Christopher John Farley
When they first achieved prominence back in the ’80s, the Beasties styled themselves as hipper than hip-hop, cooler than punk and masters of both. The trio’s over-the-top boasts seemed to send up each genre’s excesses. But the Beasties’ new CD comes across not as a send-up but as a limp imitation of more interesting performers. The album’s buzzing, beeping, video-game-like sound is an exhausted ripoff of hip-hop folk star Beck. A few songs work, like the sci-fi rap number Intergalactic. But for the most part, listening to this album is a tedious, dispiriting task not unlike sorting a backlog of junk e-mail.
–By Christopher John Farley
More Must-Reads from TIME
- L.A. Fires Show Reality of 1.5°C of Warming
- How Canada Fell Out of Love With Trudeau
- Trump Is Treating the Globe Like a Monopoly Board
- Bad Bunny On Heartbreak and New Album
- 10 Boundaries Therapists Want You to Set in the New Year
- The Motivational Trick That Makes You Exercise Harder
- Nicole Kidman Is a Pure Pleasure to Watch in Babygirl
- Column: Jimmy Carter’s Global Legacy Was Moral Clarity
Contact us at letters@time.com