Three 65, Day 24
Beastie Boys, Hot Sauce Committee Part Two

I was a little worried about the Beastie Boys for a while, I gotta admit. For three albums, they haven't been spot-on their A game. Hello Nasty was too scattershot, To The 5 Boroughs was too preachy, and The Mix-Up was too damn boring. So it's good to see them back on the ball with Hot Sauce Committee Part Two, released today.

As goofy and self-referential forever (just check out the promo video, "Fight For You Right - Revisited"), the Beastie Boys return with a solid pounding that should please fans old and new. "Make Some Noise" is a classic return to form, and "OK" rides a sprightly bass line with Vocoder distortion effects. In fact, this could rightly be called the Beastie Boys' "noisy" album - many of the vocals are run through filters, and the analog synth sounds often resemble a broken computer with a bad case of gas. All of which is very, very good.

Nas shows up on "Too Many Rappers," spitting rhymes like his life depends on it and giving the haters something to think about. Santigold appears on the reggae-tinged "Don't Play No Game That I Can't Win," and the Boys bring the punk on "Lee Majors Come Again," their best rock-oriented track since 1994's "Sabotage." The nicest thing about the album? There's almost no preaching ("Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament" is an instrumental, not a call to action). I've always liked the Beastie Boys, but sometimes their shit can be a little much. (Remember the debacle with The Prodigy and "Smack My Bitch Up"? How can a band that recorded the song "Girls" even think of criticizing someone else?)

Overall, not only is this album a proud return to form, but it's the band's most cohesive work to date. Almost all of the Beastie Boys' records feature a few tracks that could be dropped or ignored. Not so for Hot Sauce. This is all gold. Welcome back, boyyyyyyyys.