I think to make sense of Things We Can't Say About Ourselves, a freaky free form jazz album from Rootless, it's probably a good idea to start at the end. The final track, Of Two Minds, is a solo acoustic piece performed by a very clearly accomplished guitarist, and that's very important context to understand when listening to what is a pretty out there and abstract album. There's a moment in the Wes Anderson film, The French Dispatch, where Adrian Body's character asks Benicio Del Toro's abstract artist to draw a sparrow. This is a test to determine the validity of the artist's talent - it's all well and good splashing paint on a canvas but could he draw something pretty and sensical if he needed to? Of Two Minds is the sparrow drawing of this album.
The rest of the album is a wild jazz odyssey where guitars, saxophones, drums, and the occasional synth, are in constant conversation. Sometimes they're in harmony, sometimes they're interrupting each other, but it really does feel like a constantly unfolding drama between these players. There was a point when listening through the album's title track where I realised that the saxophone had not chimed in for a while, only for it to slide into the room at that exact moment like some kind of Lynchian Kramer.
When the album works, it really sings, and exactly how often it works will largely depend on your tolerance for weird shit. For me, it mostly does but there are a couple points where the excitement starts to give way to tedium, most notably in the back half of the 9 minute long Among the Compulsions. There's also this odd feature of the album where there are two "trailer" tracks, showing the first 20-30 seconds of the true opener Atacama Giant. They disrupt the listening flow and I'm not really sure why they are there at all.
Still, these are minor gripes. Overall the album's pretty electric and it's one I'm likely to return to. The saxophone playing alone is worth the price of admission, it's almost always fun to hear what they're up to. I wouldn't say this album is for the faint of heart, but if you like free jazz, or just want something a little out of left field, I'd definitely recommend it.