Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique (20th Anniversary Remastered)

In 1989, few people imagined that the bratty trio who took "You Gotta Fight for Your Right" to the Top 10 would do more than try and fail to replicate the success of Licensed to Ill. Instead, Ad-Rock, Mike D. and MCA hunkered down in the hills of Los Angeles, played dress-up in a lot of Seventies clothes and emerged with their greatest album a high-water mark of hip-hop's golden age of sampling. With the Dust Brothers production team serving as the Beasties' George Martin, Paul's Boutique became a dense, dizzying collision of lyrical references mentions of Dylan and Jelly Roll Morton, quotes from Dr. Seuss and Hunter S. Thompson spliced with snippets from across the music spectrum: Afrika Bambaataa, Funkadelic, Johnny Cash and the Eagles. This 20th-anniversary reissue is a remastered version of the original; "Shake Your Rump" sounds deeper and bigger, and the drum loop on "Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun" has extra kick and echo. There are no extra tracks, but hardcore fans should be sure to download the free hour-long audio commentary, which offers rambling insight into album characters like Johnny Ryall. What anybody can appreciate: the long shadow this hip-hop masterpiece casts, from Beck to Girl Talk to mash-up culture and beyond.