CD of The Week

For any other band at the height of their notoriety, you'd expect them to release an accessible, commercially viable album. But for better or worse, The Roots are no other band. Despite (or maybe because of) the extra visibility from their residency on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, they've dropped their most ambitious disc yet in undun.

Here, the band releases its first outright concept album, a narrative focused on Reford Stephens, a drug dealer we first meet at the moment of his death. His story unfolds backwards from his point of view, detailing his short life and the decisions that led to it. I say "detailing" loosely, because this is a somewhat abstract album lyrically. Often, undun feels less concerned with delivering an airtight narrative as it is with creating a sense of mood and place. It's a suggestive, evocative piece.

It certainly doesn't hurt that the band has infused the cycle with a cinematic sweep. Much of the album trades funk for downbeat atmospherics, exemplified in tracks such as "Sleep" and "Make My." The band even invites Sufjan Stevens to jam on a four-part cover of his track "Redford," which helped inspire their conception of the character. The instrumental close certainly brings to mind a closing credits montage, but to the Roots' credit, Redford and his world never feel less than authentic.