The Observer

[Parkey]

It gets a very luke warm review in today's Observer; here (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/reviews/story/0,,2101895,00.html);

Beastie Boys, The Mix-Up


The original B-boys drop the mic and go instrumental again. Why?
Luke Bainbridge
Sunday June 17, 2007
The Observer


Twenty-five years into their career, hip hop's elder statesmen return with their seventh studio album. 2004's To The 5 Boroughs was a refreshing return to programmed beats and their triangular-mic technique. This time, though, Mike D, Adam Horovitz and Adam Yauch have dropped the mic and picked up guitar, bass and drums, returning to the jazz-tinged instrumentals explored on Check Your Head and The In Sound From Way Out!. Even then, such jams worked best as interludes between vocal attacks, rather than stand-alone pieces. For fans only then.

[roosta]

It gets a very luke warm review in today's Observer; here (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/reviews/story/0,,2101895,00.html);

Beastie Boys, The Mix-Up


The original B-boys drop the mic and go instrumental again. Why?
Luke Bainbridge
Sunday June 17, 2007
The Observer


Twenty-five years into their career, hip hop's elder statesmen return with their seventh studio album. 2004's To The 5 Boroughs was a refreshing return to programmed beats and their triangular-mic technique. This time, though, Mike D, Adam Horovitz and Adam Yauch have dropped the mic and picked up guitar, bass and drums, returning to the jazz-tinged instrumentals explored on Check Your Head and The In Sound From Way Out!. Even then, such jams worked best as interludes between vocal attacks, rather than stand-alone pieces. For fans only then.

Yeah, I read that. I've seen a couple of comments now that seem to be reappraising TT5B in the wake of The Mix-Up....

[DJ Pioneer]

It gets a very luke warm review in today's Observer; here (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/reviews/story/0,,2101895,00.html);

The original B-boys drop the mic and go instrumental again. Why?
Luke Bainbridge
Sunday June 17, 2007
The Observer

Honestly, I think we're going to see a lot of negative reviews. Not necessarily because the music's bad, but because it's very different. I'm a loyal fan, and I'm going to buy the album and give it a fair chance (I didn't bootleg it).

Additionally, I don't think they'll win over too many new fans with this one. It'll be tough to promote (unless the future "vocalized" version is released). You have to admit, even a lot of Beastie-fans will be turned off by the radical departure from their other work. The other instrumentals fit well, and "In Sound" was sort of an underground thing and compilation.

[ms.peachy]

I found that review really annoying, because it doesn't actually say anything about the music at all other than to point out that it's instrumental, does it. Now I haven't heard anything from the new album yet (yeah boo I know whatever, I have a toddler, I can barely find time to put on clean underpants let alone listen to music, give me a break) so I would have liked, you know, an actual review of the album, as in, "This track is quite xxxxx and sounds a bit like xxxx; however this one is really xxxxx", rather than some whinger moaning about how it's not a hip hop record.

[Parkey]

Got a better one yesterday in The Observer again (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2109890,00.html);

Beastie Boys
The Mix-Up (Parlophone)

If you disapprove of nostalgia in hip hop and feel short-changed when rappers release albums without any rapping on them, the new Beastie Boys release is probably not for you. Its groove-heavy production could easily be a decade old; The Mix-Up could, in fact, be a lost companion piece to their 1996 instrumental album The In Sound From Way Out!. While the latter had a jazzier, more diverse approach, this one fuels its breaks with straight-up funk plus a dash of bossa on 'Suco de Tangerina'. The rather homogenous sound washes over you but in a good way: each carefully constructed track has a robust groove at its core.