Beastie Boys

[liebzz]

Check Your Head - this album feels very consistent and strong throughout. Rather than the spitfire interchanges of the first two albums, the songs seem more focused on each of the members. Some of the greatest stuff for me lies in the instrumental tracks, like In 3’s, Pow, and Groove Holmes, though I am not completely sure why. I actually listened to Paul’s Boutique twice before commenting because I felt like it needed that second spin, but got through this one quickly. Both have tremendous virtue though, and are strong from top to bottom.

[tragabigzanda]

[B]

Ah. Could be right. I always thought they were tracks recorded during the early PB sessions, but I guess I don’t know where I got that from.

The book does not back this up. Most of the albums appear to have been ideas thought up by MCA.

[Jammer XCI]

Pauls Boutique, Ill Communication and Check Your Head are the best Beastie Boys

[tragabigzanda]

Top 10 maybe?
Hello Morning
Close Captioned
The Kill
Place/Position
Do You Like Me?
Latest Disgrace
Recap Modotti
Nightshop
Break
Life & Limb

I'd maybe bump Life & Limb for Epic Problem

[Norah]

Pauls Boutique, Ill Communication and Check Your Head are the best Beastie Boys

Yes

yeah scorching hot take there

[VinylGuy]

Pauls Boutique, Ill Communication and Check Your Head are the best Beastie Boys

fuck yeah. Those three are the real thing.

[liebzz]

Ill Communication - Paul’s Boutique is probably my favorite so far, but Ill Communication is the easiest to listen through so far. Perhaps it’s the continuing familiarity, but this album feels more like a mastery of what they do well rather than expanding their sound in challenging ways like the predecessors. Root Down is nearly exactly the example I would give as to why I like the Beastie Boys, but both the classics (Sure Shot and Sabotage) and other tracks like Flute Loop, and The Scoop all hit the mark. Again, I am finding myself drawn to the instrumental tracks as well, I think because I really enjoy the uninterrupted layering that they are constantly engaged in that is highly enjoyable. Another excellent one.

[Norah]

Ill Communication is their best album.

[liebzz]

Hello Nasty - this is yet another strong album. With all the posts here about the three previous albums, to me this stands up just as well, and it’s main weakness is it is too long. Super Disco Makin’, Remote Control, Body Movin’, Intergalactic (a wonderfully challenging single that is catchy but way different than anything else), The Grasshopper Unit, and Electrify were my favorites. I went back and listened to Love American Style for a comparison over the 10 years. I prefer the Paul’s Boutique stuff but it was fascinating that I could barely tell the difference as I went along but it seemed more stark listening back.

[tragabigzanda]

[epilogue]

Pauls Boutique, Ill Communication and Check Your Head are the best Beastie Boys

Yes

yeah scorching hot take there

AL

[E.H. Ruddock]

I hope someday they release some other stuff they did later in their career before Yauch died. Hot Sauce Comittee holds up just as well as any other Beastie's album. I love it so much.

[liebzz]

To the 5 Boroughs - the Beastie Boys get political! So hearing this in the context of what came before it, other than that there’s not much to this album. Granted there are plenty of strong tracks on this: Ch-Check It Out, Right Right Now Now, Triple Trouble, An Open Letter to NYC, and We Got The are the most immediate examples. I think this one is even more beat focused than Hello Nasty and there doesn’t feel like there’s that much going on but the three of them trading verses on all things politics and NYC. Not bad at all, but not near their best.

[Norah]

Remote Control is fantastic. Wtf, trag?

[liebzz]

The Mix Up - I am certainly not opposed to the idea of the Beastie Boys releasing an album of instrumental tracks, and have repeatedly pointed to them as highlights throughout their catalogue, but here rather than focusing on the strength of their sampling and imagination, this just feels like a collection of tracks I would hear as warm up music waiting for a band to hit the stage. Enough to not turn it off or complain, but not anything I can chew on in the the foreground of my brain. This is Beastie Boys elevator music. Background noise that won’t offend me while I am doing something else.

[Norah]

love me some Off the Grid

[E.H. Ruddock]

love me some Off the Grid

Pete knows what's up

[B]

I have to say, you'd enjoy this project more if you read the book, and stopped reading to listen to the albums after they discuss that album in the book. This also works for the Beatles and PJ20.

[liebzz]

I mean sure, but at the same time it is nice to listen without pretext or in some ways a sense of time. That, and it certainly isn’t happening with me 90% of the way through Hot Sauce Committee.