Now, because of my love of Beastie Boys I can’t comment on this but when we watched them on Top Of The Pops the other week my girlfriend commented that watching them on stage now was akin to watching your dad dance at a wedding. I squirmed and may have mumbled something indecipherable.

It is impossible to deny that the trio are getting on a bit now and the six year gap between this album and its predecessor Hello Nasty hasn’t aided their ageing. So, you’ll be glad to know that on record, armed only with sounds and no pictures to place the seed of doubt in anyone’s mind (it’s that same one that makes you wonder if Tony Hawk should still be playing around on a skateboard) Beastie Boys are still as cool and generally good at being great as they always have been.

To The 5 Boroughs is the first album to be produced solely by Beastie Boys and it is one of their most consistent - the group’s trademark hip hop sound runs across all 15 tracks, without the hit-and-miss asides of Hello Nasty. No Beastie Boys fan could be disappointed with this record; who cares how long they’ve been doing it?

Label: Parlophone
Websites: www.beastieboys.com
Release date: 14th June 2004

Tracklist:

1. Ch-Check It Out
2. Right Right Now Now
3. 3 The Hard Way
4. It Takes Time To Build
5. Rhyme The Rhyme Well
6. Triple Trouble
7. Hey F*?# You
8. Oh Word?
9. That’s It That’s All
10. All Lifestyles
11. Shazam!
12. An Open Letter To NYC
13. Crawlspace
14. The Brouhaha
15. We Got The