How do you approach the new Roots album? Are you looking for wordplay on par with Black Thoughts past triumphs, band interplay rivaling any other band playing now, or just to hear how closely or differently each new album sounds from their last record? These are valid questions and cover the range of tastes of any random Roots fan, I would wager. That’s not to say that any of these approaches are invalid, they just stem from the origins of your first contact with The Roots, whether you have listened to them since their first album or came along with Things Fall Apart or only became a fan recently. And it’s a matter of this introductive subjectivity that anyone approaching any review of How I Got Over is going to have to contend with, as it should be, I think.
In line with that subjectivity, How I Got Over falls right after Things Fall Apart in The Roots discography for me. While not containing as many comparable high points as that album, How I Got Over may well be a more cohesive album. The guests, including Jim James, Joanna Newsom and others, do add a needed diversity that was missing from their last few releases. On the strength of songs like “Right On”, the song where Joanna Newsom’s vocals sway and measure against an intimidating drumbeat, and “A Peace Of Light”, where some indie darlings commune with ghosts via an effective and eerie a cappella chorus, How I Got Over places itself rightly among the best of The Roots albums.
Tracklisting:
01. A Peace of Light
02. Walk Alone
03. Dear God 2.0
04. Radio Daze
05. Now Or Never
06. How I Got Over
07. DillaTUDE: The Flight of Titus
08. The Day
09. Right On (listen to the mp3 below)
10. Doin' It Again
11. The Fire
12. Tunnel Vision
13. Web 20/20
14. Hustla
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