Mike D: Thank You

It’s been 14 years since the passing of MCA, aka Adam Yauch, of the Beastie Boys. When one third of the long-running rap group left it seemed like that was it. The Beastie Boys were done. Remaining members Ad-Rock(Adam Horovitz) and Mike D(Michael Diamond) did re-emerge 6 years later with a Beastie Boys memoir and touring show where they talked about the band with a slide show and music, but as far as new music from the two there was none.

Adam Horovitz did show up in some acting and has worked with with his wife, Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna. But Mike D remained relatively quiet besides the traveling Beastie Boys nostalgia show. That is until now.

For a few years now Michael Diamond has been quietly working on songs, with his sons producing and writing with him. In a recent interview Mike D stated at one point he realized he had an album worth of songs and felt it necessary to call Horovitz to tell him, like they were a divorced couple and Diamond was getting remarried. Of course Ad-Rock gave him his blessing.

Thank You is the culmination of years of writing and recording, and with his sons it’s somewhat of a family affair. If you’re expecting Beastie Boys vibes, you will be disappointed. Instead, Thank You is more electro pop; repetitive, catchy, and young at heart. It’s not reinventing what came before, and that’s a good thing. It’s an artist dipping his toes back into the creative waters after years of laying low.

Had Mike D done an album with an established producer and brought in important musical pals to help him build this from the ground up, then Thank You would have been a very different record. Maybe one closer to the Mike D we all love and remember. But since this was a personal, slowly built release it feels like something entirely different. It’s a twitchy, glitchy collection of songs. “Switch Up” is a caffeinated opener with a chaotic breakbeat throughout with blips and bleeps while Mike D’s vocals sound like they’re coming out of a rotary phone. “What We Got” feels more like pre-License To Ill Beasties, like “Cookie Puss” with a little Sugarhill Gang thrown in for good measure.

Elsewhere “True Colors” has an almost trip hop vibe, and “Make It Stop” sounds like a junkyard rave in full effect. There’s some quieter moments, like the low key “I Don’t Care”, as well as the sentimental album closer “Thank You”.

Thank You feels more like a love letter to a career in the rearview, and gratitude for the fact that Diamond can still be creative even without the Beastie Boys. It’s a welcome return of Mike D, and perhaps a new chapter.