mat_payne
06-22-2004, 12:07 PM
This review raises a few good questions about the new album, doesn't mean I agree with the low score though. Seems the reviewer probably hasn't listened to the three full albums in between L2I and Hello Nasty from her comments...
Beastie Boys
To The 5 Boroughs [Capitol]
Jennifer Coxley
10th June, 2004
With the hip-hop spectrum divided evenly in 2 ways: the slick, multi-million dollar industry that is commercial hip-hop, or the lo-fi, PC produced nerdery of Anticon etc. The Beastie Boys don’t quite make either category. True, theirs is a multi-million unit shifting outfit, but it’s vastly out-dated method fails to meet the high standards of The Neptunes and Missy E.
With 1986’s ‘Licensed To Ill’, The Beasties’ made their lasting impression on the musical world; controversial, exciting and too often, their media-loving, outlandish goofy behaviour. Fast forward to 2004 - the 8 ball, crack and comical rhymes about street robbing for gold jewellery are a faded, distant memory. Welcome to the middle-aged, Buddhist loving model, a trio who prefer the cosy image of family lifestyle than the harsh reality of teenage Brooklyn street culture. And with it, comes a bland, too-safe approach.
Taking the comfortable option, of replicating the footsteps of global success ‘Hello Nasty’, the same methods of cartoon hip-hop are displayed. A lazy choice of beats, laughable rapping and token scratching distance this from its predecessor barely. Although similarities are obvious, ‘To The 5 Boroughs’ lacks a potential hit needed to regain their mass fan-base, in the shape of ‘Intergalactic’ or ‘Body Movin’. Their sub-standard, anti-Bush lyricism has become a cliche of recent ‘political’ artists, so fails to have much sustainable impact - an embarrassment on their behalf, considering the outrage and response their former lyrics and imagery caused.
With ‘The 5 Boroughs’, The Beastie Boys have become everything they fought against in the first place: corporate, predictable and especially boring. If this is their idea of “the new style", then God help their next direction.
5/10
Beastie Boys
To The 5 Boroughs [Capitol]
Jennifer Coxley
10th June, 2004
With the hip-hop spectrum divided evenly in 2 ways: the slick, multi-million dollar industry that is commercial hip-hop, or the lo-fi, PC produced nerdery of Anticon etc. The Beastie Boys don’t quite make either category. True, theirs is a multi-million unit shifting outfit, but it’s vastly out-dated method fails to meet the high standards of The Neptunes and Missy E.
With 1986’s ‘Licensed To Ill’, The Beasties’ made their lasting impression on the musical world; controversial, exciting and too often, their media-loving, outlandish goofy behaviour. Fast forward to 2004 - the 8 ball, crack and comical rhymes about street robbing for gold jewellery are a faded, distant memory. Welcome to the middle-aged, Buddhist loving model, a trio who prefer the cosy image of family lifestyle than the harsh reality of teenage Brooklyn street culture. And with it, comes a bland, too-safe approach.
Taking the comfortable option, of replicating the footsteps of global success ‘Hello Nasty’, the same methods of cartoon hip-hop are displayed. A lazy choice of beats, laughable rapping and token scratching distance this from its predecessor barely. Although similarities are obvious, ‘To The 5 Boroughs’ lacks a potential hit needed to regain their mass fan-base, in the shape of ‘Intergalactic’ or ‘Body Movin’. Their sub-standard, anti-Bush lyricism has become a cliche of recent ‘political’ artists, so fails to have much sustainable impact - an embarrassment on their behalf, considering the outrage and response their former lyrics and imagery caused.
With ‘The 5 Boroughs’, The Beastie Boys have become everything they fought against in the first place: corporate, predictable and especially boring. If this is their idea of “the new style", then God help their next direction.
5/10