Beastie Boys

Check Your Head

Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/release/3950974-Beastie-Boys-Check-Your-Head

Year Of Release: 1992

Review

Released in 1992, Check Your Head is the first Beastie Boys album I owned and is, therefore, my favourite Beastie Boys album. It doesn’t make sense, because you could argue that Hello Nasty is the Beasties at the peak of their powers, but for me, Check Your Head is it. I wouldn’t own Paul’s Boutique for a few more years, and I’d only really heard the hits from Licensed To Ill. I was lucky enough to see them play at Summersault on the Gold Coast in January of 1996. They rocked out. I believe if you look around the Internet there’s a tape of Triple J’s Live At The Wireless with them playing the Sydney version of that concert. I remember playing this album in my bedroom when my mother came in to enquire about whether I was listening to music with swearing in it. To this day I’ve tried to reassure her that the lyrics in Funky Boss weren’t what she thought they were.

So what is about this album that I love? It’s that they’re all over the place stylistically, with hip hop, jazz, rock, and punk songs all making an appearance, with some amusing skits also popping up. To this day I grin ear to ear when The Blue Nun shows up in my music queue. For me, this is where the Beasties really went back to their roots in a lot of ways and picked up the instruments again to put together some great songs, while still being able to effortlessly put together some tremendous hip hop tracks as well, ably assisted by Mario Caldato Jr.

Standout tracks? All of them? Okay, I’ll pick five: Jimmy James, Gratitude, So What’cha Want, The Maestro, and Professor Booty. I’m also a big fan of Stand Together and the cover of Time For Livin’. Licensed To Ill hasn’t really aged well, Paul’s Boutique was amazing for its time, and the Beasties went on to deliver some terrific albums in Ill Communication, Hello Nasty, and To The 5 Boroughs. But if you want to hear (what I thought was) a groundbreaking trio of white guys from New York who could play their instruments and deliver top tier hip hop – Check Your Head is the album you need. I won’t be taking any questions at this time.

Rating: 10/10