The Roots - Phrenology: The Officially Certified Cliche Review

[Cliche]

what a week for me.. Kweli and now The Roooooooots! admittedly my favorite group on the face of the planet... i will make a strong attempt to avoid bias.

1. Phrentro
2. Rock You
3. !!!!!
4. Sacrifice ft. Nelly Furtado
5. Rolling With Heat ft. Talib Kweli
6. Waok Roll Call
7. Thought At Work
8. The Seed 2.0 ft. Cody Chestnut
9. Break You Off ft. Musiq Soulchild
10. Water
11. Quills
12. Pussy Galore
13. Complexity ft. Jill Scott
14. Something In The Way Of Things ft. Amerie


phrentro... subdued little intro leading into....


"Rock You"  hard beat... so nice to hear Thought again... lyrically this song is dope and the beat is really well done...

"!!!!!" is just crazy instrumentation with dude rapping in a distorted scream type flow... the instruments are dope... this reminds me of interludes on "Labcabincalifornia"....

"Sacrifice" tempo shift... not totally slow but much slower... Thought rips the track again... i could swear that quest singing with nelly on the hook.... the beatboxing at the end of the joint is nice ... not much of a guest spot from fine ass ms. furtado

"Rolling With Heat" Kweli is on the hook... this beat is kind of crazy... hard to describe the sounds/instruments used... sounds like a spaced out kazoo or something... Kweli flows real nice on the first verse... the second hook sounds like quest again but i dunno... BT rips the second verse.. this beat is just wierd but im digging it

WOAK Roll Call ... interluuuuude... dopeness, you'll hear many cats shouted out including outkast, ATCQ, grandmaster flash, DOC, PE, Fugees, Digital Underground etc...

"Thought At Work"  been loving this shit for almost a full year... they livened up the beat with what i believe is some horn.... this song is hype...

"The Seed 2.0" when i first saw "Cody Chestnut" i figured he was some country cat... still no clue...but it sounds like it on the hook... the guitar used is really nice... and the flow BT uses is fresh... i like the beat a lot

"Break You Off" the first single, i dig it a lot... it reminds me a lot of "You Got Me", but the vibe is different at the same time.

"Water" okay... this shit is 10:24 long.... basically the song ends around 4 minutes and morphs into about 6 minutes of instrumental shit honestly i could've done without the extra 6 minutes... its not bad just... overkill to me.

"Quills" head nodding beat... Thought flows nicely over it... very nice song... the kind of song i enjoy from The Roots... little changing of the radio stations outro... sliding nicely into...

"Pussy Galore" another song i heard a loooooong time ago.. im still suprised this is on here... but its a good song, just been around a while...

"Complexity" ... beat is very smooth... jill scott is on the hook, which is fine with me... she adds a nice touch to this track... very soulful

"Something In The Way of Things" another monster.. clocking in at 7 minutes.  in the tradition of the roots it's a combination of poetry and instrumentation... not sure who the poet is, but its not their usual female poetess...

overall there's nothing bad about this album, and there's a lot of good things going on... some crazy experimentation in terms of beats.. and black thought is amazing on the mic throughout.  the only shortcoming of "Phrenology" is matching up to the previous catalog of The Roots... i don't see it as groundbreaking as DYWM, as straight out dope lyrically and hard as Illadelph, or as laced with bangers as Things Fall Apart ... its just a different project... its got a softer vibe through big parts of the album... its instantly up there for best album this year for me... although it feels kind of short... just because some tracks were soooo long... only 14 tracks... but i can listen end to end as always

i give it a 4.5/5

[Doggystylin]

ima have to check this out.....i havent been a huge roots fan but i like their shit

[=[Euthanasia]=]

4.5, after only a few listens, thats great. I'm really looking forward to hearing/buying this, i've only heard "Break You Off" so far and I really like. I would like to hear the rest of it but my computer is giving me hassle at the moment, i'll just wait and cop it now.

[Doggystylin]

this album has some real dope tracks but like cliche said i could have done without the extra 6 minutes on water. and theres a lot of extra shit on here that shouldnt be on here