With latest album ‘The Mix-Up’, Beastie Boys tread new ground in that it’s the first album the band has ever released of all new instrumental material. Whereas in the past the albums of the Beastie Boys have been littered with all the bands best rap licks, here the voices have been cut out, the computers have been left alone, and an album has been produced which utilises instruments such as drums, guitars, organ, bass, and synth. Twelve tracks are contained on this album of entirely instrumental Beastie Boys music, a change in direction for the boys and in all honesty an incredibly strange move for the band to have undertaken.
Beastie Boys have never been my favourite hip-hop artist in the world, I have however greatly enjoyed some of their music in the past and in picking up this album was expecting the music to come alive with great energy and excitement. All that is present on this album is a tame instrumental offering in which Beastie Boys fumble their way through this release with a great sense of confusion. Musical ability is here not a strong point, the depth of this album is extremely lacking and nothing here seems to come together particularly well at all. The basic back beat here is the drastically dull drum work of Mike D. The drum beats plod and never does the music here impress, there’s just very little going on whatsoever on this album. Were the musical ability of the band a little greater then perhaps this album would be more effective, as it stands though every element of the music is poor and at no point during the progression of this album do you ever feel particularly inspired or in fact interested.
Since 1979 the Beastie Boys have been making music together as a band and for many years now the band has been producing a similar hip-hop sound, the decision to try something a little different is therefore entirely understandable. The problem here is that this experimental album just doesn’t work out, it’s an interesting idea that just doesn’t work out in practise. Given that Beastie Boys started out life as a hardcore punk band under the name of The Young Aborigines, you’d think that there would be a little more going on in the music here but there just isn’t. The roots of this band would lead you to believe that this ‘The Mix-Up’ album may possess a bit of bite, an underlying energy driving through, nothing of this sort can here be heard however and this album is just an extremely disappointing bore of a release. ‘The Mix-Up’ runs for just over 42 minutes and not once in the albums progression can any excitement ever be felt. There is no heart in this album, no interesting music whatsoever, just the vacant sound of background music. I fear this album would be too dreary even to be used as lift music, even people travelling up and down want a little more life and soul in the air than this.
In making this album there is no doubt in my mind that the Beastie Boys had terrific fun. It would have been great for them to let off a little steam and have a forty minute jam session, to then turn that jam session into an officially released album however is an entirely different issue. This album should never have been released, Beastie Boys make some brilliant hip-hop music but what is contained within this album just isn’t the bands forte. Beastie Boys should stick to what they know best, if the band does so then this will lead to less infuriatingly dull album releases in the future. ‘The Mix-Up’ is not even a worthwhile album for hardcore fans of Beastie Boys I would suggest, it’s so far removed from the bands usual material that you really can’t compare the two. No real musical ability is expressed on this album, it’s a tiresome jam session that ultimately leads nowhere. Stick some talented musicians together in a room for a few hours complete with their instruments and chances are that they’ll unite to make some truly exquisite music, stick Beastie Boys together in a room of instruments and they’ll come up with rubbish like this. Beastie Boys make good hip-hop, this instrumental album however leaves a lot to be desired. My best advice is to avoid this album at all costs, not only will it save you some money but also forty minutes of your life that would otherwise be wasted in giving this album a listen.
Label: Parlophone
Release Date: 25th June 2007
Rating:
UK based film graduate with a huge passion for music, sports and video games.
