Maps of Music

Check Your Head (1992)

Where the lyrics of Check Your Head take you, and where it was really made.

The band's sample-heavy previous album, Paul's Boutique, failed commercially, so this record went back to the members playing their own instruments.

Key places

Where Check Your Head was recorded (1992)

Recording site G-Son Studios — The album was recorded at G-Son Studios in Atwater Village in 1991 under producer Mario Caldato Jr. This was the group's first album made after the sample-heavy Paul's Boutique. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Check Your Head is the third studio album by the American hip-hop group Beastie Boys
• Released April 21, 1992 by Grand Royal and Capitol Records
• It was the group's first album in three years, following Paul's Boutique (1989)
• Recorded at G-Son Studios in Atwater Village in 1991
• Produced by Mario Caldato Jr., the group's third producer in as many albums
• Less sample-heavy than the group's previous records
• All three members contribute instruments: Adam Horovitz on guitar, Adam Yauch on bass, Mike Diamond on drums
• The 2009 reissue added 16 B-sides and rarities plus a commentary track as bonus material
• The album is one of the profiles in the 2007 book Check the Technique

Background

• Check Your Head was the first Beastie Boys album fully co-produced by Mario Caldato Jr.
• Caldato had been an engineer on Paul's Boutique and was credited as producer on its track 'Ask for Janice'
• Keyboardist Money Mark made his first appearance on one of the group's albums here and became a regular collaborator
• The album was a return to the group's punk roots
• The trio played their own instruments on most of the album, the first time on record since their early EPs
• The commercial failure of the sample-dominated Paul's Boutique is cited as the reason for the change
• Dutch group Urban Dance Squad is cited as an influence on the decision to play instruments

Recording

• The album was made in 1991 at G-Son Studios in Atwater Village
• Caldato engineered the record and went on to produce the group's albums through the 1990s

Cover

• Photographer Glen E. Friedman shot the Beasties with their instrument cases
• One of these photos was used as the album cover

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• The Beastie Boys were an American hip-hop group formed in New York City in 1981.
• They began as a hardcore punk band, having previously been members of the Young Aborigines.
• Adam Yauch replaced the departing bassist Jeremy Shatan, and the band took the name Beastie Boys.
• The 1983 single "Cooky Puss" won local success and marked their full move into hip-hop.

Members

• The main line-up was Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz (vocals, guitar), Adam "MCA" Yauch (vocals, bass) and Michael "Mike D" Diamond (vocals, drums).
• Yauch also directed many of the group's music videos under the alias Nathanial Hörnblowér.

Career

• Their debut album Licensed to Ill (1986) was the first rap album to top the Billboard 200.
• Paul's Boutique (1989) was made with the Dust Brothers and was a commercial failure but gained critical acclaim.
• Check Your Head (1992) and Ill Communication (1994) found mainstream success.
• Hello Nasty (1998) and To the 5 Boroughs (2004) followed, and the instrumental album The Mix-Up came in 2007.
• Their final album was Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (2011).
• The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012, becoming the third rap group so honored.
• Yauch died of parotid cancer in 2012, and the group disbanded.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• The Billboard 200 peak was No. 10, and the album was certified 2x platinum
• The album was supported by five singles: 'Pass the Mic', 'So What'cha Want', 'Jimmy James', 'Gratitude', and 'Professor booty'
• The Beastie Boys toured with the Rollins Band and Cypress Hill in early 1992 to support it
• Adam Higginbotham gave it four out of five stars in Select and called it an excellent record that he still felt would sell poorly
• Chicago Tribune critic Greg Kot awarded three out of four stars
• Rolling Stone critic Kevin Powell called it the group's most unconventional outing to date and gave three and a half stars out of five
• Stephen Dalton rated it six out of ten in NME and found the group had regressed as lyricists
• Entertainment Weekly critic David Browne gave it a D grade
• Robert Christgau called it a great concept executed only halfway at best in a year-end essay for The Village Voice
• At the end of 1992, Spin named it the year's fourth-best album, and it placed fifth in The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop poll

Reappraisal

• AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine said the group repositioned itself as a lo-fi, alt-rock groove band
• He cited the album's earth-bound D.I.Y. approach as a big reason it became an alt-rock touchstone of the 1990s
• The A.V. Club's Nathan Rabin called it a dorm-room staple and cultural touchstone
• Alternative Press placed it at number 23 on its 1995 list of the top 99 albums from 1985 to 1995
• Spin listed it as the twelfth-best album of the 1990s in 1999
• Pitchfork ranked it 67th-best album of the 1990s in 2022, praising its funk-inspired instrumentals

Records

• Peak of number 10 on the Billboard 200
• Certified 2x platinum
• Ranked at number 261 in the 2020 edition of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Mario Caldato Jr. was credited as producer on Paul's Boutique's track 'Ask for Janice' before this album
• The Beastie Boys toured with the Rollins Band and Cypress Hill in early 1992 to support the album
• Photographer Glen E. Friedman's idea to shoot the group with their instrument cases produced the cover photo
• The title is said to have been inspired by a Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. trading card from a set of Desert Storm trading cards
• The album's harder rock sound could be considered a precursor to the nu metal genre that came later in the 1990s

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · pt.wikipedia.org

Maps of Ages ↗ (mapsofages.com)

Privacy · Contact