Listening to the new Beastie Boys Album is like getting a phone call from an old lover. You remember the passion that they used to inspire in you, you remember what was so hot about them, but you lament that the phone call is never long enough. ‘To the 5 Boroughs’ might not make them more fans, but current fans of their work will not be disappointed, with this being, in my opinion, the best they’ve done since ‘Check Your Head’.
Starting with the first single Ch-Check It Out, the album immediately departs from the wonderful experimentation and general weirdness found on ‘Hello Nasty’. This time it’s produced by the “Boys” themselves, and present 15 tracks of raw hiphop, cut close to the bone and stripped of all pretence. Some may wail, but with a market saturated with bogus MCs thinking they’re hot with two or three “top ten” songs overproduced to the point where you can no longer identify voice or instruments, it marks a welcome return for the original party boys of hiphop.
Triple Trouble takes the riff from the seminal Rappers Delight, is expertly sliced and shredded by Mix Master Mike on the turntables, combined with a vocal homage to Double Trouble At The Amphitheatre by Double Trouble & DJ Stevie Steve, making an first-rate party tune that’s sure to rock any dance floor. Tunes like Oh Word? and 3 The Hard Way are old school battle rhymes that rock oh so well, and there’s still the funny quirkiness as found in tunes like Crawlspace and The Brouhaha.
And this is indeed party, but it’s grown up party – it’s not all “hey ladies” but more “hey, stop and think… after the party”. For the boys have grown up, Mike D’s voice is noticeably gruffer, and this adds to the music. And yes, there are politics on the album, but there’s been politics on every good hiphop album since The Message. This is most apparent on Open Letter to NYC. This is one of the few to departure from the old school hiphop vibe, bringing in punk in the form of a sample from Dead Boys’ Sonic Reducer. A celebration of New York not in spite of but more because of 9/11, this is not “hey, let’s kick some Arab ass” it’s more like “hey, we’ve taken knocks before, don’t let this change us into that we hate.”
Similarly It Takes Time to Build is all about the ‘hate filled’ people who would rather point fingers and rip things apart than work together to make the world a better place, and the positive message of ‘people power’ continues in We Got The.
As alluded to earlier, the album is much shorter than probably most would like, clocking in at less than 43 minutes. Production is simple and tight, and that’s good, but there seems to be something missing. Maybe it’s the instrumentals, as there is surprisingly none included, or maybe after a 6 years hiatus I just want more. Regardless, this is just a minor quibble, and I’m just happy to hear their voices once again and know that they can still rock it like they used to.