Beastie Boys: The Mix Up

Dull Communication

The phrase “new Beastie Boys album” usually generates the kind of excitement that only the addendum “all-instrumental” can quash. Ever since Check Your Head, the Beasties have sprinkled their records with jammy interludes—pleasant enough, but hardly up to the standards of the authentic space-funk workouts that inspired them. What The Mix Up mainly proves is that the Beastie Boys are capable of reproducing this kind of lightly psychedelic blaxploitation-soundtrack fodder on demand, complete with gutbucket organ and wakka-wakka guitar. The trio adds a little tropical flavor on “Suco De Tangerina,” and nods to proto-hip-hop on “14th Street Break,” but while the album as a whole sounds perfectly fine, it’s not especially varied, and almost none of it is particularly memorable. The Mix Up’s whole reason for being isn’t just elusive, it’s a little alarming. This is what happens when three of the wittiest guys in rap history discover they have nothing to say.