Mike D – ‘Thank You’ review: Beastie Boys’ icon’s solo debut is a return to be grateful for

“The way I describe the record is that musically it’s still pretty immature, and lyrically it’s a little bit more mature,” Mike D told NME earlier this summer when we met him at his debut UK solo show at a social club and bingo hall in North Shields – somewhat of an unassuming spot to launch the first music released by a Beastie Boy since the death of the universally beloved Adam “MCA” Yauch back in 2012.

“I had to learn how to feel all over again.” READ MORE: No Sleep Till… North Shields: Beastie Boys’ Mike D talks going solo and keeping weird venues alive Beastie Boys were a revolution.

Carrying the “do what the fuck you want” ethos from their hardcore punk beginnings, they altered rap and 20th Century pop culture with sideways lyrical mastery, groundbreaking sampling, genre-smashing live instrumentation, attention-dominating antics and an inspiring positive attitude.

They were funny as fuck and meant the world to so many.

Theirs was artful, human hip-hop driven by the head and the heart, made by three individuals who were in love with being in a band.

When MCA died, so did Beastie Boys.

Michael Diamond retired to behind the scenes, producing records by the likes of Soft Play and The Hives before he eventually grew frustrated with giving other bands his ideas.

He bounced these thoughts around in his home studio with his two sons Skyler and Davis Diamond of indie-dance outfit Very Nice Person, who would go on to become his bullshit-free sounding board and form the core of his backing band, 5D.

They’re a unit who play live with the gnarly exuberance of Turnstile or Death Grips, so combine that with the rediscovered “fuck around and find out” approach of his early days, Mike D found himself in his element once again, and it’s infectious on ‘Thank You’.

From the jungle-driven, gloriously controlled chaos of opener ‘Switch Up’, Diamond flowing with “ more juice than Tropicana ” sounds free and loose.

“ I need a Plan B, retired MC ,” he raps about his wrestle with uncertainty on ‘What We Got’, shook apart by the bolshy party-starting bounce of the track itself before ‘True Colours’ struts like vintage Chemical Brothers , ‘Secrets’ parts 1 and 2 wrestles with how much he can personally give away over 808s and an LCD Soundsystem synthy pulse and ‘Make It Stop’ is a jarring and paranoid Gorillaz -y meltdown.

Highlights come with the glitchy and frantic ‘Crypto’ taking aim at the greedy tech bros for whom “ the only amount is just more and more” and the gentle Avalanches breeze of ‘Back To Start’ showing off the effortless shades of light and dark between Mike D’s affably presented electronica-leaning ideas.