Beastie Boys: To The 5 Boroughs

Reviewed by RUSSELL BAILLIE



For a group who always seemed at the sharp edge of popular culture, the Beastie Boys seem to have lost track of time. This album, their sixth, arriving after a six-year gap, with its title and New York skyline artwork featuring the Twin Towers still standing, is partly a tribute to their old bruised home-town.

But hold on, September 11, 2001, was nearly three years ago. They might still rap fast but they respond slowly. They may well be the last yellow cab off the block in the great post-September 11 traffic jam. True, they do sound heartfelt in their New York state of mind, especially the affecting on An Open Letter to NYC. And they have reasonably contemporary views on the War on Terror.

As the worryingly raspy voice of Adam Yauch/MCA - all three are about to turn 40 - puts it on It Takes Time to Build: "Maybe it's time that we impeach Tex and the military muscle that he wants to flex/ By the time Bush is done, what will be left?/ Selling votes like E-pills at the discotheque ... "

But there is just something incongruous and unconvincing here.

It doesn't help that the album might have sounded dated even during the reign of George Bush I with its 15 tracks of voice'n'beats hip-hop fundamentals.

After the genre-busting sprawls of predecessors Paul's Boutique, Ill Communication and Hello Nasty, To The 5 Boroughs feels, musically one-dimensional, repetitive and nostalgic. Almost like a bookend to a 20-year-plus career, a thought echoed in second track Right Right Now Now with the line: "Yes we're gonna party for the right to fight ... "

Admirable sentiments, whichever way round you shout it at whatever age. And lyrically To the 5 Boroughs manages to be a colourful rough guide to the streets of Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, Bronx and Staten Island. But from this distance it's a guess-you-had-to-be-there kind of experience.

Label: Capitol