Beastie Boys "Ill Communication" CD
-officially licensed Beastie Boys music

By 1994 the Beasties had settled into their cultural role as the grand arbiters of cool, and Ill Communication is pretty much a catalog of coolness: live funk, a bit of hardcore, ingenious samples of obscure records, keyboards by analogue master Money Mark, guest shots by Q-Tip and Biz Markie, MCA's cop-show metal number "Sabotage," and the inevitable cascade of witty old-school rhymes. But it's also a surprisingly mature record from a band that had, after all, been at it for 12 years already. The original jazz-funk instrumentals hold their own with the group's favorite sample sources. Their voices are modestly buried in the mix, and they've tempered their old snottiness with lyrical compassion: check out "Bodhisattva Vow," a salute to Buddhist spirituality. --Douglas Wolk

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TRACK LIST

• 1 Sure Shot
• 2 Tough Guy
• 3 B-Boys Makin' with the Freak Freak
• 4 Bobo on the Corner
• 5 Root Down
• 6 Sabotage
• 7 Get It Together
• 8 Sabrosa
• 9 The Update
• 10 Futterman's Rule
• 11 Alright Hear This
• 12 Eugenes's Lament
• 13 Flute Loop
• 14 Do It
• 15 Ricki's Theme
• 16 Heart Attack Man
• 17 The Scoop
• 18 Shambala
• 19 Bodhisattva Vow
• 20 Transitions