The easy-flowing Things Fall Apart made the Roots one of the most popular artists of alternative rap's second wave. Anticipated nearly as much as it was delayed, the proper studio follow-up, Phrenology, finally appeared in late 2002, after much perfectionist tinkering by the band -- so much that the liner notes include recording dates (covering a span of two years) and, sometimes, histories for the individual tracks. Coffeehouse music programmers beware: Phrenology is not Things Fall Apart redux; it's a challenging, hugely ambitious opus that's by turns brilliant and bewildering, as it strains to push the very sound of hip-hop into the future. Despite a few gentler tracks (like the Nelly Furtado and Jill Scott guest spots), Phrenology is the hardest-hitting Roots album to date, partly because it's their most successful attempt to re-create their concert punch in the studio. ?uestlove's drums positively boom out of the speakers on the Talib Kweli duet "Rolling With Heat"; the fantastic, lean guitar groover "The Seed (2.0)" (with neo-soul auteur Cody ChesnuTT); and the opening section of "Water." The ten-minute "Water" is the album's centerpiece, a powerful look at former Roots MC Malik B.'s drug problems that morphs into a downright avant-garde sound collage. Similarly, lead single "Break You Off," a neo-soul duet with Musiq, winds up in a melange of drum'n'bass programming and live strings. If moves like those, or the speed-blur Bad Brains punk of "!!!!!!!," or the drum'n'bass backdrop of poet Amiri Baraka's "Something in the Way of Things (In Town)" can seem self-consciously eclectic, it's also true that Phrenology is one of those albums where the indulgences and far-out experiments make it that much more fascinating, whether they work or not. Plus, slamming grooves like "Rock You," "Thought @ Work," and the aforementioned "The Seed (2.0)" keep things exciting and vital. If this really is the future of hip-hop, then the sky is the limit. [The two hidden bonus tracks are "Rhymes and Ammo," the Talib Kweli collaboration that appeared on Soundbombing, Vol. 3, and "Something to See," another techno-inflected jam.]
Review by Steve Huey
| Track | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Phrentrow | :18 |
| 2 | Rock You | 3:12 |
| 3 | !!!!!!! | :24 |
| 4 | Sacrifice | 4:44 |
| 5 | Rolling With Heat | 3:42 |
| 6 | Waok (Ay) Rollcall | 1:00 |
| 7 | Thought @ Work | 4:58 |
| 8 | The Seed (2.0) | 4:27 |
| 9 | Break You Off | 7:27 |
| 10 | Water | 10:24 |
| 11 | Quills | 4:21 |
| 12 | Pussy Galore | 4:29 |
| 13 | Complexity | 4:47 |
| 14 | Something in the Way of Things (In Town) | 7:16 |
| 15 | [Untitled Track] | :20 |
| 16 | [Untitled Track] | :20 |
| 17 | [Untitled Track] | 7:59 |
| 18 | [Untitled Track] | :07 |
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by yoda soda on A Thousand Years |
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by julycast98 on Glee |
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I think that the second verse is Past sixteen, just been kiss... by Lottiedadd on Seventeen [*] |
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I think its funny and cool I mean I listen to it every day I like... by crystal jones 101 on Thrift Shop |
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There's nothin' like the classics by Regicide on Bad Moon Rising |
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by pepea4 on Just Give Me a Reason |
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She is very beautiful and strong by belieber_gymnast on Demi Lovato |
What do you think about Phrenology?