'Shoot' by The Roots scores serious themes

These aren't Jimmy Fallon's Roots. As playful as the Philly-bred crew can be nightly as The Tonight Show's house band, Questlove & Co. have approached recent studio efforts with a far more somber tone, a trend that continues on their nuanced concept album ... And Then You Shoot Your Cousin. (* *1/2 out of four).

Here, there's no easy reference point, à la You Got Me or The Seed (2.0), for casual fans to cling to. Instead, the band challenges audiences and themselves: Black Thought gives voice to simmering urban angst over haunting choir vocals on Never, while Understand knocks with a terse church organ as kindling for more lyrical fire.

It's an intentionally jarring and biting record that rewards close listening, and a serious statement of the band's greater ambitions.

Download:When the People Cheer, Black Rock, Understand