his album is just as entertaining as most of what they have done before, and some may find it even more entertaining. While it is still to be seen how successful the album will be with the fans, it certainly meets the criteria of what is needed from an instrumental album, and in the Beastie Boys case, exceeds people's expectations of what the trio is capable of.   Full text...

The increasingly graying Boys cook up more in sounds from way out on The Mix-Up, delivering 12 greasy funk instrumentals saturated with '70s blaxploitation atmospherics, fuzzy Eastern undertones, and garage-band Farfisa courtesy of the invaluable "Money" Mark Nishita, who also handles Rhodes and Clavinet duty.  Full text...

Hopefully, this is only a warm-up for their next big move.  Full text...

There’s very little about The Mix-Up not to like, yet there’s also very little that will be remembered in five months when the best-of-the-year lists start coming out. Still, if this is what it takes for these guys to get up off the floor and feel motivated enough to blow us out of the water in a few more years, it’ll all be worth it.  Full text...

Who'd have guessed that a Beastie Boys record could be too subtle?  Full text...

Beastie Boys are a rap group, but this is not a rap album; the trio’s past forays into instrumental territories – most prominent on the albums Check Your Head and Ill Communication, and collected on the aforementioned compilation of 1996 – were of debateable quality, and this dub-heavy instru-funk offering is unlikely to change the opinions of those reaching for their skip buttons whenever ‘Sabrosa’ trickles onto the home stereo.  Full text...

The fully instrumental The Mix-Up feels like an attempt to provide the sampling template for one of their own albums somewhere down the line. Still, it's hard not to see this as a more fitting summer tribute to the Big Apple than was Boroughs; it calls to mind hot pavement, piss-fuming sewer grates, and subway platform B-boy floorshows.  Full text...

More worrisome than anything, there's a distinct lack of fun in the instrumental wankage of The Mix-Up, a bad sign for a band that has seen their results fade in direct proportion to how seriously they take themselves.  Full text...

If you want to start a Beastie Boys collection, don't even think about beginning here.  Full text...

Sounding like Talking Loud, but saying nothing, the NYC trio disappoint on album of instrumentals.  Full text...

Sure, The Mix-Up will sound great if you listen to it as you hit the bong -- and carry a lot of respect for the Beasties over from their other albums -- but on its own, it's simply a makeshift release for the Beasties, an effort to tide over fans and, hopefully, prove some of that instrumental maturity. It doesn't do much for either.  Full text...