It's been six years since Hello Nasty and the Beastie Boys are finally releasing a new album. It's called To the 5 Burroughs, it'll hit store shelves on June 15th and...it probably won't be all that great.

Amazon recently posted the track listings. "Hey, Fuck You" looks promising but "A Open Letter to NYC" reeks of MCA-style political grandstanding. Why do I get the feeling it's going to be a schmaltzy, 7-minute long spoken word track laid over a funkified remix of Buddhist chants?

I caught the video for the first single, "Ch-Check It Out" on MTV 2 over the weekend. The track itself was fairly simple and dull; the Beasties typical rap-slinging over a repetitive, thunderous beat. It's not nearly as nifty as "So What'cha Want" and lacks the uber-catchy meat hooks of "Intergalactic."

The video itself seemed altogether half-hearted and really is just more of the same. The Beasties, dressed in various outfits, chase one another around NYC ala "Sabotage." In its defense, there is a nice shot of a hovercraft exploding at the end. And, as I've always said, if there's anything better than a hovercraft, it's an exploding hovercraft.