How I Got Over

The Roots sound so good in the pocket that sometimes they need something to push them out of it: On their ninth album, that thing is the indie rockers they've played with since becoming the house band for Jimmy Fallon. On How I Got Over, they cover Monsters of Folk ("Dear God 2.0"), scat like the Dirty Projectors ("Tunnel Vision") and — most thrillingly — make Joanna Newsom sound as funky as Erykah Badu ("Right On"). And when they come back to Roy Ayers-style funk ("Radio Daze"), they prove nobody does it better. Let's hear it for steady employment.