Volume 19, Track 3

Posted on | July 19, 2010 | No Comments

“Lighten Up” by Beastie Boys (1992)

“Lighten Up” is an interesting song, to say the least. The fifth track on Check Your Head, this song is a big departure from the first four songs on the album as the first minute and a half or so is almost all mood music. The first half of “Lighten Up” snakes and slinks around musically as it goes from sounding tribal in some moments to sounding jazzy and abstract in other moments. In between, you have the lyrics “lighten up, gotta lighten up, gotta lighten up right now” being almost chanted in the background, and all of it acting as a build-up to the perfectly loud and polished gear that the song eventually shifts into. This track may be looked at as filler by some, but I think it nicely displays the Beasties ability to produce quality music without samples and electronic beats. (If nothing else, one should respect Money Mark’s talents with a keyboard on this track as it all sounds so damn… cool.) Check Your Head was a bit of a departure from the Paul’s Boutique sound^[1] but it was definitely refreshing to find that the Beasties still embraced the notion of producing an album with varied styles and sounds. “Lighten Up” is a good representation of this embrace.

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[1] Heavier sound, lyrics weren’t as fun; the normal changes indicative of a rap group trying to fit in post Straight Outta Compton.

Category: Volume 19
Tags: Beastie Boys > Focus on Beastie Boys

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A series of 14-track (and sometimes 29-track) volumes that consist of songs that either time forgot about or are overshadowed by the artists' other work. Some of these volumes are artist-specific while others are simply eclectic; either way, they would make for good mixed tapes.