Darko
06-14-2004, 06:41 PM
The Beastie Boys have always forged a unique path in the world of hip-hop; whether they were articulating their puerile horniness on License to Ill or the incendiary politics contained on last year's internet-only single "In a World Gone Mad," their music has always been an influential force rather than a barometer of current cultural trends. Thankfully teir latest album, To the 5 Boroughs, continues in their estimable trailblazing tradition, and creates yet another singular musical experience for its listener, whether he or she jumped on the bandwagon in 1987 or have only recently discovered them. Rather than incorporating the sum total of their experiences kitchen-sink style into a collection rife with the eclecticism of past releases, this time around the Boys make a dramatic turn with their new record and redefine themselves even as they remind us of the worlds they've already conquered.
Looking back at their five previous albums, the progression from one to the next seems startlingly natural, even if the repercussions those releases would create for modern rock and rap could not have been predicted; in particular, Paul's Boutique presaged the ProTools era of cutting and pasting samples into indiscernible musical mash-ups, while Check Your Head and Ill Communication discovered the creative nexus between hip-hop and rock long before the combination would be proven commercially viable.
On To the 5 Boroughs, however, the Beasties have rediscovered their inner b-boys, forsaking much of the experimentation of Hello Nasty and its predecessors for a streamlined, imminently more compelling sound that will surely keep dance floors afire even as it inspires more than a few consciousnesses to expand themselves.
In a way it seems like Adrock, Mike D and MCA have exorcised their credibility-hungry demons--those creatures who demanded an apology for their early career misbehavior--and finally have embraced their respective positions as elder statesmen of hip-hop. Yet regardless of their stature, as well as being the longest running, consistently-selling white rappers working today, they're still considered industry outsiders. Their first single, the barn-burner
"Ch-Check It Out," certainly speaks to this, taking its place at the top of the album's fifteen tracks and leaping headlong into a b-boy bouillabaisse. The track's effectiveness, built on a straightforward drum track and a sliced-and-diced horn sting, relies on the trio's typically dexterous wordplay, which has only grown stronger with each successive release, and reaches an unexpected pinnacle before the listener has even had a chance to explore the rest of the album's densely layered lyricism.
That isn't to say, however, that the trio peaks early and coasts throughout the remainder of the album. Quite the contrary; the eerie combination of piano and organ on "Right Right Now Now" evokes the similar kind of manic inspiration that begat such eccentric moments as the harpsichord break on Hello Nasty's "The Move." But their knack for subtle melodicism has evolved since 1998 and they seem to have found the perfect balance between the disparate sounds they sample and the natural enthusiasm their voices carry. At the same time, "3 The Hard Way" inadvertently offers its own commentary on radio's current strain of simplistic, ambitiously anthemic rap singles, throbbing with echoey drum beats and reverberating percussion that transforms the lyrics into galactic rhetoric; imagine if the Neptunes were actually interplanetary and time-warped back to the License to Ill days for a bit of back-in-the-day tomfoolery, and you get a sense of the track's irresistible simplicity.
Swirling with amorphous keyboards and a bass-heavy beat that suggests the very real universe where Wild Style transformed hip-hop in much the same way Star Wars did science fiction, "Rhyme The Rhyme Well" maintains a similar old school thread earlier initiated on "3 The Hard Way," then relents for a full-fledged throwback jaunt. "Triple Trouble" carves a new groove into the hide of Chic's indelible "Good Times" sample (courtesy of DJ, Mixmaster Mike) and gives the album another hat to add to its haberdasher's collection of chapeaus: party-starter. Adopting English accents and bouncing back and forth on the microphone in much the same way as their natural predecessors The Sugarhill Gang or Grandmaster Caz, "Trouble" finds the Beasties at their most playful as they invigorate every foundering impulse in their deeply commoditized genre, not so much by subverting specific expectations but by revealing their origins without making the experience feel like a history lesson.
"Oh Word?" sounds like a LEN tune that didn't make their egregiously under-rated debut album You Can't Stop the Bum Rush, with its crudity worn on its sleeve as a badge of honor (the electronic drizzle that floats between verses sounds like Casio tones I used to create with my grandmother's mid-'80s keyboard), and serves as an introduction to another Neptunes-sounding track, the jagged "That's It That's All." While the tune buzzes with energy and carves out an aesthetic crescendo for the album's flow, it's but a prelude to "All Life Styles," which is destined for instant-classic status; it's little more than a beat, a bass line and a few spare guitar notes thrown in for color, but the track will run down breakdancers and b-boys like a steam engine, and provide the perfect soundtrack for your next dance floor confrontation. Meanwhile, "Shazam!" opens with a sample of Kool & the Gang's "Open Sesame" and then bounces like a spring-loaded ping pong ball, making reference to Dolly Parton, Chauncey Gardner, Fred Sanford and that wonderful infomercial product, the Bedazzler and adding a featherweight but memorable track to the mix before retreating into their beloved New York for the album's centerpiece cut.
"An Open Letter to NYC" is the dictionary definition of a successful rap-rock hybrid, and the Boys' call to arms (on this album, at least); the guitar throttles into a maelstrom of ominous keyboard tones, never quite observing a specific rhythm. Then the drums and bass leap into the mix, plodding behind in a cacophony of polyrhythms that add dimension and depth to both sides of the song's elusively-successful equation without tipping the scales too far in either direction (Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park, please take note).
"Crawlspace" occupies the position of the album's lone filler track (bringing the tally to a terse fifteen instead of their previous albums' twenty-plus cut numerology), but it soon gives way for "The Brouhaha," which sounds like an underfed Fatboy Slim track with its hurricane-velocity samples and thumping beats. This is followed quickly by the album closer, "We Got The," wherein the Beastie Boys re-invent themselves one last time, rocketing off towards their next hiatus (which has been comically referenced in the album's promotional material) over a beat that wouldn't sound out of place on an Eminem album. This track expertly demonstrates once again that age and wisdom trump youthful enthusiasm any day of the week.
Ultimately, To The 5 Boroughs shows the Beastie Boys at their most refined. Instead of including every idea and one-off impulse, darting through disparate genres one obscure sample at a time and crafting a mosaic-like collection of idiosyncratic tunes, the trio pared down their creativity to its most fruitful essence and crafted a work that will stand the test of time, if for no other reason than the fact it refutes their advancing age in an industry that thrives on novelty. While it remains to be seen whether their engaging and unique brand of futuristic/old school hip-hop will register commercially against the deluge of one-hit wonders and Next Big Things, as far as their continued status in the musical marketplace is concerned, The Beastie Boys can comfortably consider that license of theirs to be proudly renewed.
8.5
IGN.com's Editor's Choice Award
Looking back at their five previous albums, the progression from one to the next seems startlingly natural, even if the repercussions those releases would create for modern rock and rap could not have been predicted; in particular, Paul's Boutique presaged the ProTools era of cutting and pasting samples into indiscernible musical mash-ups, while Check Your Head and Ill Communication discovered the creative nexus between hip-hop and rock long before the combination would be proven commercially viable.
On To the 5 Boroughs, however, the Beasties have rediscovered their inner b-boys, forsaking much of the experimentation of Hello Nasty and its predecessors for a streamlined, imminently more compelling sound that will surely keep dance floors afire even as it inspires more than a few consciousnesses to expand themselves.
In a way it seems like Adrock, Mike D and MCA have exorcised their credibility-hungry demons--those creatures who demanded an apology for their early career misbehavior--and finally have embraced their respective positions as elder statesmen of hip-hop. Yet regardless of their stature, as well as being the longest running, consistently-selling white rappers working today, they're still considered industry outsiders. Their first single, the barn-burner
"Ch-Check It Out," certainly speaks to this, taking its place at the top of the album's fifteen tracks and leaping headlong into a b-boy bouillabaisse. The track's effectiveness, built on a straightforward drum track and a sliced-and-diced horn sting, relies on the trio's typically dexterous wordplay, which has only grown stronger with each successive release, and reaches an unexpected pinnacle before the listener has even had a chance to explore the rest of the album's densely layered lyricism.
That isn't to say, however, that the trio peaks early and coasts throughout the remainder of the album. Quite the contrary; the eerie combination of piano and organ on "Right Right Now Now" evokes the similar kind of manic inspiration that begat such eccentric moments as the harpsichord break on Hello Nasty's "The Move." But their knack for subtle melodicism has evolved since 1998 and they seem to have found the perfect balance between the disparate sounds they sample and the natural enthusiasm their voices carry. At the same time, "3 The Hard Way" inadvertently offers its own commentary on radio's current strain of simplistic, ambitiously anthemic rap singles, throbbing with echoey drum beats and reverberating percussion that transforms the lyrics into galactic rhetoric; imagine if the Neptunes were actually interplanetary and time-warped back to the License to Ill days for a bit of back-in-the-day tomfoolery, and you get a sense of the track's irresistible simplicity.
Swirling with amorphous keyboards and a bass-heavy beat that suggests the very real universe where Wild Style transformed hip-hop in much the same way Star Wars did science fiction, "Rhyme The Rhyme Well" maintains a similar old school thread earlier initiated on "3 The Hard Way," then relents for a full-fledged throwback jaunt. "Triple Trouble" carves a new groove into the hide of Chic's indelible "Good Times" sample (courtesy of DJ, Mixmaster Mike) and gives the album another hat to add to its haberdasher's collection of chapeaus: party-starter. Adopting English accents and bouncing back and forth on the microphone in much the same way as their natural predecessors The Sugarhill Gang or Grandmaster Caz, "Trouble" finds the Beasties at their most playful as they invigorate every foundering impulse in their deeply commoditized genre, not so much by subverting specific expectations but by revealing their origins without making the experience feel like a history lesson.
"Oh Word?" sounds like a LEN tune that didn't make their egregiously under-rated debut album You Can't Stop the Bum Rush, with its crudity worn on its sleeve as a badge of honor (the electronic drizzle that floats between verses sounds like Casio tones I used to create with my grandmother's mid-'80s keyboard), and serves as an introduction to another Neptunes-sounding track, the jagged "That's It That's All." While the tune buzzes with energy and carves out an aesthetic crescendo for the album's flow, it's but a prelude to "All Life Styles," which is destined for instant-classic status; it's little more than a beat, a bass line and a few spare guitar notes thrown in for color, but the track will run down breakdancers and b-boys like a steam engine, and provide the perfect soundtrack for your next dance floor confrontation. Meanwhile, "Shazam!" opens with a sample of Kool & the Gang's "Open Sesame" and then bounces like a spring-loaded ping pong ball, making reference to Dolly Parton, Chauncey Gardner, Fred Sanford and that wonderful infomercial product, the Bedazzler and adding a featherweight but memorable track to the mix before retreating into their beloved New York for the album's centerpiece cut.
"An Open Letter to NYC" is the dictionary definition of a successful rap-rock hybrid, and the Boys' call to arms (on this album, at least); the guitar throttles into a maelstrom of ominous keyboard tones, never quite observing a specific rhythm. Then the drums and bass leap into the mix, plodding behind in a cacophony of polyrhythms that add dimension and depth to both sides of the song's elusively-successful equation without tipping the scales too far in either direction (Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park, please take note).
"Crawlspace" occupies the position of the album's lone filler track (bringing the tally to a terse fifteen instead of their previous albums' twenty-plus cut numerology), but it soon gives way for "The Brouhaha," which sounds like an underfed Fatboy Slim track with its hurricane-velocity samples and thumping beats. This is followed quickly by the album closer, "We Got The," wherein the Beastie Boys re-invent themselves one last time, rocketing off towards their next hiatus (which has been comically referenced in the album's promotional material) over a beat that wouldn't sound out of place on an Eminem album. This track expertly demonstrates once again that age and wisdom trump youthful enthusiasm any day of the week.
Ultimately, To The 5 Boroughs shows the Beastie Boys at their most refined. Instead of including every idea and one-off impulse, darting through disparate genres one obscure sample at a time and crafting a mosaic-like collection of idiosyncratic tunes, the trio pared down their creativity to its most fruitful essence and crafted a work that will stand the test of time, if for no other reason than the fact it refutes their advancing age in an industry that thrives on novelty. While it remains to be seen whether their engaging and unique brand of futuristic/old school hip-hop will register commercially against the deluge of one-hit wonders and Next Big Things, as far as their continued status in the musical marketplace is concerned, The Beastie Boys can comfortably consider that license of theirs to be proudly renewed.
8.5
IGN.com's Editor's Choice Award