Monday, June 07, 2004
My album of the month is obviously "To the 5 Boroughs" by the Beastie Boys. Although I'm reviewing it here a week before release, and I have sinned by downloading it, I will be buying an actual copy in due course. It's a bitch ripping vinyl to MP3, so consider this a pre-emptive back-up. The bittorrent I got my grubby hands appears to have the tracklisting all messed up, with the song 3 The Hard Way entirely absent. These then are my preliminary impressions of a potentially deep rewarding master work.
The album has a stripped down sound, show-casing the rhymes and vocal acrobatics. The beats and basslines are reminiscent of Paul's Boutique, though breakbeats unheard of in 1989 are scattered throughout. Mixmaster Mike actually gets a surprisingly small slice of the pie, only a few songs have his trademark intros or breakdowns. When they do come though, they hit hard. Most of all though what impresses are the lyrics. For your edification here are a few of my fav couplets:
"Your rhymes are fake like Canal Street rocks; You're hearing me and y'all be like "Oh my God it's sasquatch."
"Whatchoo talking 'bout Willis? Who the illest? You know my name is Adam; stop callin me Phyllis."
"Communicator check, 1-2 1-2; this is Bones McCoy on the line to Sulu."
After a few listen throughs, two or three tracks suffer from a kind of "Just Say No" preachy tone. The album is startlingly political, at one point rhyming OPEC with "come correct". When combined with the post-9/11 sensibility the message is too forced in places. However at least 10 of the 16 tracks have "classic" written all over them: Right Right Now Now, featuring the first ever harpsichord loop in hip-hop; Triple Trouble, in which the Boys rap in Mockney over "Rapper's Delight"; The Brouhaha, a huge melee of scratches and breakbeats, with a chorus to die for; most of all I'm loving An Open Letter To NYC, a tender homage to the heterogeneity of the five boroughs, which has the most original swirling stereophonic bassline you'll hear all year.
Tentatively I'm going to jump off the fence by saying this might be the best Beastie Boys album yet. There's not obviously a dance floor classic like Intergalactic, nor are there any power guitars as in Sabotage, but the depth is there in brilliantly intelligent, witty rhymes. To quote Triple Trouble:
"Moving the crowd, well that's a must ; I got some words that apply to us; and that's mesmerizing, tantalizing; captivating, we're devastating."
PS If you're reading this before 12.30pm GMT on the 8th, don't forget to go view the transit of Venus which has never been seen by any living human.
The album has a stripped down sound, show-casing the rhymes and vocal acrobatics. The beats and basslines are reminiscent of Paul's Boutique, though breakbeats unheard of in 1989 are scattered throughout. Mixmaster Mike actually gets a surprisingly small slice of the pie, only a few songs have his trademark intros or breakdowns. When they do come though, they hit hard. Most of all though what impresses are the lyrics. For your edification here are a few of my fav couplets:
"Your rhymes are fake like Canal Street rocks; You're hearing me and y'all be like "Oh my God it's sasquatch."
"Whatchoo talking 'bout Willis? Who the illest? You know my name is Adam; stop callin me Phyllis."
"Communicator check, 1-2 1-2; this is Bones McCoy on the line to Sulu."
After a few listen throughs, two or three tracks suffer from a kind of "Just Say No" preachy tone. The album is startlingly political, at one point rhyming OPEC with "come correct". When combined with the post-9/11 sensibility the message is too forced in places. However at least 10 of the 16 tracks have "classic" written all over them: Right Right Now Now, featuring the first ever harpsichord loop in hip-hop; Triple Trouble, in which the Boys rap in Mockney over "Rapper's Delight"; The Brouhaha, a huge melee of scratches and breakbeats, with a chorus to die for; most of all I'm loving An Open Letter To NYC, a tender homage to the heterogeneity of the five boroughs, which has the most original swirling stereophonic bassline you'll hear all year.
Tentatively I'm going to jump off the fence by saying this might be the best Beastie Boys album yet. There's not obviously a dance floor classic like Intergalactic, nor are there any power guitars as in Sabotage, but the depth is there in brilliantly intelligent, witty rhymes. To quote Triple Trouble:
"Moving the crowd, well that's a must ; I got some words that apply to us; and that's mesmerizing, tantalizing; captivating, we're devastating."
PS If you're reading this before 12.30pm GMT on the 8th, don't forget to go view the transit of Venus which has never been seen by any living human.
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