Rooty

by

Basement Jaxx

Edit

I totally bought this on a whim. I'd never heard this or the first album, but I thought the cover art was really cool and the reviews were great, so I picked it up. God, am I glad I did! It is one of the best CDs I've ever heard. I love the weirdness and eclectic mix of sounds on it. It's definitely one of the most creative albums out there. There isn't a bad track on it - the whole thing is listenable (and I can't say that about many CDs). The best song on it is "Get Me Off." The beat and the layers of sound are incredible. It reminds me of Lords of Acid a bit. Other faves are "Romeo," "Breakaway," and "Where's Your Head At?". This has been said below, but the whole album is a weird and wonderful hybrid of Daft Punk, Prince, and...who knows. Just check it out. It's definitely a great one!

I'm a little disappointed, though, in Remedy. I bought it because I liked Rooty so much. It's good, but I find it less interesting. And it seems to be missing something to hold it together, unlike Rooty. Plus, some of the songs are downright annoying to me (particularly songs #3 and #4). Maybe if I had bought Remedy before Rooty I'd feel differently, but Rooty is just a very difficult album to live up to.

To be honest, after all I heard about "Rooty", I expected a bit more. It's not bad, just not excellent. "Romeo" is a good start. "Where's Your Head At" is definitely the high point of the disc, and also the most aggressive track. I actually was hoping the rest of it would be more like that. The other tracks are more dance/pop, and most lack a driving beat. It's not that I wanted something like "Lords Of Acid" or "Ministry", but something similar to "Junior Senior" or "Daft Punk", which this may be, but not as good. So again, it's decent, just not that exciting.