The Beastie Boys’ “To The 5 Boroughs” album was released last year and I still don’t like the album. I’ve tried listening to it over and over, giving it the chance to grow on me. But it’s not happening.
Here’s why this is such a big deal:
In 1992, while driving around college campus, one of my UMBC hockey teammates was pumping tunes in his car. It turned out to be a track from “Paul’s Boutique”, the Beastie Boys second album and first album release to follow their mega-popular “License To Ill.” This is significant because “Paul’s Boutique” then went onto become a driving force in my life. Actually, the album became a religion. It was played 24-7 and every line on the album was memorized by Weed. In fact, we still speak about the album to this day with reverence. I would argue that “Paul’s Boutique” is the greatest album ever recorded in the history of popular music.
Subsequent to “Paul’s Boutique” were other popular BBoy albums that all were wonderful creations of sound and rhyme. Some of the albums didn’t initially take, but the more I listened, the more I loved. Each time I listened, there were new things to discover.
It’s not that way with “To The 5 Boroughs”. I can’t get into the individual tracks, the flow of the tracks, any motif in the rhyme cadence, no identiable sounds…nothing. It’s a dud. You think that six years in between albums would result in another sonic masterpiece?
Greatness
I’m firmly of the opinion that the road to lasting artistic greatness is not necessarily quality. It is quality, combined with being massively prolific.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Except They’re not Prolific
The Beastie Boys haven’t put out more than 6 albums in the last 20 years. I wouldn’t call them prolific.
The point
Exactly my point 🙂
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Don’t Make Me Get Angry
Don’t make me get angry and START USING CAPITAL LETTERS TO DEFEND THE BEASTIE BOYS.
They are phenomenal.
Matt
Have you heard all the Beastie Boys’ albums?
You’ve been very good on this board about educating yourself before forming an opinion. Please give the BBoys the same benefit before I hack your website and deface it 😉
I can’t see basing music greatness on being prolific…take the group Boston for example. Can you really argue with their first album?
Listen to Paul’s Boutique, and all will be answered.
“Running from the law, the press, and the parents. Is your name Michael Diamond? Nah, my name’s Clarence”
“I pulled out the jammy he thought it was a joke The trigger I pulled. His face, the yolk. Reached in his pocket, took all his cash Left my man standing with an egg moustache.”
Absolute brilliance My $.02 Weed
Girls… to do the dishes
I would say that after a nearly 20-year career, the Beasties are permitted to put out one dud album. I can’t personally think of a band or artist who lasted longer than 10 years without one stinker.
— Ben
U2
Generally I agree with you but what’s U2’s stinkter? I can’t think of one. They seem to be so solid all the way around. Some could say that the Beatles never had one either.
——– Visit my blog, eh! The Murphy Maphia
Comparitively speaking
Zooropa and Pop, compared to Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby, were quite smelly, IMHO.
TT5B’s problem is that the Beastie Boys want to stay old-school while also growing up.
Think of it this way: Licensed to Ill was high-school. It was rough, it was rude, but it was funny, and it has some of the most memorable moments in Beastie Boys history. But it wasn’t their “best” work in the musical sense, but it was their best work in the pop sense
Paul’s Boutique was college. High-school, but oh so much better. It’s still a big party, but they’ve been doing it enough now that it makes the high-school stuff look lame. A lot of times, you peak early and then spend the rest of your life trying to hit that peak again
Check Your Head & Ill Communication – Post college single life. The partying is starting to end and now we’re getting serious. Musically, they’re as good as they’ve ever been, but they’ve moved away from pop to where they really want to be.
Hello Nasty – “Hey, we’re now in our thirties, what do we rap about now?” The music is awesome, and they’re ALL OVER THE PLACE, lyrically. The good thing about waiting so long for this album is that they became “new” to a new generation.
TT5B – I think they work too hard on the lyrics. Now they’re trying to be themselves while taking it to the next level and remaining old school. All while constantly being bombarded about when the album is coming out. There’s a few good songs, but nothing to make me listen repeatedly.
The thing about the Beastie Boys is that they’ve remined true to themselves the whole time. They grew up and you could watch it in their music.
My $.02 Weed
Stinkers
Weed’s right. Zooropa and Pop, while still being better than much of the crap out there, were not in the same league as U2’s more brilliant albums.
As for the Beatles, many would argue that either Magical Mystery Tour or Yellow Submarine was their stinker. Personally, I think their stinker is not an album itself — I believe that the White Album could have been a spectacular single album, rather than a double album which combines brilliant songs and stinkers.
— Ben
What the falafel..
I liked “To the 5 Boroughs” , and strangely Kelly did too.
You’re right.. they have to compete with bunches of white kids who like Eminem, and (like the latest Will Smith album) they try so hard that it no longer seems “fresh out da box”.
Still, ChCheck it out was OK, and there are others that do fine..
Now, I have never listened to Paul’s Boutique, but Liscense to Ill remains on my playlist to this day.
“Greates album in the history of Popular music? Lets see..
Greatest Album in the History of Popular Music
That’s a toughy. I may have to take the default and say Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Not just because it’s a great album, but because it represented the gateway between the past and the future of pop music.
Runners-up would all have to be based on personal preference. Judging by the quality of the album as a whole (i.e. every song must kick ass), I’d choose things like Steely Dan’s Aja, Boston’s debut album, and Led Zeppelin IV.
— Ben
Don’t forget
Wayward Sun, the Right of Way..
Well, the Cover of the tape was frickin AWESOME!!
hee hee
You just don’t have any good
You just don’t have any good taste.. 😉