Thursday, September 23, 2010

Music Reviews In A Minute: The Roots - How I Got Over

This week, 8thlight introduced Music Reviews In A Minute as our new feature to the blog and now we are back with another installment. This time, we are reviewing The RootsHow I Got Over.

Again, to keep you familiar with the process, we rated each song on the album on a scale of one to five stars to come up with the final score (as we will do with all other album reviews from here on out, for both current and classic albums). Furthermore - in fairness, album intros, outros, interludes, and skits are not included in the ratings.

The set of red stars are my ratings and the set of black stars are 8thlight’s.

A total of 11 tracks were rated.


01. A Peace of Light (Intro/Skit)
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 (Interlude)
08. The Day: *****/***
09. Right On: ***/***
10. Doin' It Again: *****/*****
11. The Fire: ***/***
12. Tunnel Vision (Interlude)
13. Web 20/20: ***/***
14. Hustla: ***/***

Final scores, for How I Got Over:

78 - From me
69 - From 8thlight

All feedback is welcome.

10 comments:

Fe said...

How I Got Over is, for me already, the album of the year.

No, 8thlight, it doesn't have the boom-bap that The Roots are capable of, and that Black Thought shines on, but I do believe that Thought can showcase his skill without it. I don't think he did it as much on this album (too many guests), but the songs are meaningful and the music's great as usual. And the tone of this album does have a purpose, as evident by the lyrical theme and the short number of songs.

Also, it's a pity, at least in this case, that y'all don't rate the interludes. They were great.

And because we argued so much about it, I'll share my ratings --including the interludes, because I'm admittedly a (reasonable) Roots stan --

01. A Peace of Light (Intro/Skit): *****
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 (Interlude): ***
08. The Day: *****
09. Right On: ****
10. Doin' It Again: *****
11. The Fire: ***
12. Tunnel Vision (Interlude): ****
13. Web 20/20: ***
14. Hustla: ***

8thlight said...

You and reasonable don't belong in the same sentence in regards to The Roots.

You are so blind that you rated the freakin' interludes and intro!!!!!

*sigh*

I can never talk to you about The Roots again.

Fe said...

LOL! Those are pieces of music!

8th, are we gonna have to fight?

8thlight said...

It looks like we are going to have to because you can't follow instructions! They aren't SONGS so they don't get ratings. Let me make it simple for you . . . no Black Thought, NO RATING!

Why must you be so hard headed?

*sigh*

Fe said...

Looka heah -- it's *my* MUSIC rating and I wanted to rate ALL pieces of MUSIC.
You're just biased because they don't count as "rap." And you just like to give me a hard time!

8thlight said...

We aren't reviewing music, we are reviewing songs!!! This was just your sad attempt to puff your rating for their album. I see you! You ain't slick!

. . . and yes, I do enjoy giving you a hard time. It doesn't mean you still aren't deadass wrong!

Unknown said...

lol!!!

I remember hearing how i got over on fuel tv and instantly falling in love with that song. And by the way the skits are just as equally important to the album. :) ~(giggle)~

love&peace
http://coilymystic.blogspot.com/

8thlight said...

@ Coily Mytic

Well, I love the song as well. It's the best song on the album by far, IMO.

But skits? Skits? We're talking about skits? Really?

*sigh*

I'm putting both of you in the corner on time out. I swear!

Fe said...

SEE! Coily Mystic knows! You're trippin' because you're biased.

But whatever, B. HIGO is ALBUM OF THE YEAR. :-P

BlackSoultan said...

I got this album because there's always a reason to cop a Roots album. They've always been hit or miss with me, but when they hit, they hit hard, and even their misses have some amazing hits intermingled in. However, this album is all hit. I can play this on repeat and not have to skip a song or interlude. However, imagine my surprise when I heard a familiar voice lead off a couple of the songs. For me, the clear stand out is the song "The Day" as I feel it's the best produced song on the album. Not to mention the hometown boy Blu leads it off and bodies the whole track. Absolutely amazing record. I also quite dig the production on Hustla where they sample and pitch shift the sound of crying to make the melody. That layered snare is also crazy.