>one of the best hip-hop of 2010.
don't remember what else was out that year but to me that was their weakest record until this one.

I think "Undun" was one of
>the top 10 hip-hop albums of 2011.

perhaps.

the story/concept/narrative was underwhelming tho, particularly after the Kendrick album that came out afterwards.

'Kool On' was dope, 'Other Side' goes live.

And this album definitely
>works on a good number of spots. Whenever he does rap, Thought
>rips it, and even through the much bally-hooed "dark"
>atmosphere, there's a lot of humor in the verses that hasn't
>been in many of their recent albums. But I'm definitely don't
>feel the compulsion to listen to this album obsessively like I
>have the ones that came before it.
>
I listened to this thing about five or six times in a row and couldn't tell you much about it.

>
>>As The Roots have amazingly become the world's greatest house
>band
>>sharing stages with the president & Paul McCartney on
>national TV,
>>it's pretty clear they're not even really trying that hard
>anymore on
>>these LPs.
>
>This part I disagree with. I think they're definitely trying
>hard. This album may not always work for me, but it's not
>boring. At all. And a boring Roots album would be a bigger
>sin.
>
We'll agree to disagree, this is an incredibly well-crafted but irredeemably boring album.

>
>>After their umpteenth 'challenging' indie-rock/art-hop album
>in a
>>row, the challenge The Legendary seem least up for taking on
>is
>>attempting to make entertaining music with any degree of rap
>energy
>>or rock danger.
>
>Eh, I'm not so sure I feel you here either. It's treading to
>close to the "Making 'challenging' music is easy, but making
>music that has pop value is what's really difficult" argument
>that I really, really, REALLY hate.
I skipped listing 'pop' because that's exactly what I'm *not* saying.

But this is like some new MOR/indie-rock/arty middleground record that obviously barely resembles a rap record but they're not 'rocking' either, Kirk's a great guitarist but on record they've never really found a way to let him loose.

They've got a horn section now too but you couldn't really tell.

They're a shit-hot big-ass multifaceted band that on recent records sounds like Quest & Poyser doing these Beatles/Radiohead-style pastiches.


And really, they already
>sorta went down that road with "The Tipping Point," which many
>hated because they thought it was too accessable and straight
>ahead and only really featured Black Thought (side note: I
>loved that album too).
>
I went to the Tipping Point release party when I still lived in Philly, that's been ten years now.

I'm just looking for something with a different mood, I don't need them going to call DJ Mustard.

Just perhaps a strong rap record or if you're gonna 'rock' actually do so.

Make a Meters album with Steve Albini producing.

I don't really care, I'm just saying we've seen this movie before a few times now.

>I don't think the situation is quite as bleak as you're
>painting it here. This isn't mid-'00s KRS, churning out album
>with weaks ('cause they're the only ones he has a budget for)
>and so far up his own asshole that it's difficult for him to
>breathe. This isn't 2009 Rakim, again saddled with poor beats
>and a complete lack of interest in rhyming. There's a lot of
>the Roots that I grew up loving on this album. I just think
>they need to refocus they're musical energy, for lack of a
>better term.

I'm not saying they're done, I wouldn't have bothered typing all that if I believed they were.

I'm just admitting I've reached The Tipping Point for these moody, metacritic-chasing, droning hook 'think piece' records.

It's become a default approach with diminishing rewards.