- If you're feeling a little boxed in by Christmas fare, like you might be responsible for a crime if you hear another Christmas carol piped over a shopping centre PA, well, fear not, The Roots cut through the seasonal mawkishness, like a knife straight into your heart. Undun is the semi-fictionalised account of a small number of folks unified here in the character of a chap called Redford Stephens. More specifically it recounts his long, slow fall from grace, into a life of crime, and finally into a pine-wood box at the age of 25. Yeah, this might be the same band that plays for Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, but Undun is just about the most introspective and just plain dark stuff The Roots have ever done. Neither venerating or denigrating the ganster lifestyle, Undun is more subtle than that. It tracks back from the moment of Redford's death, building a character study through a series of inner monologues. The introduction to his death on Sleep might be wistful, but it hardly matches what is to come. Kool On, where Redford's gangster lifestyle is paying it's way is not particularly upbeat, but it's about as party as Undun gets and as you get further in, to tracks which contemplate suicide like Lighthouse or the back-up-against-the-wall claustrophobia of Tip The Scale you'll find the album indulges in a very rich tragedy. Up the end of the record you'll find a curious little suite of four instrumentals, beginning with, of all things, the sedate and melancholy Sufjan Stevens track that inspired this whole concept album - building through a jazz freak-out before finishing on some heartbreaking string quartet music and a final rumbling of the keys. Without hearing it you might think that The Roots had fallen into a huge concept album trap - a record to be avoided at all costs. It really isn't ?uestlove and the boys have created something subtle and powerful. They bring the soul jams in a quiet and considered way and they carry the raps that are thoughtful and nuanced. It might be confronting stuff, but Undun is The Roots at the top of their game.