To The 5 Boroughs

2004年6月発売の6作目のスタジオ・アルバム。ビルボード200でナンバー1を記録。
RIAA公認プラチナ・ディスク。Ch-Check It Out, Triple Trouble, An Open Letter to NYC, Right Right Now Nowの4曲がシングル・リリース。 180G重量盤。LP2枚組

Rolling Stone (p.120) - 5 stars out of 5 - "[T]wo decades after turning from hardcore punk to homeboy jollies, the Beasties are still the best rap band in the biz - three voices swinging like a jazz trio, racing like Bad Brains..." Rolling Stone (p.141) - Included in Rolling Stone's Top 50 Records Of 2004 - "[T]he Beasties soar with heart and chutzpah." Entertainment Weekly (p.83) - "There's plenty of the usual pure, dumb fun here....Think of BOROUGHS as license to chill." - Grade: B+ Q (p.108) - 3 stars out of 5 - "Rooted in New York's hip hop past the album sees them looking to the future and voicing their humanist concerns." Uncut (p.108) - 3 stars out of 5 - "The Boys are still hooked on media detritus, and their food-obsessed rhyming has hit dizzy, linguistically dextrous new heights." Mojo (Publisher) (p.112) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[T]he vision of ultimate human amity encoded in the telepathic understanding between Mike D's punky squawk, MCA's gruffly humourful drawl and Ad-Rock's dynamic alto is more desperately needed now than it's ever been."

Six years is a long time, about one-and-a-half generations in pop music and a fairly large chunk out of anyone's life, two sentiments that come into play on the Beastie Boys' sixth album, 2004's To the 5 Boroughs. When the Beasties last delivered an album, it was in the summer of 1998 as the Clinton impeachment scandal was heating up, and just as that sordid saga closed the curtain on the swinging '90s, Hello Nasty served as both a culmination of the New York trio's remarkable comeback and as a capper to the alt-rock boom of the '90s, the last album of the decade to capture what the '90s actually felt like. Not only is the political and cultural landscape of 2004 much different than that of 1998, the Beasties are a different band in a different position. They're no longer on the vanguard of pop culture, setting the trends and styles, nor do they embody their time; like it or not, the po-faced, humorless brooding of Coldplay and Wilco is an appropriate soundtrack to the drab, dark days of the early 2000s. No, the Beastie Boys are no longer groundbreakers; they're elder statesmen, operating outside of the fashions of the time. This has as much to do with maturity as it does with changing times. Now that Ad-Rock, MCA, and Mike D are all nearly 40, they're not as interested in being the world's hippest group, as evidenced by their abandonment of their Grand Royal empire at the turn of the decade, and that suspicion is borne out by To the 5 Boroughs. Like many musicians at middle age, the Beasties are a little set in their ways, ignoring modern music nearly entirely and turning to the music of their youth for sustenance. For the Beasties, this means heavy doses of old school rap spiked with a bit of punk, which admittedly isn't all that different from the blueprints for Check Your Head, Ill Communication, and Hello Nasty, but the attack here is clean and focused, far removed from the sprawling, kaleidoscopic mosaics of their '90s records. In contrast, To the 5 Boroughs is sleek and streamlined, with all the loose ends neatly clipped and tied; even the punk influences are transformed into hip-hop, as when the Dead Boys' "Sonic Reducer" provides the fuel for "An Open Letter to NYC." Given the emphasis on hip-hop, it may be tempting to label Boroughs as an old-school homage, but that isn't accurate, since nothing here sounds like a lost side from the Sugarhill Records stable. Still, old-school rhyme schemes and grooves do power the album, yet they're filtered through the Beasties' signature blend of absurdity, in-jokes, and pop culture, all served up in a dense, layered production so thick that it seems to boast more samples than it does. Apart from an explicit anti-Dubya political bent on some lyrics, there's nothing surprising or new here, and the cohesive, concise nature of To the 5 Boroughs only emphasizes the familiarity of the music. Familiarity can be comforting, though, particularly in troubled times, and there's a certain pleasure simply hearing the trio again after six long years of silence, particularly since the Beasties are in good form here, crafting appealing productions and spitting out more rhymes than they have since Paul's Boutique. If there are no classics here, there's no duds, either, and given that the Beasties' pop culture aesthetic once seemed to be the territory of young men, it's rather impressive that they're maturing gracefully, turning into expert craftsmen that can deliver a satisfying listen like this. That's a subtle achievement, something that will likely not please those listeners looking for the shock of the new from a Beastie Boys record, but judged on its own musical merits, To the 5 Boroughs is a satisfying listen, and convincing evidence that the trio will be able to weather middle age well. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

　活動休止期間を経て、スタジオ・アルバムとしては98年の『Hello Nasty』以来となる久々の6枚目。音楽活動的にも、政治社会情勢的にも、居ても立ってもいられない状況があったのだろう。マンハッタン／ブロンクス／ブルックリン／クイーンズ／スタッテンアイランドを指す呼称をタイトルに掲げ、在りし日のロウワー・マンハッタンが描かれた新作は、NYとヒップホップへの愛情満タン。2003年には反戦歌“In A World Gone Mad”がネット配信され、新作にもシリアスなテーマも数曲。しかし、実際次第に楽しみを感じながら制作に打ち込めたようで、ずーっとしかめっ面の重い内容でもない。重いのはサウンドだ。ビートがとにかくヘヴィー。売れっ子エンジニア＝ケン・デュロ効果もあってか、ドラム／ベースがドスドス響きまくり。&ラフな処理もツボにハマる。しばらくスルーしていた往年のファンもカムバックしてきそうだ。パーティー型の“Triple Trouble”なんて最高に親しみやすい。とはいえ、“Time To Build”のストレンジな風合いや“Crawlspace”のベースが導く浮遊感、“We Got The”のやんちゃなテクノ気味の展開など雑種的な遊びもイキていて、例えば単に『Paul's Boutique』の頃を思い出すだけのものではない。90年代に身の回りに散らばったさまざまなアイコンを一掃して、シンプルな姿勢で挑んだ新作は聴き応え十二分。やっぱスゲーな、と思った。
bounce (C)栗原 聰

　前々から、全曲ヒップホップとの噂だったビースティ・ボーイズのニュー・アルバム。一言で言ってしまえば、〈オールド・スクール・ヒップホップ・ミーツ・エレクトロ〉といった感じで、やはり全編ヒップホップであった。タイトルからして『To The 5 Boroughs』（〈5ボローズ〉とは、NYの5つの地区のこと）と、地元NYへのオマージュで満ち溢れているこのアルバムは、サウンド的にも3人のルーツであるオリジナルのNYヒップホップに対するオマージュとなっている。オールド・スクール・ブレイクビーツに、ランDMCをはじめとするサンプリング、ミックスマスター・マイクによるスクラッチ、そこに乗るのは、ここぞとばかりにマイクロフォンでロックする3MC。いままでの雑然としたサウンドとは違い、すっきりシンプルなサウンドにMCもクリアに入っているのが新鮮だ。3人が2年間をかけてNYにあるみずからのスタジオでみずからプロデュースしたトラックを、スーパー・エンジニアのケン・デュロがすっきりしたミックスで仕上げている。マントロニクスを彷佛とさせるエレクトロもあるのだが、あくまでも2004年にアップデイトされた音。古典的なヒップホップの魅力に加え、エレクトロ・サウンドのエキサイトメントもたっぷり詰まっている。リリック的には、アルバム全体のテーマであるNYへの限りない愛情、ブッシュ政権への批判など、いまの3人の心情、意識を反映したものとして強いメッセージを放っている。
bounce (C)大野 俊也