Capitol Ill Communication

Amazon.co.uk By 1994 the Beasties had settled into their cultural role as the grand arbiters of cool, and Ill Communication is pretty much a catalogue 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 favourite 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