20 years of bizarre originality are not about to make the Beastie Boys into well-behaved critically acceptable elders of rock-rap, hip-hop, flip-flop or any other kind of jhop. Not just yet.
Taken from the latest album and coinciding with UK live shows, CD single "An Open Letter To NYC" carries four takes on the Beastie-trademark doggerel with a nicely dark-edged beat that hints at city fractures that the words deny. Hissing steam, Sixties Sci-Fi weirdness and a huge bass line evoke Batman's Gotham City in Tim Burton drag with none of Prince's magic dust. They wanna hug the place and reaffirm the love they denied in the early 80s as punked-up Jewish kids. But the best they can chant is that things aren’t as bad as everyone thinks. But they remember. Yup, they remember the bad old days.
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How deliberate? How maudlin? Is this how Goldie Lookin' Chain will end? GLC would be so lucky. It’s a beast. I hate it so much I've just looped it twenty times by accident. All four cuts.
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