seurat
06-14-2004, 03:56 AM
Beastie Boys
THREE STARS out of 4 stars
'To the 5 Boroughs'
(Capitol)
In stores Tuesday
New album does best when it's about the beats
June 13, 2004
It's been a few years since the Beastie Boys first confronted their fundamental dilemma: How does a rapper grow up with growing stale? For a while, the onetime purveyors of juvenile shock found convenient solutions. They picked up instruments and churned out punk, they pushed high-profile social causes, and finally -- with 1998's "Hello Nasty" -- they simply gave in and re-embraced hip-hop's past as if it were a historical duty.
With the new "To the 5 Boroughs," a tribute and memorial to their hometown New York, the Beasties reveal both growth and regression. It's a mixed bag of a record, an album that can nail delicious peaks before bumbling into vexing low points.
Like "Hello Nasty," the 15-track effort takes a seat at the old school, looking back to those familiar 808 beats, the lively turntable scratches, the wisecracking East Coast ethic that dominated rap before Los Angeles muscled in to toughen things up. While hip-hop has traveled to many new places since the trio cut its teeth in the early '80s, the Beastie Boys seem satisfied -- even determined -- to tap the classic rap canon.
Adam Horovitz, Mike Diamond and Adam Yauch, all closing in on their 40s, long ago ditched the debauchery. But when they're on, the good stuff on "Boroughs" has a youthful energy that practically jumps off the disc. The better cuts here are the frisky party tracks, songs such as "Triple Trouble" and the lead single "Ch-Check It Out," with their rolling bass lines, goofy pop-culture citations and gleeful rhyme-swapping. DJ Mixmaster Mike offers crisp beats and a foundation less cluttered than the spectacle of sounds on "Hello Nasty." It's a simple approach that often proves infectious: the skittering rhythm and light harpsichord of "Right Right Now Now," the stop-and-go bump of "Oh Word," the sparse funk of "Crawlspace."
But "Boroughs" isn't all clowning around. Somewhere between the lyrical nods to Winnie-the-Pooh and Einstein, between Mike D citing his Scorpio credentials and Ad Rock declaring himself king, the Beastie Boys stumble. They go soft when they're trying hardest to sound hard. It's pointless to pick apart the politics; the Bush-bashing and anti-war spiels are a given. The problem is the delivery -- a lecturing, hectoring tone that starts to sound petty awfully quick. While the devotion to juvenilia is what makes the fun stuff fun, it's also what makes the peace-and-love preaching embarrassingly limp. Musically contagious tracks like "All Lifestyles" and "We Got The" are watered down with trifling slogans. "It's time to put aside our differences" might be good advice, but it doesn't make for cutting-edge rap.
In the end, the best way to listen to "Boroughs" is from a distance, soaking up the catchy sounds, the cool energy, the shouted rhymes -- and not listening too closely to what's actually coming out of the Beasties' mouths.
THREE STARS out of 4 stars
'To the 5 Boroughs'
(Capitol)
In stores Tuesday
New album does best when it's about the beats
June 13, 2004
It's been a few years since the Beastie Boys first confronted their fundamental dilemma: How does a rapper grow up with growing stale? For a while, the onetime purveyors of juvenile shock found convenient solutions. They picked up instruments and churned out punk, they pushed high-profile social causes, and finally -- with 1998's "Hello Nasty" -- they simply gave in and re-embraced hip-hop's past as if it were a historical duty.
With the new "To the 5 Boroughs," a tribute and memorial to their hometown New York, the Beasties reveal both growth and regression. It's a mixed bag of a record, an album that can nail delicious peaks before bumbling into vexing low points.
Like "Hello Nasty," the 15-track effort takes a seat at the old school, looking back to those familiar 808 beats, the lively turntable scratches, the wisecracking East Coast ethic that dominated rap before Los Angeles muscled in to toughen things up. While hip-hop has traveled to many new places since the trio cut its teeth in the early '80s, the Beastie Boys seem satisfied -- even determined -- to tap the classic rap canon.
Adam Horovitz, Mike Diamond and Adam Yauch, all closing in on their 40s, long ago ditched the debauchery. But when they're on, the good stuff on "Boroughs" has a youthful energy that practically jumps off the disc. The better cuts here are the frisky party tracks, songs such as "Triple Trouble" and the lead single "Ch-Check It Out," with their rolling bass lines, goofy pop-culture citations and gleeful rhyme-swapping. DJ Mixmaster Mike offers crisp beats and a foundation less cluttered than the spectacle of sounds on "Hello Nasty." It's a simple approach that often proves infectious: the skittering rhythm and light harpsichord of "Right Right Now Now," the stop-and-go bump of "Oh Word," the sparse funk of "Crawlspace."
But "Boroughs" isn't all clowning around. Somewhere between the lyrical nods to Winnie-the-Pooh and Einstein, between Mike D citing his Scorpio credentials and Ad Rock declaring himself king, the Beastie Boys stumble. They go soft when they're trying hardest to sound hard. It's pointless to pick apart the politics; the Bush-bashing and anti-war spiels are a given. The problem is the delivery -- a lecturing, hectoring tone that starts to sound petty awfully quick. While the devotion to juvenilia is what makes the fun stuff fun, it's also what makes the peace-and-love preaching embarrassingly limp. Musically contagious tracks like "All Lifestyles" and "We Got The" are watered down with trifling slogans. "It's time to put aside our differences" might be good advice, but it doesn't make for cutting-edge rap.
In the end, the best way to listen to "Boroughs" is from a distance, soaking up the catchy sounds, the cool energy, the shouted rhymes -- and not listening too closely to what's actually coming out of the Beasties' mouths.