Tightening up the jazzy, jam-friendly style they’d mastered over the previous decade, The Roots’ seventh album shows the group at their darkest, sharpest and most lyrically purposeful. Against gorgeous string arrangements from legendary Philadelphia composer Larry Gold, Black Thought spits nostalgic bars about his South Philly childhood on “Long Time”. “Atonement” flips a Radiohead sample into hazy, slow-motion neo-soul, but the album’s emotional climax is “Can’t Stop This”, a bittersweet eight-minute homage to the recently departed J Dilla.