Phrenology

With 1999’s Things Fall Apart, Philly live hip-hop collective the Roots finally convinced the head-nodding masses that a band can be a DJ. On that album’s follow-up, the road vets work to prove what else they can be — from N.E.R.D.-like rap-rockers (”Rock You” and ”The Seed 2.0,” with Cody ChesnuTT) to topical proghoppers (the epic ”Water”). Not all of the experiments work, but drummer ?uestlove’s Clyde Stubblefield-cum-Chemical Brothers grooves and rapper Black Thought’s mighty flow never waver.