Album review: The Roots - UndunA rap band releasing a concept album inspired by an indie-folk superstar? What is this world coming to? Beauty, if Undun is anything to go by.13 albums, 18 years and 4 Grammies into their career, The Roots have nothing left to prove.They have albums that people are still raving about today (the Holy Triad of Do You Want More?!!!??!, Illadelph Halflife and Things Fall Apart). They have the album everyone hated (well, not everyone, but a lot of people, including me, detested Tipping Point).And now, following the funky John Legend collabo, Wake Up! , and the indie-centric How I Got Over (vocals from Monsters of Folk, members of the Dirty Projectors and a Joanna Newsom sample), they bring us Undun. Apparently, the record was inspired by Sufjan Stevens somehow. Well, okay then. Undun is about a semi-fictional drug dealer named Redford Stephens, who, in the words of the Roots, "becomes criminal, but he wasn't born criminal. He's not the nouveau, exotic, primitive, bug-eyed gunrunner... He's actually thoughtful and is neither victim nor hero."Dun: The intro plays out like the score to something eerie, before a heartbeat eclipses everything, leading us into...Sleep: It breezes in, all atmospheric. Black Thought goes all evocative and emotive, taking us into the mind of one on the verge of losing their soul to crime - Redford's last thoughts as he's about to die. "Illegal activity controls my black symphony/ orchestrating like it happened incidentally/ there I go, from a man to a memory/ I wonder if my fam will remember me". The chorus is stunning, with Aaron Livingston singing: "I've lost a lot of sleep to dreams". Beautiful. Make My (ft Big K.R.I.T. and Dice Raw): And so begins Redford's story. The song also starts off quiet and unbeatable drummer ?uestlove brings it to a lethargic kind of life 35 seconds in. Big K.R.I.T. tell us about a man who wants the finer things in life while his conscience creeps in: " My heart's so heavy that the ropes that hold my casket break". In the chorus he (Redford) reflects on it all: "They told me that the end would justify the means". Except, he knows it didn't, otherwise he'd be able to sleep at night.One Time (ft Phonte and Dice Raw): Standard Roots - and this is not a bad thing. The testosterone saunters in, with Redford's heartless drug dealer side coming out. Redford of the streets, declaring: "Not a thing I fear besides fear itself/... reach for the crown of thorns to punish self/ Chain around my neck, I've been taught by stealth". Lovely.Kool On (ft Greg pron and Truck North): Some old-school goodness on this one. The drug dealer living a high life (not an intentional pun, honest). "Who needs a chain when every thought's a jewel?" he asks. "Let's toast to better days... stars are made to shine". Black Thought comes in, aggressive, rapping: "Say my reputation precedes me like a pedigree/ Gentlemanly gangster steeds beyond the seventies". The Otherside (ft Bilal and Greg pron): Black Thought articulates Redford's bravado so well, spitting rhymes like: "Step in my arena let me show y'all who the Highness is/ you might say I could be doing something positive/ humble, head down low and broke like promises". This is Redford at his peak - brave, successful and unapologetic. And for many kids the world over, this is the sad reality: crime pays, why be liked by society and without a penny to your name? Bilal brings out his 70s soul singer voice for the chorus. It's such a good song, and like One Time, it's standard Roots sound-wise. Stomp (ft Greg pron): Confrontational both in sound and lyrics. Black Thought says over some psychedelic guitar licks: "A late repentant, never deviating from a plan/ I drive by headed for the valley of the damned/ the wheels spin, I’m looking for a sacrificial lamb/ then roll tactics like a soldier out in the Sudan". Thought and that guitar work so beautifully together, while the keyboard is just an extra, really. It wasn't necessary to have Greg pron come in on the second verse, either. He just weakens the song.Lighthouse (ft Dice Raw): It's a very indie-influenced song in parts, while harking back to 90s hip-hop. It's a good song without even trying. It's simple but it works. This is when Redford's conscience starts to show, the nightmares begin and he comes to the frightening realisation that he's alone. However the lyrics to the chorus are very Linkin Park: "And no one’s in the lighthouse/ you’re face down in the ocean/... it seems like you just screamed/ no one there to hear the sound/ it may feel like there's no one there that cares if you drown".I Remember: The sound chills out again, as remorse starts to take hold of the character. He has no sense of belonging in the world he's in and yearns for what came before the drugs, before the money, before the crime: a time that feels so long ago he can't remember it. He's turned into a killer, something which haunts him: "What’s keeping me from breaking out like Benadryl/ when my baptism of fire resulted in a kill/ sometimes it's as cut and dry as a business deal/ you gotta cause the blood of a close friend to spill/ but you remember still".Tip the Scale (ft Dice Raw): The Roots bring their live band side to the fore on this, one of Undun's highlights. It's beautiful, soaked in regret and this sense of "how did I get here?" Black Thought raps: "Picture me living life as if I'm some animal that consumes its own dreams like I'm a cannibal". A brilliant track, it was one of the teaser videos the band released leading up to the album's release.Redford (ft Yia-Yia and Pappou): An interlude, it sounds like La Mer from Nine Inch Nail's The Fragile, or like something Hans Zimmer created for Inception. No singing (just "aahing" and "oohing"), a piano and lots of atmosphere. It blends into the next interlude, Possibility (2nd Movement) where things come alive a bit more on this overture.This leads into the next interlude, Will To Power (3rd Movement), where the Roots go funkadelic, psychedelic, jazzy and acid, representing Redford's will to live (how does he die? He's probably shot, I'd imagine).And finally, Finality (4th Movement), where the spirit fades. Goodbye, Redford. It was a great 38 minutes.This is a concept album in that it reads more like journal entries rather than a novel. The idea of someone being haunted by their bad actions is recurring. If one were to ask Redford, "How do you sleep at night?" The answer would be: he doesn't. When it's time to lay down his head, he's joined by nightmares, night terrors and bad dreams. But during the day, when he's working the streets, machismo and bravado reign supreme.Just when I was convinced The Roots couldn't top How I Got Over, they bring us this. Undun is how I got over How I Got Over.Rating: 8/10
