The Roots - Game Theory - 2006 - Def Jam
Bookended between two tracks based on the works of J. Dilla who had just passed away unexpectedly, Game Theory is a brutally downer record. Look at that cover art - a hanging man upon ugly darkness. There is no partying on this album. It is a starkly bleek album. Heck, even Malik B's return after a severe drug problem seems somewhat stymied by the fact that he's relegated to "featuring" status rather than considered part of the band again. Sure The Roots have touched on serious matters in the past. But surely this is one of grieving. Which is to say that elements such as sadness and anger rise to the top. Throughout the years Questlove has praised the work of Public Enemy, but never have The Roots projected the sounds of PE quite like here. The instrumental tracks are a layered mess of noise. Black Thought's vocals are urgent, never playful. And perhaps even more telling are the drums. It's almost crazy to say that the drums sound livid - but there they are in almost every track bleeding into the red. In a sense this is the first real "concept album" by The Roots. In the same way that Dark Side Of The Moon is a concept album. This is a band that is disgusted by the world they live and know no other way of expressing it but to make an album. But beautifully, this means that the more proggy interests of the musicians comes out. Imagine a track like "In The Music" with no vocals, and it wouldn't even sound like it belonged on a hip hop LP. Or take "Atonement," which rides a reconstruction of Radiohead's "You And Whose Army?". This is an incredibly cathartic listen. And to a degree, it lets the listener of the hook with a couple of tracks smack dab in the middle - "Take It There" and "Baby" - which ease up a bit on the tone. But in a sense they really only serve as the eye of a hurricane. This is far from a feelgood record. But completely a commendable work of art.