| Check Your Head | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | April 21, 1992 (1992-4-21) | |||
| Recorded | 1991–1992 | |||
| Studio | G-Son,Atwater Village, California | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 53:29 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Producer | Mario Caldato Jr. | |||
| Beastie Boys chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Check Your Head | ||||
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Check Your Head is the third studio album by the Americanhip hop groupBeastie Boys, released on April 21, 1992, byGrand Royal andCapitol Records. Three years elapsed between the releases of the band's previous studio albumPaul's Boutique (1989) andCheck Your Head, which was recorded at the G-Son Studios inAtwater Village in 1991 under the guidance of producerMario Caldato Jr., the group's third producer in as many albums. Lesssample-heavy than their previous records, the album features instrumental contributions from all three members:Adam Horovitz on guitar,Adam Yauch on bass guitar, andMike Diamond on drums.
The album was re-released in a number of formats in 2009, with 16 B-sides and rarities, as well as a commentary track, included as bonus material.[7] It is one of the albums profiled in the 2007 bookCheck the Technique, which includes a track-by-track breakdown by Diamond, Yauch, Horovitz, Caldato, and frequent Beasties collaboratorMoney Mark.[8]
Check Your Head was the first Beastie Boys album to be fully co-produced byMario Caldato Jr., who had been an engineer onPaul's Boutique and was credited as producer on that album's track "Ask for Janice".[9] It also marked the first appearance on one of their albums of keyboardistMoney Mark, who became a regular collaborator of the band.[9]
The album was somewhat of a return by the Beastie Boys to theirpunk roots. It featured the trio playing their own instruments on the majority of the album, for the first time on record since their earlyEPs, due to the commercial failure ofPaul's Boutique.[9][10] This inspired photographerGlen E. Friedman to shoot photos of the Beasties with their instrument cases, one of which was used as the cover of the album.[9] Supposedly, atrading card forNorman Schwarzkopf Jr. from a set ofDesert Storm trading cards was the inspiration for the album's title.[9]
The Beastie Boys toured with theRollins Band andCypress Hill in early 1992 to supportCheck Your Head.[9]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |  [1] |
| The A.V. Club | A−[11] |
| Entertainment Weekly | A[12] |
| Mojo |  [13] |
| Pitchfork | 6.7/10[5] |
| PopMatters | 9/10[14] |
| Q | [15] |
| Record Collector | [16] |
| Rolling Stone | [17] |
| Spin Alternative Record Guide | 8/10[18] |
InThe New York Times, James Bernard wrote that the "frenzied hybrid" of musical styles onCheck Your Head "is tough to follow but well worth the effort", concluding that the album "demonstrates that the Beastie Boys will risk commercial failure to do what they please."[19]Adam Higginbotham gave it a four-out-of-five rating inSelect and called it an "excellent" record that he nonetheless felt would sell poorly due to its "hopelessly eccentric" nature.[20]Chicago Tribune criticGreg Kot awarded it three out of four stars and credited the Beastie Boys for "showing surprising resiliency and versatility",[21] whileSteven Blush ofSpin praised the album's "thick, deep, textured, and varied" songs and emphasis ongroove.[22] Writing forRolling Stone,Kevin Powell deemed it the group's "most unconventional outing to date" and found its eclecticism "confusing at times" but distinctive, giving the album three-and-a-half stars out of five.[23] At the end of 1992,Check Your Head was named the year's fourth-best album bySpin,[24] and it placed fifth inThe Village Voice'sPazz & Jop critics' poll.[25]
Stephen Dalton was less impressed inNME, ratingCheck Your Head six out of ten and finding that the Beastie Boys had regressed as lyricists, "mimicking the music's laid back laziness and trading much of their trademark humour for seemingly improvised shouting matches."[26] InEntertainment Weekly,David Browne gave it a "D" grade and panned it as "sophomoric" and sounding "as if it were recorded underwater."[27]Robert Christgau deemed the album a "great concept" executed only "halfway there at best" in a year-end essay forThe Village Voice,[28] later assigning it a "neither" rating.[29]
In a retrospective review,AllMusic editorStephen Thomas Erlewine said that onCheck Your Head, the Beastie Boys "repositioned themselves as alo-fi,alt-rock groove band" who "had not abandoned rap, but it was no longer the foundation of their music, it was simply the most prominent in a thickpop-culture gumbo". He cited the album's "earth-boundD.I.Y." approach as "a big reason why it turned out to be an alt-rock touchstone of the '90s, something that both set trends and predicted them."[1]The A.V. Club'sNathan Rabin called it "a dorm-room staple and cultural touchstone" that "was just as radical a reinvention" asPaul's Boutique and marked the group's "strangely organic evolution into adventurous sonic astronauts".[11]
In 1995,Alternative Press placedCheck Your Head at number 23 on its list of the top 99 albums released from 1985 to 1995.[30] Four years later,Spin listedCheck Your Head as the twelfth-best album of the 1990s.[31] In 2022,Pitchfork ranked it as the 67th-best album of the 1990s, praising the album'sfunk-inspired instrumentals.[32] It was ranked at number 261 in the 2020 edition ofRolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list.[33]
All tracks written by Beastie Boys (Adam Yauch,Michael Diamond,Adam Horovitz) and"Money" Mark Nishita, except where noted.
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Jimmy James" |
| 3:14 |
| 2. | "Funky Boss" | 1:35 | |
| 3. | "Pass the Mic" |
| 4:17 |
| 4. | "Gratitude" |
| 2:45 |
| 5. | "Lighten Up" | 2:41 | |
| 6. | "Finger Lickin' Good" |
| 3:39 |
| 7. | "So What'cha Want" | Beastie Boys | 3:37 |
| 8. | "The Biz vs. The Nuge" | 0:33 | |
| 9. | "Time for Livin'" |
| 1:48 |
| 10. | "Something's Got to Give" |
| 3:28 |
| 11. | "The Blue Nun" | Beastie Boys | 0:32 |
| 12. | "Stand Together" |
| 2:47 |
| 13. | "Pow" | 2:13 | |
| 14. | "The Maestro" | Beastie Boys | 2:52 |
| 15. | "Groove Holmes" | 2:33 | |
| 16. | "Live at P.J.'s" | 3:18 | |
| 17. | "Mark on the Bus" | Nishita | 1:05 |
| 18. | "Professor Booty" |
| 4:13 |
| 19. | "In 3's" | 2:23 | |
| 20. | "Namasté" | 4:01 | |
| Total length: | 53:29 | ||
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 21. | "Dub the Mic" (Instrumental) | |
| 22. | "Drunken Praying Mantis Style" | |
| 23. | "Pass the Mic (Pt. 2, Skills to Pay the Bills)" | |
| 24. | "Netty's Girl" |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Dub the Mic" (Instrumental) | 4:30 |
| 2. | "Pass the Mic (Pt. 2, Skills to Pay the Bills)" | 4:25 |
| 3. | "Drunken Praying Mantis Style" | 2:40 |
| 4. | "Netty's Girl" | 3:24 |
| 5. | "The Skills to Pay the Bills" (Original Version) | 3:16 |
| 6. | "So What'cha Want" (Soul Assassins Remix Version) | 4:08 |
| 7. | "So What'cha Want" (Butt Naked Version) | 3:29 |
| 8. | "Groove Holmes" (Live vs The Biz) | 6:13 |
| 9. | "So What'cha Want" (All The Way Live Freestyle Version) | 3:39 |
| 10. | "Stand Together" (Live at French's Tavern, Sydney, Australia) | 2:32 |
| 11. | "Finger Lickin' Good" (Government Cheese Remix) | 4:15 |
| 12. | "Gratitude" (Live at Budokan 9-16-92) | 4:28 |
| 13. | "Honky Rink" | 2:13 |
| 14. | "Jimmy James" (Original Version) | 3:44 |
| 15. | "Boomin' Granny" | 2:18 |
| 16. | "Drinkin' Wine" | 4:42 |
| Chart (1992) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (ARIA)[34] | 74 |
| Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[35] | 32 |
| USBillboard 200[36] | 10 |
| USTop R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)[37] | 37 |
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Canada (Music Canada)[38] | 2× Platinum | 200,000^ |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[39] | Silver | 60,000* |
| United States (RIAA)[40] | 2× Platinum | 2,000,000^ |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. | ||
| Studio albums | |
|---|---|
| Compilations | |
| EPs | |
| Live musicians | |
| Associated acts | |
| Filmography | |
| Related articles | |
