[tuc70021]

I remember when TT5B came out my friends and I were talking about how we were worried that it might not be very good. This theory of ours came from the fact that the group head released The Sounds of Science years before, and we thought maybe they were signaling that they were "done" with serious music and might just be doing some side-project stuff now. The fact that the album was in reference to NY and the 9/11 attacks were fairly recent, we thought it might just be a novelty album about NYC, Bush, the war, etc.

They we listened to it and didn't know what to make of it. We felt like we were kind of right. Hello Nasty took 5 years to make and it was amazing. TT5B took even longer and it definitely seems like it was made in 2 months with a fifth of the effort. It wasn't novelty enough to confirm our suspicions, but it also wasn't good enough for an album that took that long.

I think we were somewhat right. After Hello Nasty, Yauch got way more into making films, Mike was doing more fashion and art stuff, Adrock was.... getting more into judge shows and Chinese food? But they were having kids and the kids were getting older, getting new interests, etc. It seemed like the full-time Beastie Boys were done. The Mix Up was great, but again, not something we'd expect. HSCP2 was surprisingly good, but again, felt less like they had dedicated themselves to an album and more like 3 friends made an album in between doing their full-time jobs.

I love all their albums, including TT5B, but for me it sort of signaled the end of the Beastie Boys ars 3 boys who were all about their band and the start of 3 men who could made a great album from time to time.