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100With Game Theory, the Roots have finally delivered on nearly every once-broken promise.
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It's all ghetto vérité and political paranoia, with claustrophobic production to match the doom and gloom.
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Especially in its superior second half, the album resonates with casual ambition as it reconciles ?uestlove's effortless bohemian cool and sonic perfectionism with Black Thought's dark swagger, street-level sociology, and silver-tongued virtuosity.
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90This is not merely a good album, but a truly great one.
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90A focused tour de force. [Oct 2006, p.100]
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Game Theory is a heavy album, the Roots' sharpest work. It's destined to become one of Def Jam's proudest, if not most popular, moments.
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It is an excellent album that has taken them seven long years to finally get to, but those are seven years that have been evidently well spent: After years of mediocrity and being, to some degree, marginalized -- just when the world needed them -- The Roots are back like never before.
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Game Theory turns out to be The Roots' finest record to date.
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There are plenty of unexpected surprises to be found.
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80Consolidates the experimentation of 2002's Phrenology and the conscious snap of 1999's Things Fall Apart into a focused, intelligent record. [Oct 2006, p.123]
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80Whatever style the Roots take on their eighth album, whether it's 21st century Sly Stone ("Baby"), flute-inflected freak-folk ("Living in a New World") or epic black rock ("Game Theory"), they do better than anyone else in pop.
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80Game Theory is the Roots at their heaviest. [Sep 2006, p.114]
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80Like prior Roots albums, Game Theory boasts top-notch craftsmanship... but it's continuity that makes this album unique. [Sep 2006, p.211]
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80This taut, turbulent piece of work is the Roots' best yet.
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80If anything, the grooves have gotten tougher and funkier on Game Theory.
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80The Roots' darkest, grimiest, most unrelenting and possibly most focused effort to date.
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77A streamlined product that die-hards can justly revel in.
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A few throwaways... keep Theory from attaining the rarified heights of earlier efforts. But in the final count, it's just nice to hear this criminally underappreciated outfit sounding so sharp and revitalized.
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"Game Theory" helps rescue a remarkably anemic hip-hop summer. [20 Aug 2006]
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75[This] downcast disc is actually an improvement on its predecessor.
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Game Theory's highs never quite reach those of Do You Want More?!!!??! or Illadeph Halflife (1996), and those albums, even with those highs, are still inconsistent affairs. Which means that the Roots are back on track, but the track itself was never something we praised wholeheartedly in the first place.
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70The Roots' energy is claustrophobic and thus, jaded. It still has a prominent place on Game Theory, but when it's not subdued, it's downright bitter. [Sep 2006, p.142]
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For every head-nodding beat, Game Theory has a head-turning treat. [7 Sep 2006, p.100]
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They've resurfaced sounding dark, mysterious, and pissed off.
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60Classic Roots. [Oct 2006, p.126]
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Black Thought... sounds more focused than he did on the Roots' last album, "The Tipping Point," and more engaged than on the one before it, "Phrenology." But because he's not the kind of rapper to modulate his emotional pitch, his intensity can level off into monotony.
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 40 out of 43
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Mixed: 2 out of 43
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Negative: 1 out of 43
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8Dark, exciting new territory for the Philadelphia based band.