Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique

So many amazing records, so little time!

I think I told the story already of me following someone who had picked up this record. Thank god he put it down because this record is the most unique, most amazing collection of sounds that I know about.

There are over 100 samples buried in here. Everything you can think of, and more! From the Jaws theme to Johnny Cash to Kool & the Gang. For that reason alone this record is one of a kind - it can't really ever be equalled because after it came out, the US courts ruled that samples had to be pre-cleared (i.e., you now would have to negotiate royalties for each of the 105 samples on this record before you could release it) , so making this record today would be impossible!

That's enough for this record to be worth having but it's not the most amazing thing about Paul's Boutique. What's most amazing is that this record initially flopped. It was too much, it was ahead of its time. To me, it's a sneak peek by the Beastie Boys of things to come from them for the next 20 years. Intergalactic came out in the late 90s and felt brand new at the time, and yet you can hear it here, you can hear the backbone of it just waiting to be fleshed out! Truly unbelievable. This is art, this is as good as it gets. The crazy thing is that the Beastie Boys could have taken it easy after their first album and they would have still been at the top. But they weren't satisfied, they took things to a whole new level, and they put down something timeless. It's a damn shame we may not get any more from them, they truly changed things, and to me it starts here, this is where they first showed what they truly were - geniuses.

RIP MCA.

Greenday - American Idiot

This is the most recent addition to my collection. It's such a great album. Greenday released a lot of catchy songs in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I think I had Dookie on CD and I know I had the one with "Time of Your Life", and I listened to them often enough. But this CD stayed in my 5-disc changer for months and months. It was more than catchy, it was packed with great songs, one after another.

And they all hold up really, really well. I'm not sure if Greenday was trying to make their own "London Calling" here but I like to think so. Certainly, the Clash have to be one of their influences and both albums showcase such versatility. They both take the punk-pop sound and add so many elements to it, they keep you guessing. With the Clash, there are songs like "Train in Vain" where I had heard the song a hundred times but didn't even know it was a Clash song until listening to the album. American Idiot is similar, maybe not exactly the same as these are all Greenday songs at their core, but close because you hear the notes of "Holiday" or "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and just have to admire how well-crafted these songs are, how accessible and catchy and yet deep and complex at the same time.

It means something that my favourite song (/snippet) on here is almost at the start ("Dearly Beloved") but after hearing it, I want to hear what's next. And before I know it, the album's over. It's great, great music and I'm so, so glad it's now part of the collection.