The Roots' Game Theory, 20 years on, gets a reassessment

The Roots' 2006 album Game Theory is getting a second look as a turning point in their career. In a new retrospective, The Quietus argues that the album, their first for Def Jam, was "their greatest work to date, but when Game Theory floundered, it left The Roots staring down the barrel."

The album came after Phrenology (2002) and The Tipping Point (2004), and after Things Fall Apart won a Grammy and eventually went platinum. The piece says Game Theory's commercial failure nearly derailed them.

The reassessment arrives as The Roots bring their festival The Roots Picnic to the UK for the first time, which happened earlier this month. And a new studio album, their first in over a decade, is rumoured to be nearing release.