Customer Reviews

Rooty

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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.

I probably would never have purchased this album if I hadn't seen Basement Jaxx live. I personally thought "Remedy" was OK at best. Basement Jaxx in concert, however, completely blew myself and everyone else out of the water, and the tracks from "Rooty" were a big part of the impact.
It may take awhile for this album to grow on you. The tracks range from hard techno to happy-house to postmodern soul not unlike some of Prince's stranger songs. If you only appreciate one sort of electronic music, this is not your album. If your tastes are more eclectic, pick it up. What you will come to realize is that this is an album of extraordinary depth, variety, and talent that seems richer with every spin. Unlike most techno albums which grow dated in months, I have a feeling this one will go down as a classic. It's hard not to be excited about what Basement Jaxx has in store for us in the future. Don't forget to see them live!!!

Lately I've been buying electronic music like there's no tomorrow but out of them all I'd have to say that this is by far one of the best albums in this overcrowded genre. I bought Rooty by Basement Jaxx about 2 months ago yet I'm still playing it like it's brand spankin new. All the songs here have irresistible hooks with catchy and lusterous female vocals that are wispy and fun, circling around all this funky house music. The singer's vocal styling for "I Want You" sounds a lot like Nelly Furtado with a crazy, warped-out melodie that is oddly accessible while songs like "Jus 1 Kiss" and "Broken Dreams" are loaded with heavy bass lines accompanied by sometimes poppish or sometimes funky house soul. Not all these songs will make you want to dance but they will most certainly make you tap your foot or bob your head up and down to the appealing dance beats. Prince even has an evident source of usage here on songs like "Crazy Girl". The only song I didn't care for was "SFM" with it's electronic hip-hop. And while the beat is highly contagious the rapping is completely out of place, even amidst all this influential old-school. The most recognizable songs here are probably "Where's Your Head At" (which was a huge club hit) and "Do Your Thing" (which was used in some kind of commercial, which I fail to remember...) Out of all of these song, though (which are destined to become classics, I'm sure) my favorites would have to be the naughty "Get Me Off" and "All I Know".

Overall I'd say that this CD is one that ALL electronic dance fans should own. Without Rooty to shake my booty my collection would be completely lost. (And that goes for you as well.) So buy it already!

This is highly recommended.

When Basement Jaxx's REMEDY came out in 1999, they accomplished something very few others thought possible: the gave techno music a heart and a sense of humor. ROOTY is the next cycle in their creative vision.

Odds are you've already heard a few songs off this album and just didn't know it. Songs like "Romeo," "Where's Your Head At," and "Do Your Thing" have already been licensed off for car and clothing commercials, and when you listen to the album and run across these songs, you'll instantly recognize them as that "insanely danceable song from that annoying commercial," but no, this is not Dirty Vegas. I even heard the lead single, "Romeo," the other day on NPR radio. I was shocked!

Some people may call this "selling out," but I disagree. In order to get their music out into the public, some artists simply have to find loopholes, but this does not outweigh their artistic sensibilities and integrity. As long as more and more people find out about their music, Basement Jaxx aren't the only ones who benefit; we do as well.

A few of the songs are annoying, like "Down Di Di..." or "Crazy Girl," but most of the songs are head-on, straight-forward, shake-your-butt songs. No one can accuse Basement Jaxx of being repetitious. "SFM" is sexy and skitters on light percussive clicks and clacks to describe a "Sexy Feline Machine." "Broken Dreams" uses a medieval sample as its accompaniment. "Get Me Off," which was also used in an episode of QUEER AS FOLK (very appropriately, I might add) has to be one the most devilishly (and most overtly) sexy songs in years, and one of the most breathy as well. "Do Your Thing" uses a jazzed-up piano as vocalist Elli sings "All I need is a bumpin' beat to bump away my blues."

This is a great album and certainly lives up to the hype created by REMEDY. Basement Jaxx is on their way to changing the attitude and face of techno music and, hopefully, changing how the public feels about it. It doesn't have to be repetitive or cold and calculated or inaccessable, but if Basement Jaxx gets their way, it will at least have a heart.

One thing's for sure. No one can ever call Basement Jaxx imitators of any particular styles or sounds (okay I'll eat my words once. Repeat after me: Prince.) nor do they fit into any poignant trends or genres. Instead, this duo is off in Rootyland 'doing their own thing' (with a fat purple gorilla, no less).

They fit in a realm somewhere between Fatboy Slim and Moby, with a little Whitney Huston esqu-divaisms thrown in for taste.

This is one of the rare albums that I can actually listen to start to finish and be satisfied with every song. Actually one of the last albums i bought that was like that was Basement Jaxx's "Remedy". I love the vocalits too. Alot of their music is like a 'more accisible' bridge between dance music and UK influenced R & B than even UK Garage.

There's not much more to say about this album, it's not quite as good or ground breaking as "Remedy" but I find it no less satisfying. Oddly enough, after getting recruited for the latest Levi's ad, they also appeared on the Tomb Raider Soundtrack which has apparently helped to get them major airplay on alternative rock stations (at least here in Atlanta where I hear "Where's Your Head At" all the time).

Good buy. If you liked 'Remedy', you shouldn't at all be disappointed.

Favorite Tracks: "Do Your Thing", "Get Me Off", and "Where's Your Head At"

Sure. Remedy redefined house music, but with only a couple tracks - and while Rendez-Vu and Red Alert were incredible songs, the album was incredibly uneven, standing as a perfect example of an over-hyped album. Then comes Rooty, easily the best dance album of the year, putting more emphasis on the booty and well... okay, just the booty.
Romeo is perhaps the best Basement Jaxx track to date. Nothing this year will make you want to get up and dance more than this. NOTHING. The other single Where's Ur Head At? is also excellent, attempting to become the fiercest song you'll dance to all year. Breakaway and Jus 1 Kiss are also top-of-the-line, emerging above the rest, but that doesn't mean that the rest of the album doesn't fit. In fact, Rooty is so continuously bootylicious that you won't have to pass over a single track. And while nothing here is revolutionary or completely innovative compared to Remedy, as a whole, Rooty is far more rewarding.
Have fun with this. Dance music probably won't get better all year.

9/10

I think a lot of people are failing to "get" 'rooty'. I, for one, love it and I'm totally into IDM (autechre, u-ziq, plaid etc.etc.). It's mindless get-up-and-shake-your-booty dance music ... or so I thought. After many repeated listenings and checking out the liner notes and CD art, I've realized that 'rooty' is a tribute album to Prince circa his '1999' period.

Check out the nasty electro-funk of 'crazy girl'; the blantant in your face horniness of 'get me off' (remember Prince's song 'get off'? 23 positions in a one night stand?) or the funky Prince-like vocoder vocals of 'breakaway'. The song titles on the jewel case are written in a funky cartoonish manner, just like Prince's '1999' album and half the tracks on 'rooty' are about sex. What Prince album isn't??? All the songs are great with the exception of 'do your thing' a gospel tinged number that reminds me of that song 'don't nobody bring me no bad news' from the musical The Wiz. It could have been left off.

So if you're not a fan of Prince or can't appreciate the jaxx's tongue-in-cheek sense of humor on this CD then by all means you're probably not going to like it. I'm suprised that I'm enjoying it as much as I am. The songs stick in my head and I just can't shake them.

Don't let the naysayers discourage you. This is music that's fun for fun's sake, a rarity in the pretentious, self-absorbed holier-than-thou house/dance/electronica arena.

The common opinion expressed here is that "Remedy" is the fantastic debut from the Basement Jaxx, and "Rooty" is a very good follow-up. I think this is exactly backwards; "Remedy" was a very good album and "Rooty" is the fantastic follow-up.

"Rooty" is clearly a Basement Jaxx album, but the duo did play around with their sound. While "Remedy" was house inspired by hip-hop ("Jump and Shout", "Yo-Yo"), "Rooty" takes its inspiration primarily from pop and R&B. Another noticeable difference here is the greater amount of sampling present (5 of 11 songs, as opposed to just two on "Remedy"). Oddly enough, though, "Rooty" is much less accessible at first. While "Remedy" was instantly catchy house music, "Rooty" is house that takes time to sink in.

When it does, however, the album reveals itself as superior to "Remedy". "Romeo" and "Jus 1 Kiss" are incredible dance-pop songs; "Breakaway" makes angst more fun than anybody else has for a while; "Where's Your Head At?" is flat-out brilliant; and "I Want U" fuses punk, pop, soul, and house into an intoxicating mess. Everything is filled with clever, immaculate production that still has plenty of edge, and the songs are extremely well-written.

Other than the irritating "SFM" and the album's hideous cover art, "Rooty" doesn't slip up once. It's hard to listen to at first, but very rewarding if given the chance.

In 1999, Basement Jaxx had taken the dance world by storm with their debut album "Remedy," and the four or five club anthems that it spawned. They followed up this success in the summer of 2001 when they released their sophomore album "Rooty." At first people were a bit sceptical that this album could repeat the success of its predecessor, when in actual fact, if we look back four years now the dust has settled, I'd say that the material from this album was even more successful than the stuff from their debut! Rooty is an album packed with crazy sounds, bleeps, clicks and techno-wizardry that is mandatory to the Basement Jaxx sound, yet it is also more aware of its position within music.

The 13 songs on this album seem almost more commercial, and definitely more accessible that some of the songs on the band's debut album. This is no bad thing, though, because in all honesty I think Rooty is possibly the best album out of the three that Felix and Simon have released so far. The album peaked at No.5 in the UK charts back in July 2001. The singles came from this album over the course of the next year and a half, and a lot of these songs are still being played on radio and in night clubs where I can safely say they will feature for the next few decades at least.

The album opens with the first single "Romeo." This song was a huge hit and charted inside the Top 10 back in June 2001 and is one of the biggest hits of their career. Kele Le Roc is the main guest vocalist on this Bollywood-influenced song that was a complete revelation when it first hit our airwaves. The intro is incredibly exotic, and the beat drives upwards and onwards, over and over in that fabulous chorus! "Breakaway" is one of my favourites Basement Jaxx songs ever, it's just so damn funky! The beat is pretty crazy, slightly neurotic and the high-pitched vocals going "Yo!" every so often are just pretty scary! The lead vocal is computerised beyond belief, but works brilliantly. I love how it builds after about 36 seconds and she goes, "I, I gotta get away! I'm living in the same old [...] each and every damn day!" I'd be laughing my head off at the lyrics and that crazy voice, but I'm too busy shaking my rumpy-pumpy to the chorus which will just blow your mind! "SFM" is another great song and is a bit slower than the first two tracks. It's about a funky feline machine, and the lyrics are pretty cool, "She's an angel, she's a dove with a taste for a villain's blood. Packin' heat, struttin on the street, chew you up and make you meat." "Kissalude" is really sensual and erotic. I love the imagery of kissing on eyelids and the voice that goes with.

This leads into "Jus 1 Kiss," possibly one of my top 5 Basement Jaxx songs ever. This song shows just how well the Jaxx can construct a solid beat. The chorus just soars and takes you up in the night sky with it, absolutely incredible. I love the monotone of the word "High!" drawn out against the background of beats rising and falling so perfectly melodic. Beautiful! "Broken Dreams" is a fantastic song that has me thinking of a hot summer's day every time I hear it. The beat to this song is very strange and reminds me of a hot country, perhaps India or somewhere in the Far East. It's very beautiful and the vocal delivery compliments it perfectly. "I Want You" is another really good song but slightly below par in comparison to a lot of the album's other songs. I find the vocal delivery quite annoying, but the beat is pretty colourful and vibrant. "Get Me Off" is incredible, a genius slice of dance perfection that shakes my body and won't let go. The vocals are incredibly erotic and the lyrics just filthy! This makes it all the more appropriate to shake your fine ass to! Me and my girls bump and grind to this song every time it comes on in a club! "Where's Your Head At" might just be the most famous Jaxx song ever - it's certainly their most famous video! The vocal delivery on this song is incredible and powerful, blowing you away right from the offset. The beats are rough, dirty, cold and mechanical; a wonderful concoction of everything industrial.

"Freakalude" is a bit of a pointless interlude, but leads brilliantly into "Crazy Girl." This song has a pretty funky beat that bounces around like a ball in a pinball machine. The vocal delivery is quite flat but I can forgive this for the beat, and the technicolour chorus that sparkles and really lights this song up. "Do Your Thing" was hail by one critic as this duo's single best song. I disagree, but I still think it's amazing. The performance of this song went down a storm at this year's Glastonbury. Elliot May provides vocals on this samba-inspired song, which is probably too gay for its own good! The album closes with "All I Know." This is another great song with a chorus that seems almost like a throw back to the disco pop of the Seventies and early Eighties. The vocals seem to be very Latin-influenced, which works well in putting the band across as a multi-cultural band for the ages/masses.

OVERALL GRADE: 10/10

This Basement Jaxx album is my favourite of the three that they have released so far. I original bought it when it first came out, but I didn't like it at all, so I took it back to the store and swapped it for Jennifer Lopez's "J.Lo!" How embarrassing! I think we all know which of the two albums is the best. Forgive me, I was young and silly but now I hopefully know better and this album seems very up my street. If a chart is ever compiled of the best dance albums ever, I think both Rooty and Remedy would find their way comfortably in the top 10 somewhere. There's so many musical styles on this album, yet all given the funky Jaxx twist which is predominantly dance music. Take the plunge and try them out, it's worth it.

It took me *forever* to buy this album! I had all the songs on my computer (bad me!) but I couldn't bring myself to actually buy the album.

So I did, a couple days ago. Of course I love it, because I bought it. The only things I would change about it would be to take off SFM and maybe have another high energy song but it's too late to ask for that.

Kish Kash was such a dramatic change from this album. This album was fun, funky, and a perfect addition to any party playlist. Even the calmer songs (Jus 1 Kiss, Do Your Thing) are powerful and fun to dance to. I was utterly suprised that Get Me Off turned into the club song it did, and that some of my coworkers knew Do Your Thing from commercials. It boggles my mind how much of an impact this album actually made.

Romeo was the song that truly made me love Basement Jaxx. I had already acquired their first album, loving Red Alert and Rendez-Vu, and Yo-Yo. So I was excited, but it won me over with the video. Those women! I loved it. Then of course, Where's Your Head At was released, the video was creepy, it made it into a commercial and became a huge mainstream hit. I played the song in my record store last night and people came in, and immediately started singing along. Get Me Off is a dirty and dark song, but I can't help but feel sexy whenever it's on. And I truly enjoy the old-meets-new school of Do Your Thing. I really enjoy that song.

If you don't already have this album (which is a shock!) then get it. It really belongs in any collection. And get their other albums while you're at it!