Published by: World Tibet Network News Thursday, November 28, 1997

Washington Post, November 26, 1997

Album Review

By Mark Jenkins Special to The Washington Post

Richard Gere may be America's most conspicuous supporter of Tibetan self-determination, but few celebrities have done more for the cause than Beastie Boy Adam Yauch. The punky hip-hopper co-founded the Milrepa Foundation, named after an 11th-century Tibetan saint, which raises consciousness and funds "for the struggle to free the peace-loving Tibetan nation," as a Milrepa press release puts it. That has meant organizing benefit concerts in San Francisco last year and in New York this year. (Yauch hopes next year's show will be in Washington.) This year's is documented on "Tibetan Freedom Concert" (Grand Royal/Capitol), a new three-CD set that also includes a few tracks from the 1996 performance.

The lineup is some sort of testament -- either to the appeal of the cause or to Yauch's wide-ranging friendships. The participants include such "modern rock" exemplars as Radiohead, Sonic Youth, Porno for Pyros, Pavement, Blur, Bjork, Beck and Rage Against the Machine, as well as hip-hoppers A Tribe Called Quest, KRS-1 and the Fugees. Also featured are members of Pearl Jam, Oasis and R.E.M., and of course the Beastie Boys. Interspersed are the chants and songs of Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns, which may not be the album's selling point but seem most relevant.

Each act is allotted only one song, and the emphasis is on the brooding, melancholy and abstract. The Foo Fighters' "This Is a Call," the Mighty Mighty Bosstones' "Noise Brigade" and Rancid's version of "The Harder They Come" are among the few frisky songs. An actual mention of Tibet seems to be a significant point in a track's favor: Patti Smith works a lament for the people of "the roof of the world" into her elegiac "About a Boy," while Biz Markie leads a functional chant of "Free Tibet." Such gestures can fall short, however: De La Soul's "It's just me, myself, and I -- and Tibet being free" is underwhelming, and to hear Jon Spencer ooze, "When we're talking about freeing Tibet/ I think we're talking about . . . uvvvv" is to be reminded why so many people think pop and politics should never mingle.