NBrid

Beastie Boys: To the 5 Boroughs (CD)

After a long six-year wait, the Beastie Boys are coming home. So let's check it out and see what's it all about. And just in case you forgot, yes they do hail from New York City and its five buroughs.

"To the 5 Buroughs" opens with their first single, "Ch-Check It Out." As a rule of thumb, if an album's first single is the first track (or oddly the third... seriously, check it out), alarms should go off in your head. And have you known alarms to be good? (Answer: no.) However, that's just a generalization and not Newton's little known 8th law of musicology.

Okay. Let's cut to the chase. The Beastie Boys (Mike D, MCA, King Ad-Rock, and Mix Master Mike) sixth studio album (not counting instrumentals, 'demo tapes', ect.) does in fact continue their trend of releasing only top quality material, but I do have a few issues with it.

First, it's too politically charged for my tastes. I mean I get it! You don't like President George W. Bush! Come on, what is this? Progressive Boink? You don't need to remind me every damn song that you disagree with the US's perceived imperialism and Bush's foreign policies. (Okay, thankfully it's not every song, but they get their point across more times than I care to count.) But this is nothing new for the Beastie Boys. They have been big activists for years (Free Tibet). But I don't like it when songs get "preachy." The last track's empowerment chorus of, "Who got the power to make a difference... we got," makes me cringe. From the title of the album, to the title of some songs ("Open Letter to NYC"), and of course the lyrics in those songs, it's clear this album is about New York City and what it's gone though, especially about events since then. Which is understandable, but couldn't they be a little more tactful about it?

My bigger issue with the album is its homogenous nature (no you dumbass, look it up). It's not so much that a few of the songs sound similar when listened to back-to-back, but rather the sameness in the style of the songs used. The disc 'only' has 15 tracks. Usually that's a lot, but when you compare it to most Beastie Boy CDs, that's the fewest since their debut (Licensed to Ill). What this means is you won't find any "punk" tracks. None of their patentent 'funky' instrumentals are here either. Nothing at all to mix-up the flow of the disc (besides maybe a few short samples between tracks). These were never the best songs on a Beastie album, but they certainly help the album as a whole. This time they just stuck to what they do best: rhyming.

Rhyming is certainly what this album, and in fact the Beastie Boys as a whole, is all about. Think back to tracks like "Jimmy James" or "The Negotiation Limerick File" to see what I mean. Overall they aren't as minimalist as "Three MC's and One DJ," but some of them aren't far off. If for some reason you didn't like that track (especially the sweet version on their anthology, Sounds of Science), you're not going to like this album. Most of the CD is closer to that song then it is to "Ch-Check it Out." Though I think my favorite song is the Paul's Boutique-esque "Tripple Trouble". I also really like "Open Letter to NYC" and "Right Right Now Now", and not just because they point out it's been too long since their last album.

There are some excellent beats ("Right Right Now Now"). Some sweet turntableism ("Time To Build"). And even some nice usage of samples ("Hey Fuck You"). All done using their classic  trading-off (by versus) rapping style. The bottom line is this album is track after track of 'old-school' hip-hop as revolutionized by the Beasties. Plus it has their usual "granny" referances, so you know it has to be good!

Please note: This CD has a "Parental Warning: Explicit Lyrics" label once again. Even with a name like "Hello Nasty", it was a clean album. Not so here. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a Wu-Tang album, but they aren't afraid to throw out the f-word here and there. Which is a damn good thing of course! This also means there is a "clean" version of this CD. Make sure you don't make the mistake of grabbing that one off the shelf.

In some ways this is a return to what makes the Beastie Boys so great. It's not that the over-produced "Hallo Nasty" was a bad album, it just wasn't as great as the others (Licensed to Ill, Paul's Boutique, Check Your Head, Ill Communication). The "sameness" of this album though might keep it from the level of those four. Looking at the CD as an "album", it fails to live up to those standards. But when you look at the songs it contains, they are almost every bit as good as tracks from those days. It get's better with each listen, which is often a sign of a truly great album, so who knows how I'll feel about in a year from now.

"To the 5 Buroughs" is a 'must have' in your Beastie Boys collection, but since it's nothing revolutionary or extraordinary, it won't win any new fans. It's just a very good album that gives the fans what they want. I know it might seem that I don't like this album after skimming everything I listed above, but often to show how good something is it's easier to just point out its few faults. Get past these (I have), and it really is a great album. It wasn't worth a six year wait (no CD is), but I'm very happy.