BEASTIE BOYS - ILL COMMUNICATION

Whatever you think of the Beastie Boys anyone who can keep rapping for s long as they have deserves respect. Especially in the way they were able to reinvent themselves to bring out their Hello Nasty album.

This album is probably one of my favourites of theirs. It has an original sound which isn't stuck in a rut of just thumping beats, it covers involving keyboards and drums with some songs like Root Down encompassing a universal sound which in some ways branches across different styles of music. Or to songs like Get It Together, which have a great beat and feeling throughout.
The song being sung quite clearly and in a medium speed really does help, others like Bobo On The Corner are frankly painful to listen to with the result sounding like the recording of a cheap microphone. Unusually for a Beastie Boys album this does have enough of the right variety and each track is different from the last if you can make the time to listen to it.

They aren't making lazy songs like many of their competitors about guns or referring to women as bitches. They do the opposite and in Sure Shot say that the 'disrespect to women has got to be through…to all the mothers….and wives….I wanna to offer my love and respect to the end'. Their lyrics although not master pieces come together real well when they have something important to say, and often offer something amusing that brightens our normally dull day.
An album of rich words and richer sounds.

Reviewed by

3/5