Phrenology

1	Phrentrow 0:18
2	Rock You 3:12
3	!!!!!!! 0:24
4	Sacrifice / Nelly Furtado 4:44
5	Rolling With Heat 3:42
6	Waok (Ay) Rollcall 1:00
7	Thought @ Work 4:58
8	The Seed (2.0) / Cody ChesnuTT 4:27
9	Break You Off / Musiq (Soulchild) 7:27
10	Water 10:24
11	Quills 4:21
12	Pussy Galore 4:29
13	Complexity / Jill Scott 4:47
14	Something in the Way of Things (In Town) / Jill Scott 7:16
15	[Untitled Track] 0:20
16	[Untitled Track] 0:20
17	[Untitled Track] 7:59
18	[Untitled Track] 0:07

Barnes & Noble

You would think that after winning a Grammy, backing Jay-Z on his MTV Unplugged venture, and appearing in a Coca-Cola commercial, the Roots would be ready to floss and reap the benefits of mainstream acceptance. But after one listen to the sixth album from Philadelphia's pioneering, decade-old rap band, it's clear that the six-man collective has no intention of selling out. In fact, they've become even more experimental. Loaded with cameos from an eclectic mix of artists including Talib Kweli, Nelly Furtado, and poet Amiri Baraka, Phrenology is by far the Roots' most challenging album to date. With the addition of guitarist Ben Kenney, rapper Black Thought, drummer ?uestlove, the fellas prove, as do their colleagues Mos Def and Saul Williams, that live hip-hop can rock the house -- most notably on tracks such as the punk-flavored "!!!!!!!" and "The Seed (2.0)," featuring Terence Trent D'Arby–reminiscent newcomer Cody Chesnutt. The Roots once again get mellow on the neo-soul tip in the vein of their Grammy Award–winning song "You Got Me" with Erykah Badu; "Break You Off," features Philly neighbor Musiq; "Quills" samples Swing Out Sister with vocals from Tracey Moore of the Jazzyfatnastees; and the jazzy "Complexity," spotlights Jill Scott. The guys really get to flex their creativity, however, on the ten-minute "Water," where avant-garde guitar god James "Blood" Ulmer leads the Roots into the psychedelic underworld of free jazz. And it's that kind of progressive musical vision that keeps the Roots essential to today's hip-hop. Ron Hart

All Music Guide

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.] Steve Huey

Rolling Stone

With their fifth studio record, Phrenology, they finally become what we've always hoped they would be: a hip-hop band that strikes a very funky balance between righteousness and humor, between headbanging grooves and truth-telling. Pat Blashill

The Fader

Phrenology is a staggering step away from the Roots' previous work. It comes as a fast and furious musical juggernaut, with the unit as a cohesive whole, rocking harder than their earlier pioneering work that spawned a thousand neo-soul dreams.