Trollheart

I fight for my right not to listen to the Beastly Boys.

Oh, and only one album per artist, so nyaa nyaa nyaa!

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Lisnaholic

I suppose most of us do it: we hear something completely unfamiliar and we try to relate it to something we know. The Beastie Boys are new to me and I don't know about adjacent genres either, so my comparisons are prob laughably wide of the mark to most people, but this is what I was reminded of:-
i) a fun party album, as if the Beach Boys had expanded Barbara Ann to a full album
ii) the multi-part, street-wise singing of The Jets on Gee Officer Krupkee
iii) the chanting of children that by coincidence TH has just mentioned: a repetitive "Na Na Nana Na", which somehow children in many countries have discovered to be inherently annoying.

When Paul's Boutique was going well, it felt like a cleverly-made album that could cheer you up, with various surprises in the lyrics that kept me interested for a while, but after 5 tracks, that constant up-front, quick-change singing got on my nerves.
After a break, I tried the album some more and lasted another four tracks.
Final attempt: two tracks and when What Comes Around started I thought, "Yeah, what comes around just keeps coming around, in song after song after song". At that point I walked out of Paul's Boutique having bought nothing, just with a sense of relief that the singing had finally stopped.
Best of the first eleven tracks: Johnny Ryall, Sounds of Science and Looking Down The Barrel.

In the Album Club, I hope we all enjoy the diversity of opinion, and I know SGR well enough by now to guess that he prob won't be too offended by a low rating from me: 2/10

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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

SGR

It's funny actually, I've seen the way the Beastie Boys trade off who's rapping on the mic so frequently to be a sticking point for some people. My brother, who loves a lot of different hip hop, especially old school 90s stuff, really dislikes the Beastie Boys for this reason in particular. I guess I can see how it could be a little bit jarring for some, but I've always loved it - it's the chemistry they have together, where one member will start a thought, and the other comes on the mic and completes the thought in a way that sometimes makes sense, and other times comes as a complete non-sequitir, usually in humorous ways. I definitely didn't expect this album to get glowing reviews across our little club, and even figured that I should pencil in Trollheart to give me a mulligan (given his open disdain for the Beastly Brothers), but I think the variety is useful - it seemed strange to me that we hadn't had a single hip-hop/rap album up to this point, and I guess it just reflects the tastes of those nominating, but the more the merrier in terms of variety in my eyes. I might nominate an exotica or mambo album next. Or maybe a lounge record. We'll see. I'll get my review up for Paul's Boutique sometime next week - prepare for a long one, and allow me to reminisce about it in glowing fashion.

You mentioned not having much to relate it to Lisna, have you heard many rap records?

Lisnaholic

for your bolded words, SGR. I for one will read your review with interest, your reminisces in particular.

^ I've heard bits of rap, SGR and someone on MB kindly posted a rec or two of Rap Lite for me to see that it was more inventive musically than I thought. That experiment didn't really help, but yeah, in terms of relating Beastie Boys to something I know, I should've gone to rap first. Truth is, I don't understand the difference between rap and hip-hop, so I didn't want to expose my ignorance furthur by saying "Paul's Boutique reminds me of rap" if that is what it actually is.

I write my reviews first, then go back and read people's comments, so I'd like to make a couple of furthur remarks:-

(i) as Mindfulness says, it's a great album cover
(ii) I couldn't identify a single sample in the entire album. I even re-listened to Sound of Science listening for The End but failed in that endeavour too, so there's a whole sophisticated level to The Beastie Boys which is completely passing me by.

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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

Trollheart

"Ladies and gentlemen, Paul's Boutique would like to thank you for you custom. However it is almost closing time, so please bring your purchases to the front desk so we can **** off home. Thank you."

Tomorrow is the last day for the Beastlies, after which we move on to Rubber Soul's Concrete Blonde, and if that isn't a mixed metaphor I don't know what is.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

SGR

I've been bumming around at my brothers place for the Super Bowl (which my Chiefs won - Go Chiefs!), I'll get my Beastly Brothers review up this week and will get the review for the next album up shortly after - sorry for the delay!

Trollheart

OP has been updated with new album, so get listenin'!

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Lisnaholic

Thanks for the link, Mindfulness, and for the update, Trollheart:-^ The correct abbreviation is of course: Lisnin

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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

rubber soul

Great vid, Mindy. I remember seeing this when it first came out. It was one of those wow moments to be sure.

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SGR

Now that I'm back from my Super Bowl excursion (How bout those Chiefs!?!), here's my review of the Beastly Brothers.

Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique (1989)



A sophomore slump in sales but not in vision and creativity. The much anticipated follow up to the Beastie Boys’ debut album landed with critical glee - but it also left the public scratching their heads. Where were the party songs? The songs about drinking and screwing, the stuff that played well on MTV at the time? Well - this album has that….a bit - but there’s no obvious barnburner of a hit like “Fight for your Right”.

This album to me is the most impressively produced album of the 1980s. It’s also the best hip hop record of the 1980s (sorry Public Enemy). And to be perfectly honest - that’s probably the biggest reason this album is one of my all time favorites - not the Beastie Boys, their talent or raps, but rather the mindbendingly creative production of the Dust Brothers. Before licensing laws changed, hip hop producers could sample whatever they wanted and get away with it (it changed primarily because of the egregious amount of samples used on this record). On this record, you hear a new sample from a wide arrange of artists and records about every 8 seconds - from the likes of The Beatles, James Brown, Johnny Cash, Curtis Mayfield, Ramones, Sly & the Family Stone and a whole bunch of obscure 70s folk and soul artists you’ve probably never even heard of. The Dust Brothers dug deep in the crates for this record. Hell, you even hear samples of the Psycho and Jaws themes (on "Egg Man"). Find me another rap record that samples the Jaws theme, I’ll wait.

One of my favorite tracks of the whole album is "High Plains Drifter". As soon as you hear that gun cock, and the drum break roll in, you know that it’s on. Not only does this track show the sampling creativity and prowess of the Dust Brothers, but exemplifies the incredibly creative way that the Beastie Boys can weave a hilarious story together, all the while trading the mic off after nearly line - I mean, just listen to that bassline sample and drum break from The Eagles’ “Those Shoes” - it’s just menacingly infectious, even if it is one of the most obvious samples on the record.








Or how about the tales of juvenile egg-tossing delinquency on “Egg Man”?



Talking about the Beastie Boys for a minute, this is not a record that showcases incredibly complex rhyme schemes or lyrical prowess, but it doesn’t need to. That’s not the point. It’s supposed to be fun - that’s the point here. And it has fun locked down. Like the aforementioned tales of juvenile debauchery, the Beastie Boys are constantly hilarious.

Perhaps the song that is the best example of the Beastie Boys fun lyrical nonchalance coming together with the high form of creative sample-mixups of the Dust Brothers is “Hey Ladies”, that kicks off and is driven by a slowed down sample of the Commodores “Machine Gun” - and has a cutup pseudo-chorus that is woven together with samples from:

Kurtis Blow’s “Party Time”
World’s Famous Supreme Team’s “Hey DJ”
Cameo’s “Shake Your Pants”
Afrika Bambaataa’s “Jazzy Sensation”
Kool & The Gang’s “Jungle Boogie”
James Brown’s “Funky President”
P-Funk All Stars’ “Pumpin’ It Up”
James Brown’s “Aint It Funky Now”

All of this, just for the chorus - it is immense. Oh yeah, the song also samples Sweet’s “Ballroom Blitz” (but not during the chorus). And in verse 3, we learn quite a lot - but it’s all quite disconnected - it’s a beautifully descriptive imitation of so many different ideas, events, and thoughts - all centered on the main idea of “the ladies, the ladies”:



We learn about:

A gold-toothed prostitute who knows her trade
A bad breakup that references Vincent Van Gogh’s self-mutilation
A call to an ex in a fit of drunkeness in a nasty phone booth
An act of property destruction against the ex’s house
Suicide after the breakup in a train
A fat mom who serves as rebound sex, happening after the narrator was piss drunk (while referencing the Magilla Gorilla Show theme)
A preference for curvy women with curly long hair
A love of hippy women who are a bit on the self-righteous side

This song is a great representation of the album as a whole - the whole album is the truest musical pastiche that ever existed. And who knew that hip hop was in desparate need for a large amount of cowbell?



And another more lyrical example of the idea of the pastiche can be found in the track “Shadrach” - in just the first verse, we find references to Batman (Riddler), AC/DC, the classic hymn “Amazing Grace”, a verse from the New Testament, drug highs, idiomatic cliches, God, and three Judean prophets from the Book of Daniel:



The song comes with an addictively delicious vocal sample from Sly & The Family Stone’s “Loose Booty” - sampled and looped in a way that might make 90s house DJs blush. And of course, the track is fittingly accompanied by a trippy impressionist hand drawn art collage - the pastiche continues:



When I was a teenager, I used to have a summer job that was a little under half an hour away (driving). So this album became a constant companion - as every time I’d drive to work, I’d finish half the album - and on the way home after the work day, I’d get through the entire second half right as I was pulling into my parent’s driveway (perhaps this is why I like side 2 of the record a little bit more, but side 1 always provided the energy I needed to motivate myself for the day).

This album is denser than a neutron star - and nothing before and nothing since is quite like it. Nothing ever will be, at least not on a commercial level. While it is a pastiche - the album somehow manages to imitate/sample so many different things, it becomes something totally and wholly unique. It is a complete musical chameleon.

So yeah, this album is a sentimental favorite. It always will be. Two years after their debut, the Beastie Boys, with the help of the Dust Brothers, proved that they were not a one-trick pony, they were in fact a creative musical force that had to be taken seriously. I suppose you could say that they did indeed have to fight for their right to party.


9.5/10 (trying to be objective, I think “What Comes Around” is just a little bit weaker than the rest of the tracks)