How I Got Over
Those into the minimal melancholy of 2008\'s *Rising Down* are in for more moody masterpieces with 2010\'s *How I Got Over*. The Roots\' ninth studio album touches on more dark and heady subjects like loneliness, perseverance, self-abuse, war, and even aspects of existentialism. \"Dear God 2.0\" is riveting and beautiful with haunting elements provided by Monsters of Folk. Blu, P.O.R.N. and Dice Raw contribute to \"Radio Daze,\" which is a little more buoyant thanks to some roomy, snare-heavy beats and a melodic hook in the chorus while Black Thought\'s ability to make complex phrasing move with a flowing cadence takes center stage. Things get a bit sunnier on \"Now or Never\" as both the tempos and melodies pick up a little. But you get a sense of why \"How I Got Over\" became the title-track from the first verse. It\'s overflowing with the classic tones of Philly soul, and not just in the instruments — Black Thought\'s heartfelt and controlled singing here reveals his best performance of the album, though he\'s upstaged by Joanna Newsom on the contagiously catchy \"Right On.\"
The Roots' latest is also their leanest and most stylistically cohesive LP to date. Guests include Joanna Newsom, Dirty Projectors, Phonte, Blu, and Jim James.
How I Got Over, The Roots’ ninth studio album, is both a radical departure from the group’s last effort, Rising Down, and a return to its early days. The angry, almost apocalyptic sound and bleak lyrics of Rising Down and its predecessor, Game Theory, seemed designed at least partly as an answer to, and apology for,…
The not-very-hip-hop Dirty Projectors, Monsters of Folk, Patty Crash, and Joanna Newsom contribute one way or another to How I Got Over.
When The Roots signed on to be the house band for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, it promised to be the first domino to fall in the famously accomplished band's evolution from innovators to near-ubiquitous NPR-friendly hip-hop stars.
They’re driven, even though their latest venture is stylistically the most inert, contemplative, offputtingly soft music they’ve possibly ever released.
Nine albums in, and the Roots have found a new trick to make them even more inventive, says <strong>Dave Simpson</strong>