Comparatively ignored at the time of its release (especially given the popularity of ‘Licensed To Ill’ as it captured a wave of popularity off the back of the frat-boy anthem ‘Fight For Your Right To Party’) the Beastie Boys’ second album is being re-released to celebrate it’s 20th anniversary. Digitally re-mastered, this anniversary edition includes a free digitally downloadable track-by-track commentary from the band. Apart from making mature b-boys feel old the re-release of this album is the perfect opportunity to revisit an overlooked hip-hop classic. While later albums like ‘Check Your Head’ and ‘Ill Communication’ saw the Beastie Boys delve into instrumental funk alongside the New York twangs and hip-hop / punk foundations, the sample-heavy Paul’s Boutique was a much more straight–up hip-hop affair, despite it’s laid-back introduction. In fact given the abundance of samples it is not too far-fetched an assertion to say that ‘Paul’s Boutique’ simply could not be made in today’s climate of royalty payments. With call and response rhyming this album is very much a product of its time but for all that, it stands up surprisingly well twenty years on. Where the lyrics have a juvenile edge, such as on ‘Egg Man,’ they are underpinned with unassumingly clever wordplay and smile raising production touches (such as the almost subliminal use of the ’Psycho’ soundtrack at the end of the track). The effortless use of what would now be bank-breaking samples is one of the true highlights of this album as the Beastie Boys litter their music with pop-culture references alongside hip-hop staples from the likes of BDP. Of course, as with almost every Beastie Boys album, the nasal rhyming is something that people either love or hate – but that is a given when their vocals come into play. Head nodding, bass creepers like ‘3 Minute Rule’ nestle alongside tracks like the up-tempo ‘Hey Ladies’ without sounding out of place as the album builds towards it fine finale. Other highlights include the amazingly layered ‘Shadrach.’ Rock guitar unsurprisingly comes into play on the solid, Run DMC-like, break-beat pinned, ‘Looking Down A Barrel Of A Gun,’ before the fine, funk fuelled ‘Car Thief’ steps in. With plenty of highlights, the whole album is rounded off with the 12-minute-plus, ‘B Boy Bouillabaisse’ – a cut and paste patchwork of samples, rhymes and tracks like ‘Get On The Mic’ and ‘Hello Brooklyn.’ A product of its time this album is as much a piece of never-to-be-repeated hip-hop history as anything else. All told, ‘Paul’s Boutique’ stands out amongst the Beastie Boy’s catalogue as a one-off transitional album that deserved to do better, however it is well worth checking out 20 years down the line.
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