Beastie Boys
Hello Nasty
(Grand Royal/Capitol)
Rating: 9
Just because frat boys embraced their wisecracking exuberance
circa 1986, it didn't
make them simps. And just because they
became poster children for the slacker nation
from then on out,
it didn't make them muddleheads. That is, unless it concerned
you that the Beasties hadn't made an undeniable album since '89's
kaleidoscopic
sample-fest, Paul's Boutique. So what precipitated this brilliant back-to-basics move?
My guess is
Beck, whose mega-selling folk-hop wouldn't have existed with
the Boys,
and who might take a few of the tracks here as the
kind of artistic challenge that hasn't
existed since Pet Sounds sent the Beatles back to their tape loops. Sure, slackers will
find evidence aplenty that they can still manipulate their instruments.
And frat
boys will still find plenty of wiseass jokes ("I'm
up to my neck like Toulouse
Lautrec") and hipster boasts
to keep the brothers happy. But the beats are the star
this time
out. They should be every time out.
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