Best National Recording

Hello Nasty - Beastie Boys

The Beastie Boys' Hello Nasty (Grand Royal/Capitol) sounds like a crew of graying hipsters warding off fear of irrelevancy with a sack full of secret handshakes, drum-machine in-jokes, and extra-difficult turntable tweak scratches ("Don't try this at home on your dad's stereo!"). I went around for about a month thinking that was a weakness, to the point that Spin's exhaustive Beastie hagiography read (to me) like a postmortem. But on repeated listens, the way Mike and the Adam hold and fold their pop-culture cards turns out to be Nasty's greatest strength -- this is an album that gives goofy shout-outs to yesterday because tomorrow's never clear. Especially when you're a grown man and your job still involves wearing an orange jumpsuit and kickin' dumb rhymes. The space-programmed, robo-alpha-beta-funky "Intergalactic" suggests the boys have spent late nights scrutinizing the "Planet Rock" knock-offs on old Zulu Beat Show mix tapes, the way Bob Dylan probably still bugs out on Woody Guthrie. The even-better "Negotiation Limerick File" makes a party chant out of "Let's try to negotiate," a perfect hook for an album about charting a course when you're a long way from where you've been and all the landmarks keep movin'. You can't front on that.

-- Alex Pappademas