After seeing the Beasties at Coachella last year, I really wondered if the Boys still had it in them to keep making music after quite a lackluster performance. I know Adam Mast had the same opinion of them after just seeing the MTV 2 dollar bill show last week at the Huntridge Theater in Las Vegas. But when it comes right down to it, the Beastie Boys have always been better known for honing their skills on record than in a live setting. The Beasties are true perfectionists, and To the 5 Boroughs being only their 6th record in the last 18 years proves this.

Boroughs is an even bigger return to old school hip hop than their previous release Hello Nasty, and is probably the closest the Boys have come to duplicating the sound of their classic and best album Paul's Boutique. So it sounds like Paul's Boutique, but is it just as good? Unfortunately not even close, but this isn't to say that it doesn't have a few brilliant moments. "Right Right Now Now" boasts maybe the only harpsichord hip-hop beat ever heard over one of MCA's most brilliant lines 'I went to get a loan and they asked my race, I wrote down human inside the space. It's a disgrace how they try to debase. It ain't the bank's damn business how my lineage trace.' "3 the Hard Way" and "Triple Trouble" benefit from having great samples from LL Cool J and Sugarhill Gang respectively. And "All Lifestyles" and "An Open Letter to NYC" have to be two of the best flow tracks that Beasties have ever laid down. Their sly wink to 50 Cent at the end of "Rhyme the Rhyme" is smartly funny, and throughout, this is probably some of the best cutting and scratching that Mix Master Mike has ever done in his career.

What's disappointing about To The 5 Boroughs though is the sluggish pacing, obnoxious overuse of pointless political posturing, and just an absolute lack of strong songs that stand alone. On by far the worst track "Time To Build," Mike D comes up with the awful rhyme 'It's time to let 'em know what we expect. Stop building SUV's strung out on OPEC.' And MCA offers one just as lousy with 'We've got a president we didn't elect. The Kyoto treaty he decided to neglect, and still the U.S. just wants to flex.' And I'm sorry, but I just don't buy "Ch-Check It Out" as one of those singles that's supposed to stand next to other classics like "Shake Your Rump," "So Whatcha Want," "Sabotage," and "Intergalactic." It doesn't have the wit or the absorbing feel that usually comes from a Beastie Boys first single. To The 5 Boroughs is probably the weakest Beastie Boys album to date, but it's still a good album. Still, as brilliant as these boys can be and as infrequently as they release their work, I have every right to expect greatness.