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The Roots don’t wait long to establish the sound of their 10th album. A string of deep, dark synth-powered tracks that most listeners couldn’t have imagined ten or even five years ago drive a more aggressive disc than most expected. This is light-years from the live jazz-funk of Things Fall Apart and – thankfully – the false-sounding bravado of Black Thought’s baby, The Tipping Point. The latter album was a pointed (and I felt, unsuccessful) answer to critics’ charge he was the weakest in a group of heavyweights, but Rising Down feels like the album he meant to make. The Roots’ new tracks are stripped down and bare, but still intensely beat-driven and musically miles ahead of their nearest peers. Black Thought’s lyrics take center stage in this environment (with a gang of Philly guest spots) and the result is a Public Enemy-style dressing-down of culture and society at large. The title track is an immediate right-hook of synth-stomp and knowledge delivery courtesy of Thought with guests Mos Def and Styles P. Mos especially jumps out of the gate at full speed, rocking one of the best flows he’s had in a long time (though his work on Justice’s “D.A.N.C.E.” remix last year was stellar too). But don’t be fooled, Black Thought owns on this disc, spitting gem after gem as linguistically dense as the racial and political topics he explores. The freestyle on “75 Bars (Black’s Reconstruction)” is supposedly a one-take track off the top of his head, “Criminal” utilizes a drawling chorus and arppegio guitar chord to back Thought’s off-kilter paranoia, and “I Will Not Apologize” is a defiant statement against dumbing down lyrics and music for mass appeal. I feel Rising Down is a worthy addition to The Roots’ respectable catalog and fits easily alongside other favorites Illadelph Halflife, Things Fall Apart, and Phrenology. I seem to connect with Roots albums almost randomly through their famed trajectory, but I’m certainly glad to have paid attention for this vector in their career arc.