On their latest album, the Beastie Boys still sound like they’re at the top of their game–which is fantastic considering their age. There’s a kinetic energy between the three of them that’s difficult to explain. I know these guys aren’t for everybody, but there’s something about their collective enthusiasm that’s charmed me into loving their music.
The rhymes here aren’t anything out of the ordinary for the band. This LP is loaded with jokes, obscure references, non-sequiturs, and cunning wordplay. It doesn’t have the storytelling I usually love in my hip hop, but this LP is more about living in the moment than it is chewing things over.

But the absolute cherry on top of this album is the production. It’s thick, heavy, textured, noisy, psychedelic, and fantastic. It’s absolutely exciting to hear the Beasties advancing their sound this late in their career. It’s like they took the electronic hip hop fusions on Hello Nasty and turned them into an unstoppable monster, which is now destroying the city.

Needless to say, I’ve enjoyed the hell out of this album.

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