Two recent releases have proven again to me that in terms of music, I will always take substance over style. That doesn’t seem to be the case in terms of the average American which is why The Heartless Bastards and The Roots toil in relative anonymity while the average person spends hours debating the plastic surgery and dating habits of Ashlee Simpson (although that nose job did wonders for her).

The Heartless Bastards second release, All This Time, shows the band making steady progress from their jaw-dropping initial release Stairs and Elevators. Erika Wennerstrom continues to sound like she has swallowed Leadbelly and is channeling him through her music. Kevin Vaughn & Mike Lamping on drums and bass respectively seem to have grown in stature and have a little more freedom backing Erika’s fine vocals and lyrics.

The Heartless Bastards, who took their name from a spoof on Tom Petty’s backing band, continue their straight-forward lyrical approach. On “I Swallowed a Dragonfly,” Erika takes on the ability to fly in an effort to see her life in a clearer light from a distance. “Finding Solutions” has her searching for answers over a slow and deliberate blues backing. Her wail, at times, shows the desperation in finding the elusive solution to her ails.

In looking at a different genre of music, The Roots - Game Theory proves to be their best and angriest effort since Things Fall Apart. While rap is a genre that is overly-dependent on style at the expense of substance, The Roots, led by drummer and producer extraordinaire, Questlove, are determined to be different. Instead, they showcase their skillz, terrific musicianship and substantive lyrics and eschew grillz and half-naked hoes in videos.

“False Media” takes the US media to task for their continued oversights on the war on Iraq and social issues in a way that would make Chuck D proud. It is refreshing to hear a DJ concentrate more on social ills than how many asses he has tapped. Black Thought, The Roots’ MC, continues to impress me. While I think he is strongest when collaborating with artists such as Taleb Kweli, he has proven himself more than capable of handling the mic on his own. This is his strongest work to date.