A lot of controversy has surrounded this album with a lot of people saying even before they’ve listened to it that “a Beastie Boys instrumental album is doomed to failure.” If you are one of these people then I suggest you pick up a copy and reconsider.
To be fair, this isn’t actually new territory for the Boys as long time fans will know that they have dabbled with a few instrumental tracks on
Ill Communication and
Check Your Head and a large portion of the tracks on
The In Sound From Way Out! So to say that this is a bad new move on their part would be naive and after three decades of rocking hard and shouting even harder maybe making this album was their idea of trying to stay fresh.
What makes this album truly different is the number of different influences added in here, I see similarities with
De Facto who tried the dub/salsa/hip-hop mix with
Megaton Shotblast in 2001 and like that, this album is a good example of what people can achieve when they try something out with their comfort zone and I wish bands would try this more often. During some of the tracks, however, you can easily imagine the trio rapping over the top of as they are quite similar to tracks on
From The 5 Boroughs—the lead track,
B for my Name, especially being a good example of this similarity to earlier releases. For hardcore fans though I am not too sure if the album will appeal because many will really love the Beastie Boys’ “rock hard and shout louder” attitude that has brought them so much success over the years.
If you are looking for something a bit different this Summer then this is an album I’d definitely recommend but I’d hope that all Beastie Boys fans would check this out with an open mind too as it is a really good listen.
Beastie Boys - The Mix Up is out now.
www.beastieboys.com www.myspace.com/beastieboys
