Phrenology (album)

Phrenology
Studio album by The Roots
Released	November 26, 2002
Recorded	June 2000–September 2002
Genre	Hip hop, neo soul
Length	60:47
Label	MCA, Geffen
Producer	DJ Scratch, The Grand Wizzards, Kamal Gray, Tahir Jamal, Omar the Scholar, Questlove, Karreem Riggins, Scott Storch, Zoukhan Bey
The Roots chronology
Things Fall Apart (1999) Phrenology (2002) The Tipping Point (2004)
Singles from Phrenology
"Break You Off" Released: 2002 "The Seed (2.0)" Released: March 31, 2003

Phrenology is the fifth studio album by American hip hop band The Roots, released November 26, 2002, on Geffen Records and MCA Records. Recording sessions for the album took place during June 2000 to September 2002.^[1] It was primarily produced by members of the band and features contributions from hip hop and neo soul artists such as Cody ChesnuTT, Musiq Soulchild, Talib Kweli, and Jill Scott.

Although it did not parallel the commercial success of the band's previous album, Things Fall Apart, the album reached number 28 on the US Billboard 200 chart and sold steadily, remaining on the chart for 38 weeks.^[2] On June 3, 2003, it was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, for shipments of 500,000 copies in the United States.^[3] Upon its release, Phrenology received universal acclaim from music critics, who praised its musical direction and lyrical themes, and it was included in numerous publications' year-end lists of the year's best albums.^[4]

Background

Following the breakthrough success of Things Fall Apart (1999), its release was highly anticipated and delayed, as recording took two years.^[1][5] The album is named after the discredited pseudoscience of phrenology, the study of head shapes to determine intelligence and character, which was used to rationalize racism during the 19th century in the United States.^[6] Its cover art was created by artist/printmaker Tom Huck.^[7]

Music and lyrics

Primarily a hip hop album, Phrenology features themes of hip hop culture and its commodification, with musical elements of rock, jazz, and soul music.^{[5][8][9][10][11]} According to music critic Greg Kot, the Roots forge a connection between hip hop and neo soul on the album.^[12] A production of the Soulquarians collective,^[13] the album features contributions by Cody ChesnuTT, Musiq Soulchild, Talib Kweli, and Jill Scott.^[1]

On "Something in the Way of Things (In Town)", Amiri Baraka performs a poem about how the spirit of death and decay permeates African-American urban experiences. Set to a fusion of several African-American music influences, his poem observes "something in the way of our selves" and uses unusual imagery such as death "riding on top of the car peering through the windshield" and a "Negro squinting at us through the cage" with a smile "that ain't a smile but teeth flying against our necks".^[14]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
Blender	[15]
Robert Christgau	A−[16]
The Guardian	[8]
Mojo	[17]
Pitchfork Media	8.1/10[9]
Q	[18]
Rolling Stone	[19]
Slant Magazine	[10]
Spin	8/10[20]

Phrenology received universal acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 87, based on 23 reviews.^[21] Mojo hailed it as a "masterpiece",^[17] and Dave Heaton of PopMatters called it "an impressive, ambitious work". Heaton commended the Roots for "filling their sound out and pushing it in a variety of directions", with a form of "tight soul/funk" that "sounds even more exact, funkier and edgier" than on Things Fall Apart.^[22] Chicago Sun-Times writer Jim DeRogatis gave it four out of four stars and called it "a near-classic right out of the gate, an urgent, raucous and thought-provoking 70 minutes that mine the musical territory between hard hip-hop and smoother Philly soul".^[23] Blender‍ '​s RJ Smith called it "a celebration of self-determination, a nonstop joyride through some very complicated brains".^[15] Alexis Petridis, writing in The Guardian, found the Roots "exclusively capable of absorbing other genres", while the "more straightforward hip-hop" is "idiosyncratic and hugely enjoyable".^[8] Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani called the album "subtly progressive" and said that the lyrics "challenge the commodification and subsequent destruction of hip-hop culture".^[10] Rolling Stone writer Pat Blashill observed "a startling array of hip-hop reinventions".^[19]

Allmusic editor Steve Huey said that the album is "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." He also called it the band's "hardest-hitting" album because they successfully "re-create their concert punch in the studio."^[1] Robert Christgau of The Village Voice gave Phrenology an "A-",^[16] indicating "the kind of garden-variety good record that is the great luxury of musical micromarketing and overproduction".^[24] Christgau complimented Kamal Gray's "keyb hooks" and stated "[B]elieve that after years of racial mythology, they've found it in their talent to put black music's long tradition of tune and structure into practice".^[16] The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004) gave it four-and-a-half stars and cited "Water" as a highlight, "that begins with the age-old Bo Diddley beat and ends as an extended musique concrète-style instrumental fantasia".^[5]

Track listing

• Information is adapted from the album's liner notes.^[7]

 • (co) Co-producer

Sample credits/notes

• "Thought @ Work" contains elements from the composition "Apache" by The Sugarhill Gang, "Jam on the Groove" by Ralph McDonald, and "Human Beat Box" by The Fat Boys. According to Questlove, recording artist Alicia Keys "drop[s] in" on the track.^[7]
• "Water" comprises three parts, noted in Questlove's liner notes as "a. the first movement / b. the abyss / c. the drowning", and contains elements of "Her Story" by The Flying Lizards.^[7]
• "Quills" contains elements of "Breakout" by Swing Out Sister and features guest vocals from Tracey Moore of the Jazzyfatnastees.^[7]
• "Pussy Galore" contains elements of "Because I Got It Like That" by the Jungle Brothers.^[7]
• Tracks 15, 16 and 18 are silent blank tracks.^[1] Track 17 is divided into two untitled songs, identified as "Rhymes and Ammo", originally from Soundbombing III (2002),^[25] and "Thirsty!".^[26]

Personnel

Credits for Phrenology adapted from Allmusic.^[27]

Musician

Production

Charts

See also

• Soulquarians

References

Bibliography

• Nathan Brackett, Christian Hoard (eds.) (2004). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide: Completely Revised and Updated 4th Edition. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8. 

External links

• Official website
• Phrenology at Discogs (list of releases)
• "Between Grooves" by the Los Angeles Times