Record of the Month
Beastie Boys
Ever since Adam Yauch, Michael Diamond and Adam Horovitz hooked up with Rick Rubin and Def Jam back in the synth-drenched ’80s and changed the game forever, the Beastie Boys have been steadily carving out their own niche not just within music, but within hip-hop.
Looking back you’d be forgiven for thinking time has moved slightly more slowly for the three chaps from NYC than for the rest of us. In the last 25 years together (which in an increasingly ephemeral industry is no mean feat) they’ve forged a distinct sound that, no matter how much they explore within it, remains instantly recognisable. 2007’s all-instrumental ‘The Mix-Up’ might have suggested a stylistic change in direction, but with ‘Hot Sauce Committee Part Two’, the good ship Beastie Boy is back on its original tack. Sure, they might have foregone Kerry King’s guitar for some altogether less hardcore production, but that inimitable Beastie swagger is more than a little reminiscent of debut album ‘Licensed To Ill’, a fact they fully acknowledge when they declare they’re going to “party for the motherfuckin’ right to fight!”
Any lingering worries that the Boys – now firmly ensconced in their forties – might be mellowing with age are immediately dispelled with opener ‘Make Some Noise’. Riding over the most ridiculously contagious beat you will probably hear all year they are clearly revelling in returning to what they do best, and it’s reasonably safe to assume this track will be featuring on a plethora of ‘Best Of’ compilations. So they’re back, and let’s not kid ourselves, you know what that means. This is a sensory experience, first and foremost. That might seem like an obvious statement, but there’s no agenda being pushed here. No message, no album-wide concept, and nothing to interfere with classic Beastie chest-thumping, slapstick similes and unmistakable, unashamed screwball humour. Even where the the album shifts stylistically, like the dub-infused ‘Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win’, there’s still a feeling the Boys have their tongues firmly in their cheeks. Regardless, Santigold’s smoky vocals mark this particular cut as a summer soundtrack staple (weather permitting, of course).
MCA’s well-documented battle with cancer delayed this album’s release, and the three emcees have obviously taken the resulting postponement as an opportunity to tweak it. ‘Too Many Rappers’, featuring fellow New York vet Nas (and originally released in 2009) has been re-worked for the better; cleaned up and given a punchier beat. The deep funk of instrumental ‘Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament’ and a nod to their punk roots (and, typically oddly, the Six Million Dollar Man) in ‘Lee Majors Come Again’ again serve to give a sense of diversity to the record. Generally the beats, with an extensive use of cowbell that Christopher Walken would be proud of, are classic Beastie Boys, but there’s a certain maturity in the layered production approach that adds texture and depth, suggesting a considered attitude despite the customary Beastie mayhem.
For anyone who has somehow inexplicably slept on the Beasties, decades-long-cave-dwelling questions aside, fret ye not: this is something of a microcosm of their career to date, and the perfect jumping on point. And there should be more to come too, because on this evidence there’s plenty more sauce in the bottle.
Words: Leo Bennett
‘Hot Sauce Committee Part Two’ is out now on Parlophone.
