General Article name: Check Your Head
Genre: Disco / Dance Product type: LP (Vinyl) Label: EMI US Number of tracks: 36 Tracklist LP - 1 1. Beastie Boys - Jimmy James 2. Beastie Boys - Funky Boss 3. Beastie Boys - Pass the Mic 4. Beastie Boys - Gratitude 5. Beastie Boys - Lighten Up 6. Beastie Boys - Finger Lickin' Good 7. Beastie Boys - So What'cha Want 8. Beastie Boys - Biz vs. The Nuge 9. Beastie Boys - Time for Livin' 10. Beastie Boys - Something's Got to Give 11. Beastie Boys - Blue Nun 12. Beastie Boys - Stand Together 13. Beastie Boys - Pow 14. Beastie Boys - Maestro 15. Beastie Boys - Groove Holmes 16. Beastie Boys - Live at P.J.'s 17. Beastie Boys - Mark on the Bus 18. Beastie Boys - Professor Booty 19. Beastie Boys - In 3's 20. Beastie Boys - Namasté   Tracklist LP - 2 21. Beastie Boys - Dub the Mic 22. Beastie Boys - Pass the Mic (Pt.2, Skills To Pay The Bills) 23. Beastie Boys - Drunken Praying Mantis Style 24. Beastie Boys - Netty's Girl 25. Beastie Boys - Skills to Pay the Bills 26. Beastie Boys - So What'cha Want (Soul Assassin Remix Version) 27. Beastie Boys - So What'cha Want (Butt Naked Version) 28. Beastie Boys - Groove Holmes [Live vs. The Biz] 29. Beastie Boys - So What'cha Want (All The Way Live Freestyle Version) 30. Beastie Boys - Stand Together (Live at French’s Tavern, Syndney, Australia) 31. Beastie Boys - Finger Lickin' Good (Government Cheese Remix) 32. Beastie Boys - Gratitude (Live at Budokan) 33. Beastie Boys - Honky Rink 34. Beastie Boys - Jimmy James (Original Original Version) 35. Beastie Boys - Boomin' Granny 36. Beastie Boys - Dinkin' Wine   Description Description

Check Your Head brought the Beastie Boys crashing back into the charts and into public consciousness, but that was only partially due to the album itself -- much of its initial success was due to the cult audience that Paul's Boutique cultivated in the years since its initial flop release, a group of fans whose minds were so thoroughly blown by that record, they couldn't wait to see what came next, and this helped the record debut in the Top Ten upon its April 1992 release. This audience, perhaps somewhat unsurprisingly, was a collegiate Gen-X audience raised on Licensed to Ill and ready for the Beastie Boys to guide them through college. As it happened, the Beasties had repositioned themselves as a lo-fi, alt-rock groove band. They had not abandoned rap, but it was no longer the foundation of their music, it was simply the most prominent in a thick pop-culture gumbo where old school rap sat comfortably with soul-jazz, hardcore punk, white-trash metal, arena rock, Bob Dylan, bossa nova, spacy pop, and hard, dirty funk. What they did abandon was the psychedelic samples of Paul's Boutique, turning toward primitive grooves they played themselves, augmented by keyboardist Money Mark and co-producer Mario Caldato, Jr.. This all means that music was the message and the rhymes, which had been pushed toward the forefront on both Licensed to Ill and Paul's Boutique, have been considerably de-emphasized (only four songs -- "Jimmy James," "Pass the Mic," "Finger Lickin' Good," and "So What'cha Want" -- could hold their own lyrically among their previous work). This is not a detriment, because the focus is not on the words, it's on the music, mood, and even the newfound neo-hippie political consciousness. And Check Your Head is certainly a record that's greater than the sum of its parts -- individually, nearly all the tracks are good (the instrumentals sound good on their subsequent soul-jazz collection, The in Sound From Way Out), but it's the context and variety of styles that give Check Your Head its identity. It's how the old school raps give way to fuzz-toned rockers, furious punk, and cheerfully gritty, jazzy jams. As much as Paul's Boutique, this is a whirlwind tour through the Beasties' pop-culture obsessions, but instead of spinning into Technicolor fantasies, it's earth-bound D.I.Y. that makes it all seem equally accessible -- which is a big reason why it turned out to be an alt-rock touchstone of the '90s, something that both set trends and predicted them. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Contributors Artist: Beastie Boys Record Label: Capitol/EMI Records