Phrenology (album)

Following the breakthrough success of Things Fall Apart (1999), its release was highly anticipated and delayed, as recording took two years.[1][6] 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.[7] Its cover art was created by artist/printmaker Tom Huck.[8]

Primarily a hip hop album, Phrenology features lyrical themes of hip hop culture and its commodification, with musical elements of rock, jazz, and soul music.[6][9][10][11][12] According to music critic Greg Kot, the Roots forge a connection between hip hop and neo soul on the album,[13] while Entertainment Weekly writer Raymond Fiore calls it the band's "left-field rock-rap opus".[14] A production of the Soulquarians collective,[15] 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".[16]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	87/100[17]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Blender	[18]
Entertainment Weekly	B+[19]
The Guardian	[9]
Los Angeles Times	[12]
Pitchfork	8.1/10[10]
Q	[20]
Rolling Stone	[21]
Spin	8/10[22]
The Village Voice	A−[23]

Phrenology received widespread acclaim from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 87, based on 23 reviews.[17] Mojo magazine hailed it as a "masterpiece",[24] while Rolling Stone writer Pat Blashill said it has "a startling array of hip-hop reinventions".[21] Dave Heaton from PopMatters called Phrenology "an impressive, ambitious work" that shows the Roots "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.[25] In the Chicago Sun-Times, critic Jim DeRogatis gave the record 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".[26] Blender's RJ Smith called it "a celebration of self-determination, a nonstop joyride through some very complicated brains".[18] Jeremy Gladstone from Kludge felt the Roots had combined "complicated beats" with "complex lyrics" to produce a "shockingly honest sound".[27] In The Guardian, Alexis Petridis found the group "exclusively capable of absorbing other genres", while the "more straightforward hip-hop" is "idiosyncratic and hugely enjoyable".[9] Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani called the album "subtly progressive" and felt the lyrics "challenge the commodification and subsequent destruction of hip-hop culture".[11]

In a less enthusiastic review, Uncut magazine said Phrenology shows the Roots' "willingness to push the envelope of their organic jazz-rap" that is unparalleled but sometimes musically pretentious or indulgent, particularly on "Something in the Way of Things" and the coda to "Water".[28] AllMusic editor Steve Huey felt it 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] In his column for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau believed the Roots have finally discovered how to write tuneful and structured music on Phrenology,[23] as they "humanize their formal commitment with injections of singing and guitar".[29]

At the end of 2002, Phrenology was named one of the year's best albums.[30] It was voted the seventh best album of 2002 in The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of American critics.[31] The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004) later 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".[6] Phrenology was included in the 2010 reference book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die[32] and in Tom Moon's 1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die (2008). Slant Magazine listed the album at number 231 on its "Top 250 Albums of the 2000s" (2010). Based on such listings, Acclaimed Music ranks Phrenology as the 19th most acclaimed album of 2002 and the 177th most acclaimed album of the 2000s.[30]

Information is adapted from the album's liner notes.[8] "(co.)" denotes Co-producer.

Sample credits and 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.[8]
• "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.[8]
• "Quills" contains elements of "Breakout" by Swing Out Sister and features guest vocals from Tracey Moore of the Jazzyfatnastees.[8]
• "Pussy Galore" contains elements of "Because I Got It Like That" by the Jungle Brothers.[8]
• On the CD version of the album, there are 18 tracks instead of 16: 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),[33] and "Thirsty!", which is originally a track by Elektrochemie LK called "When I Rock".[34]

Credits for Phrenology adapted from Allmusic.[35]

• Soulquarians

• 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.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)

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