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It’s funny to think about now, but from the summer of 1987 to the summer of
1989, the general consensus was that the Beastie Boys were finished. They had
scored a massive left field hit with 1986’s Licensed to Ill, the first
rap record to hit #1 on the pop charts. Almost instantly, they were running into
label trouble with Def Jam. Finally, they found a home for the sophomore effort
(Capitol, their home to this day), but its release was delayed time and again.
The buzz was loud and strong: the Boys were a novelty, nothing more. Then, on
July 25, 1989, the Boys finally dropped Paul’s Boutique, the long awaited
second album that everyone thought would completely suck. The response was
unanimous:
Ho, ly, shit. This record kicks ass.
No one has said anything bad about the Beastie Boys since, even though there
have been moments where they frankly deserved it. (Hello Nasty had some
killer singles, but if you’re anything like us, you haven’t played the album
start to finish in at least two years). The band’s newest hits collection,
simply titled Solid Gold Hits, lacks the diversity that their 1999
two-disc compilation, The Sounds of Science, offers, but for the casual
Beasties fan (our apologies; the promo sheet that came with this album insists
that if we must abbreviate, we say B Boys, not Beasties), Solid Gold Hits
is the collection you’ve been waiting for.
Now here’s the really cool part about the album that on the surface will not
appear like a really cool part: the tracks are not in chronological order, but
instead have been pasted together in party mix fashion. One might think that
this would create some sonic train wrecks, but in fact it does just the
opposite; it brings to the forefront the themes that have existed in their songs
that were not always apparent. The final two songs, “Sabotage” and “Fight for
Your Right,” exemplify this better than anything. How was anyone shocked by the
band’s decision to play their own instruments and make a straight up hardcore
rock song on “Sabotage”? As “Fight for Your Right” clearly illustrates, they had
already explored this territory before. You thought the riffs they lifted from
Zeppelin back in the day were just a joke. They weren’t.
If there is a rough patch on the album, it’s in the first four songs, which is
odd since individually, they are four great songs. “So What’cha Want” (or as
Beck likes to call it, “E-Pro”) spills into “Brass Monkey,” and if there are two
songs on this disc that do not complement each other, it’s these two. “Ch-Check
It Out” follows, with “No Sleep ‘til Brooklyn” afterwards. You get the sense
that they wanted to get the Licensed to Ill numbers out of the way, since
the majority of the disc’s remainder is less raunchy and more funky. And, in
retrospect, it’s a smart call; “Root Down” to “Shake Your Rump” to
“Intergalactic” to “Sure Shot” to “Body Movin’” (an edit of the superb Fatboy
Slim remix) to “Triple Double” to “Sabotage” is as badass as it gets. For some
bands, singles compilations consist solely of the only good songs they ever
wrote. For the Beasties (upheld middle finger to the writers of the press sheet,
because that’s what the band would want us to do), it’s more a matter of
assembling some blindingly brilliant moments amongst a body of work that is
downright peerless.
Solid Gold Hits is as money as a Beastie Boys compilation can expect to
be. Are there great songs from the band that are not present here? Sure. But
name a singles collection that doesn’t have that problem. The only real concern
with the album is that, coming hot on the heels of 2004’s
To the Five Boroughs,
does that mean that this is merely a contractually obligated stopgap record to
kill time before they reassemble and make another album for yet another label in
another five years? An irrelevant question for those who are most likely to buy
this album, we suppose. To hell with the future, they would say; give us a
single-disc capsule of the Beastie Boys at the top of their game. Ask, and ye
shall receive.
~David
Medsker
dmedsker@bullz-eye.com
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