The name of the album is taken from Basement Jaxx's regular club event called "Rooty", held at a small bar inBrixton. Thecover art featuredSnowflake, the world's only knownalbino gorilla.[2]
Felix Burton explained the album's concept as "not geared to one specific vibe. Musically, we made it so that it wasn't just for cokeheads who wanted pounding beats all night," a philosophy that gave the duo "musical freedom".
As the title for the album, it was explained by the duo as "raw" and "soulful", as well as "about being happy about things that don't fit in" and "things that are a bit different. That's why the album's got an albino gorilla on the cover."[3]
During a July 2000 appearance on TRL,Janet Jackson expressed admiration for Basement Jaxx's debut albumRemedy, and contacted the duo to collaborate.[4] Basement Jaxx approached Jackson to collaborate on "Get Me Off" for the album, though the singer ultimately declined.[5][6] Buxton recalled the collaboration attempt as follows: "She told us she loved our stuff, but she thought we wereZero 7. We wished her every success in hooking up with a British dance duo eventually and said, 'Cheerio,Celine.'"[7]
The album's first single, ""Romeo"", was released on 4 June 2001, three weeks beforeRooty was released on 25 June.[8] Further singles released from the album were "Jus 1 Kiss" on 17 September,[9] "Where's Your Head At" on 19 November,[10] "Get Me Off" on 17 June 2002,[11] and "Do Your Thing" in Australia only on 24 February 2003.[12] The album was reissued in late 2022, 20 years after it was first released.[13]
Rooty has been well received by critics. John Bush ofAllMusic gave it 5 out of 5 stars, calling it "so raw you can't believe they spent over an hour per track, so perfect you're glad they stopped noodling about long before most producers would, and so poppy they should get picked up by commercial radio in America as well as the rest of the world".[15] David Browne ofEntertainment Weekly gave it an A− grade and called the album "where heart and feet meet and lovingly coexist".[17]Robert Christgau ofVillage Voice gave it the same grade, writing "no catchier collection of jingles has come to my attention since Steve Miller made his mint off jet airliners".[24]Billboard said the album "revels in exploiting rhythms that shouldn't work—but definitely do".[25]PopMatters's Andy Hermann was mixed, calling the album "either a brilliantly innovative record, or an unlistenable mess, depending on your point of view".[26]
Pitchfork's initial opinion on the album, however, was generally negative. While calling band members Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe "two of the weirdest, most innovative and talentedhouse producers on the scene," reviewer Malcolm Seymour III wrote that "[Basement Jaxx] have taken kitsch too far," noting that the music is "often so tacky that it's impossible to stomach."[20] However,Pitchfork would later nameRooty the 33rd best album of the 2000s.[27]
Q listedRooty as one of the best 50 albums of 2001.[28]Kludge ranked it at number three on their list of top 10 albums of 2001.[29]
^Smith, Gary (19 May 2001). "Dance Grooves".Music & Media. Vol. 18, no. 21. p. 6.Romeo is released on June 4 with the album Rooty to be released June 25.
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