The Roots VH1 Soul’s “Soul Stage” Preview
Posted by Des on May 15, 2008
Tim from the Village Voice writes:
After starting out with a tense, furious “Rising Down,” Black Thought doing the Mos Def and Styles P verses along with his own, and trotting Wale and Chrisette Michel out for a joyous, frenetic “Rising Up,” the band was done with the new album, digging back through their older material with their usual revisionist flair. And so they made another entry into their long tradition of versions of “You Got Me” that sound nothing like the original. “The Seed 2.0″ morphed into a roiling take on Bobby Womack’s “I Can Understand It,” with Thought actually singing and doing pretty well at it. The
obnoxious indulgent jammy moments still came up every once in a while: Captain Kirk Douglas simultaneously soloing and scatting during “You Got Me,” for instance. But this was probably the closest thing I’ve seen to a fat-free Roots show, the band trimming its set down to fit the hour-long TV format and still managing to summon their usual onstage energy. Continue reading…
