Good news for Beastie Boys fans: the boys haven’t skipped a beat.

Bad news for those who weren’t feeling previous efforts by the group: this album won’t be changing your mind anytime soon.

And that’s the surprisingly simple story of not just “Hot Sauce Committee Part Two,” but the Beastie Boys as a group for their entire career.

Coming a full seven years since the last proper Beastie Boys album (“The Mix-Up” was an instrumental album), the Beastie Boys give listeners more of their signature style – that is, funky, repetitive bass lines, constant interplay between singers Mike D, MCA, and Ad-Rock, and lots of songs that sound the same.

That doesn’t really do the album justice, as the 16 songs certainly don’t sound the same.  “Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win,” seven tracks in, is the first taste of something different.  Featuring Santigold and a laid back reggae style, the song doesn’t fall prey to droning on for too long like a lot of the other tracks.

That problem comes from verse after verse that is rapped with no sort of distinguishable chorus to lift each song up.  The result is that eventually you just give up trying to listen to the lyrics.

It’s a novel sound and formula at first that grows pretty tiring not even halfway through the album.

That’s not to completely slag on the album, since when the group does something different it’s really good, move-your-body music.  “Lee Majors Come Again” is the Beastie Boys doing punk rock, while the funky, head-bopping instrumental “Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament” does a good job of anchoring the latter half of the album.

This album is not going to change the minds of this group’s critics, but for both old fans and those looking for their first taste of the group, “Hot Sauce Committee Part Two” is as good as any.