Reviewed: Beastie Boys Return to Form; Radiohead's New Electro-Ballads

In this week's slate of Rolling Stone album reviews, Rob Sheffield praises the Beastie Boys' long-awaited Hot Sauce Committee Part Two, saying that "the Beasties sound exactly like themselves, cutting loose without straining to fit anyone else's idea of relevance." Will Hermes is less fond of Airborne Toxic Event's new record, All at Once, which he says suffers from an overbearing seriousness and lack of subtlety. Hermes does like Steve Earle's polished new country-rock record, I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive, and Jon Dolan digs the way the Australian duo An Horse "re-purpose two generations of girl-powered indie pop."

On the singles front, Sheffield reviews both "superb electro ballads" from Radiohead's Record Store Day single, as well as EMA's haunting, Sinead O'Connor-esque song "California."

ALBUMS

Beastie Boys, Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (stream full album)

Of Montreal, thecontrollersphere (stream one song)

An Horse, Walls (stream one song)

Explosions in the Sky, Take Care Take Care Take Care (stream one song)

Steve Earle, I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive (stream one song)

Airborne Toxic Event, All at Once (stream one song)

SINGLES

Radiohead, "Supercollider" (stream)

Radiohead, "The Butcher" (stream)

EMA, "California" (stream)

Justice, "Civilization" (stream)

LAST WEEK: Lady Gaga's Button-Pushing 'Judas'; My Morning Jacket's Blissful New Single

• 
  MUSIC Exclusive Live Chat With Linkin Park and Incubus
• 
  MOVIES & TV Peter Travers: 'The Avengers' Has it All
• 
  POLITICS Matt Taibbi: Jon Corzine Is the Original Zimmerman
• 
  VIDEOS Exclusive Premiere: Tenacious D's 'Tinnitus'

Song Stories

“Baby Got Back”

Sir Mix-a-Lot | 1992

While watching a Budweiser commercial during the Super Bowl, Sir Mix-a-Lot thought the skinny female models in the ad didn’t represent reality. So he wrote this ode to ample bottoms, featuring its famous to-the-point lyric: “I like big butts and I cannot lie.” MTV banished the video, featuring shaking booties and sexually suggestive fruit, to 9 p.m. or later. “I thought my career was over,” he told Rolling Stone. “Then I called Rick Rubin, and I told him the video was banned, and he was like, 'Great!' We sold another 2 million records.”

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter