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When Jim James addresses a higher power on Monsters of Folk's "Dear God"—gently entreating, "Why do we suffer?"—he sounds like an uneasy supplicant. But on the Roots' "Dear God 2.0" (also featuring James), frontman Black Thought goes B-boy Book of Job, decrying technology, acid rain, tsunamis, stock-market collapse, wars, atrocities. Then he spits bluntly: "Why is the world so ugly when you made it in your image?"

Sheeeeit. A battle rhyme, if there ever was one. You'd have to rewind early-'90s Scarface or Wu-Tang for such convincingly cold-eyed hip-hop existentialism. The title of the Roots' ninth studio full-length suggests a more fulfilled mood (Obama victory, gig as America's favorite late-night house band), at least compared to the screw-faced abyss of their last two records. But when Thought and guest MC Phonte Coleman kick it like still-seething Civil Rights graybeards in lawn chairs amid the clobbering breakbeat and subtly winding guitar of "Now or Never," it's all regrets and needing a sign.

There are pleasures here, especially with ?uestlove's restless studio assemblages (weaving in Joanna Newsom's eerie warble, dropping a microhouse beat flurry) and coproducer Dice Raw's yearning hooks. On the anthemic title track, music and sentiment click, as Dice croons how the streets teach kids "not to give a fuck." How I Got Over, with its noirish soul-searching, is determined to refute that lesson.

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