In all likelihood,
\nHello Nasty<\/i> will have a huge first week of sales. Ever since<\/p>\n
Check Your Head<\/i>, interest for the next Beastie Boys album
\nhas grown considerably since their
\nPaul’s Boutique<\/i> heyday. For the half- million people who
\nwere blown away with
\nPaul’s Boutique<\/i>, that magic worked again with
\nCheck Your Head<\/i>. By that time, the Beasties had regained
\ntheir commercial clout and the result was
\nIll Communication<\/i>, a great album but not a groundbreaker
\nlike the brilliant first three albums the Beasties did.<\/p>\n
Now comes,
\nHello Nasty<\/i>. And I have to give thanks to Bob for giving me
\na few days to review this album, because it’s a dense 65 minute
\nride. It’s sort of like being forced to read “Ulysses” for one
\nnight and then answering a question like, “Well…did you like
\nit?”. Or, “Was it as good as ‘Dubliners’?”<\/p>\n
Seven listens and I’m nowhere near a verdict. So far, it’s the
\nmost challenging listen I’ve listened to this year and probably
\nwithout coincidence, the most rewarding listen of this year. You’re
\nhooked with the first two songs. The big, sparse beats that harken
\nback to the “When the Levee Breaks” sample that they did on “Robbin
\nand Stealin”- off their
\nLicense To Ill<\/i> album. That’s not the only nostalgia on the
\nalbum. With Run-D.M.C. samples and an appearance by Lee Perry, it’s
\na full claim to the old school guard of rappin’ on
\nHello Nasty<\/i>.<\/p>\n
To an extent. On they very much played, “Intergalactic” and the
\nextremely uneven middle half of the album, the Beastie Boys explore
\ntechno and industrial. As the album begins its superior close with
\n“Unite”, you hear, “Ravers of the world…unite!”. And on the
\npensive, “I Don’t Know”, it seems like Sean Lennon rubbed off them
\nwhile he was recording his solo album on the Grand Royal label.<\/p>\n
I can not think of any rap group that has been as consistant as
\nthe Beastie Boys have been. Even though
\nHello Nasty<\/i> does have its slow moments and some spots where
\nit seems like Mario C injested a bit too many fungal friends, it
\nstill is an impressive statement for one of the most innovative
\ngroups in the past 20 years.<\/p>\n
Need a reason to keep listening until this album feels just as
\nnatural as
\nCheck Your Head<\/i>? Try the sweet sound of Jill Cunniff
\n(Luscious Jackson) on “The Negotiation Limerick File”. Or how about
\na song in which Lee “Scratch” Perry has full control over (Dr Lee,
\nPhD). The occasional dabbling into the jazz\/lounge sound that the
\nBeasties have been seeking out since they left the Old Style
\ndrunken odes of
\nLicense To Ill<\/i> pop up in “The Grasshopper Unit (Keep Movin’)
\nand “And Me”. About the only thing that the Beastie Boys don’t do
\nthat you’ve come to expect is go back to their trash metal roots.
\nNot a thrasher in the 22-song bunch.<\/p>\n
Like Public Enemy, the Beastie Boys have been constantly trying
\nto re-define their image and their sound. While Public Enemy have
\nstumbled doing this (although seriously check out the excellent
\nHe Got Game<\/i> soundtrack), the Beasties have been able to keep
\nup this pace for a solid twelve years. One more solid album from
\nthese guys and they’re elevated into a category that includes the
\nBeatles for artists with exceptionally long creative streaks.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately,
\nHello Nasty<\/i> is not a barrier-smasher. It is only a really
\ngood release among some of the best music rap has ever created. And
\nfor being such innovators, the Beastie Boys have every right to
\nmake an album that will no doubt be debated by fans for decades to
\ncome.<\/p>\n
I guess the only thing that the Beastie Boys could have used on
\nthis album, save an editor, is a producer. Mavericks such as Rick
\nRubin and the Dust Brothers were used by the Beastie Boys a full
\nten years before they became the choice of producers for the
\nRolling Stones and Tom Petty. Maybe their next they can hire a
\nproducer that can match their artistic reach and focus it. For now
\nthough, keep listening to the most ambitious album of the summer:
\nan album that you won’t feel guilty for leaving in your player for
\nthe next three months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":24757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5809],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-35961","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-beastie-boys","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35961"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35961"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}