Beastie Boys: Hot Sauce Committee Part Two

The Beastie Boys' return, with Hot Sauce Committee Part Two, may not represent their finest hour, but there's still plenty to love about the ageing rappers.

Hot Sauce Committee Part Two
Parlophone
***

You have only to glance at the list of Hollywood stars whom the Beastie Boys persuaded to appear in their recent film Fight For Your Right Revisited to see how much goodwill there still is for the group.

Will Ferrell, Elijah Wood, Susan Sarandon, Kirsten Dunst and Seth Rogen (who was only four when the group's debut album appeared) are just a few of the dozens of famous faces who nailed their Beastie-loving colours to the mast by appearing in the 30-minute movie.

But ask any fan (famous or otherwise) to name the group's finest album, and the answer is unlikely to be a record released in the past 10 or even 15 years. So what is it about the New York trio that has earned them a seemingly endless supply of kudos?

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Perhaps it's because, within the first seconds of your pressing "play", a new Beastie Boys album sounds like something that could only have been created by Ad-Rock, Mike D and MCA. The group's vocal exuberance and sheer musical inventiveness bring a sense of familiarity that few others possess. Originally due for release in 2009 (as Hot Sauce Committee, Pt 1) until band-member Adam Yauch - MCA - was diagnosed with cancer, this album sees that familiarity regularly tipping over into full-blown nostalgia.

From the rattling funk and old-school beats of the opener, Make Some Noise, to the fuzzed-out rock of Say It, the record sees the group recapping the various sounds of their most fruitful era, between 1989's Paul's Boutique and 1994's Ill Communication. The abruptly named OK jumps between circus-like melodies, staccato raps and robot voices in a way that no other group would dare.

Some new ground is broken on the minimal Nonstop Disco Powerpack, as well as the Caribbean-flavoured Don't Play No Game That I Can't Win (featuring Santogold). However, the appearance of the American rapper Nas on Too Many Rappers adds further weight to the album's retro vibe.

When you hear the song's repeated line, "If you've got something on your mind let it out", a penny drops. While the group sound as musically varied and adept as ever, there's something missing from the mixture: the trio seem disappointingly tight-lipped. Where are the oddball references, the wry asides and the vivid characters that used to pepper their raps?

A few of the songs lack proper choruses and there's nothing here to match the likes of So What'cha Want, Sabotage or Intergalactic for lyrical distinctiveness. Even the album's biggest jams, Make Some Noise and Too Many Rappers, seem to trail off vocally at around the time when they should be blowing up.

Perhaps it's because of the influence of their last record, the instrumental collection The Mix-Up, that the group seem to have lost interest in the very thing that set them apart in the first place: the rhymes.

With more old ideas than new ones, Hot Sauce Committee Part Two is not one of the Beastie Boys' most inventive albums, nor is it their most characterful. And yet it still feels great to have the group back.

It seems that goodwill isn't about to run out any time soon.