For the Best in Men’s Clothing Call Paul’s Boutique

20 years ago this month, one of the finest albums ever made was released to the world — Paul’s Bou­tique by The Beastie Boys.  At the time, it was not widely appre­ci­ated.  The album was the B Boys fol­low up to the wildly pop­u­lar album Licensed to Ill.  It was a rad­i­cal depar­ture from its pre­de­ces­sor, and many crit­ics saw it as a chance to write the Beastie’s off as a pass­ing fad.  What they did not know, was that this was the album that would set the stage for the future of the band, and for much of music in gen­eral.  Far ahead of its time, Paul’s Bou­tique is quite sim­ply a time­less masterpiece.

When I was in col­lege, this album was a reg­u­lar part of the sound­track of my life.  Songs like Egg Man, Hey Ladies, and High Plains Drifter take me back to some pretty silly days.  When­ever we used to hear 5-Piece Chicken Din­ner, we would just all freak out — not sure why, but to this day it makes me smile to think about it.

In cel­e­bra­tion of the 20^th anniver­sary of the album, the Beastie Boys have put up a spe­cial site just for Paul’s Bou­tique.   The site is a lot of fun to nav­i­gate.  It has clas­sic videos of the band, ping pong, pho­tos from the band, user uploaded pho­tos, a turntable, a cow­bell, and you can lis­ten to the entire album right there on the site.  They have also issues a remas­tered ver­sion of the album and a whole bunch of other good­ies to go along with it.   If you go to the site, make sure to turn up the vol­ume knob on the lower left of your screen — this unveils all of the good­ies hid­den on the site.

So for the best in men’s cloth­ing call Paul’s Boutique.

Beastie Boys