567. Beastie Boys - Licensed to Ill (1986)
















Track Listing

1. Rhymin & Stealin
2. The New Style
3. She's Crafty
4. Posse In Effect
5. Slow Ride
6. Girls
7. (You Gotta ) Fight For Your Right (To Party)
8. No Sleep Till Brooklyn
9. Paul Revere
10. Hold It Now, Hit It
11. Brass Monkey
12. Slow And Low
13. Time To Get Ill

Review

The Beastie Boys are probably one of the most obnoxious bands in history, but that masks some complexities that not only reveal quite musically-literate influences as show them to be the greatly influential band that they are.

There is a feeling here which we have had before on the list, particularly in the album of the Dictators, there is a sense of fun and obnoxiousness that reflects the silliness of adolescence perfectly. Tempered with some lovely misogyny, lack of consideration and misbehaving. There clearly is a big influence of "Handsome" Dick Manitoba on this, and that is fun.

Then there is a really innovative use of samples here, which is masked by the childishness of the lyrics, but if I was saying yesterday that Afrika Bambaataa was more similar to Beck's Odelay than Puff Daddy, then this is the direct ancestor of Odelay. Using samples from rock, tv shows etc. in a very innovative way. So yeah, Beastie Boys are fun but are much more than that. And notice if Paul Revere does not sound a lot like Snoop Dogg and Pharrell's Drop It Like It's Hot.

Track Highlights

1. Girls
2. Rhymin & Stealin
3. No Sleep Till Brooklyn
4. Paul Revere

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The full album cover, front to back, features a Boeing 727 — with "Beastie Boys" emblazoned on the tail — crashing head-on into the side of a mountain. The tail of the plane has the Def Jam logo and the legend '3MTA3' which spells 'EATME' when viewed in a mirror.

Here's Beastie Boys' No Sleep 'Till Brooklin in Oeiras, as a tribute to my friend Marco who is from Oeiras near Lisbon and staying over here for the foreseeable (I can't foresee farther than the 19th of May) future: