416. The Roots, "Things Fall Apart"

 

There is just so much to like about this album, an absolute listening pleasure that I heretofore had never heard all the way through (Phrenology being my intro to the Roots and the only album I ever really explored).  I guess it falls under the "alternative rap" heading, and it is definitely reminiscent of other alternative rap stuff like Tribe Called Quest and some De La Soul.  But definitely its own thing, due I think to the incredible rapping of Black Thought, Malik B, and others.  And not just the lyrics - which are also great, of course - but the way they wrap their voices around a line, punctuate it just right, and mold it to the beat and the music under it.  It's magical.

See what I mean?  I really love the way the whole song is put together, from the vocal parts (including that little background vocal; it sounds like a choir but I suspect it's not) to the Fender Rhodes to the steady backbeat.  And the whole album is like that.  It sounds so well thought-out, but also spontaneous.  That's hard to do.

One more note, about the cover, which is one of the most arresting we've encountered so far.  Here's a great article about it.  

"The album cover, created by Kenny Gravillis, initially came with a choice of five different designs before one was settled upon. The cover that remained saw a photo of two black women running away from the police in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighbourhood of Brooklyn during a riot in the 1960s. The fear and the anguish was palpable in the faces of the women. The photo was in monochrome, with only the title of the album 'things fall apart' etched in red."