Published on Jul 22, 1998
In all likelihood,
Hello Nasty will have a huge first week of sales. Ever since
Check Your Head, interest for the next Beastie Boys album
has grown considerably since their
Paul’s Boutique heyday. For the half- million people who
were blown away with
Paul’s Boutique, that magic worked again with
Check Your Head. By that time, the Beasties had regained
their commercial clout and the result was
Ill Communication, a great album but not a groundbreaker
like the brilliant first three albums the Beasties did.
Now comes,
Hello Nasty. And I have to give thanks to Bob for giving me
a few days to review this album, because it’s a dense 65 minute
ride. It’s sort of like being forced to read “Ulysses” for one
night and then answering a question like, “Well…did you like
it?”. Or, “Was it as good as ‘Dubliners’?”
Seven listens and I’m nowhere near a verdict. So far, it’s the
most challenging listen I’ve listened to this year and probably
without coincidence, the most rewarding listen of this year. You’re
hooked with the first two songs. The big, sparse beats that harken
back to the “When the Levee Breaks” sample that they did on “Robbin
and Stealin”- off their
License To Ill album. That’s not the only nostalgia on the
album. With Run-D.M.C. samples and an appearance by Lee Perry, it’s
a full claim to the old school guard of rappin’ on
Hello Nasty.
To an extent. On they very much played, “Intergalactic” and the
extremely uneven middle half of the album, the Beastie Boys explore
techno and industrial. As the album begins its superior close with
“Unite”, you hear, “Ravers of the world…unite!”. And on the
pensive, “I Don’t Know”, it seems like Sean Lennon rubbed off them
while he was recording his solo album on the Grand Royal label.
I can not think of any rap group that has been as consistant as
the Beastie Boys have been. Even though
Hello Nasty does have its slow moments and some spots where
it seems like Mario C injested a bit too many fungal friends, it
still is an impressive statement for one of the most innovative
groups in the past 20 years.
Need a reason to keep listening until this album feels just as
natural as
Check Your Head? Try the sweet sound of Jill Cunniff
(Luscious Jackson) on “The Negotiation Limerick File”. Or how about
a song in which Lee “Scratch” Perry has full control over (Dr Lee,
PhD). The occasional dabbling into the jazz/lounge sound that the
Beasties have been seeking out since they left the Old Style
drunken odes of
License To Ill pop up in “The Grasshopper Unit (Keep Movin’)
and “And Me”. About the only thing that the Beastie Boys don’t do
that you’ve come to expect is go back to their trash metal roots.
Not a thrasher in the 22-song bunch.
Like Public Enemy, the Beastie Boys have been constantly trying
to re-define their image and their sound. While Public Enemy have
stumbled doing this (although seriously check out the excellent
He Got Game soundtrack), the Beasties have been able to keep
up this pace for a solid twelve years. One more solid album from
these guys and they’re elevated into a category that includes the
Beatles for artists with exceptionally long creative streaks.
Unfortunately,
Hello Nasty is not a barrier-smasher. It is only a really
good release among some of the best music rap has ever created. And
for being such innovators, the Beastie Boys have every right to
make an album that will no doubt be debated by fans for decades to
come.
I guess the only thing that the Beastie Boys could have used on
this album, save an editor, is a producer. Mavericks such as Rick
Rubin and the Dust Brothers were used by the Beastie Boys a full
ten years before they became the choice of producers for the
Rolling Stones and Tom Petty. Maybe their next they can hire a
producer that can match their artistic reach and focus it. For now
though, keep listening to the most ambitious album of the summer:
an album that you won’t feel guilty for leaving in your player for
the next three months.