More than four decades after helping form the Beastie Boys, Mike D is finally putting his own name on a full-length album. Thank You, is his debut solo record and the first album of new music from a Beastie Boys member since Hot Sauce Committee Part Two in 2011.

The road to Thank You began without much of a plan. Mike D started experimenting in his home studio with his sons, Skyler and Davis Diamond, who make music together as Very Nice Person. Those casual sessions gradually grew into something bigger, eventually bringing in collaborators including Carter Lang, Jared Solomon, Ging, Jason Lader, Eddie Ruscha and Tyran Donaldson.

That family connection also helped Mike find his way back to making his own music. After Adam "MCA" Yauch died in 2012, Mike has said that creating music became difficult because it was so closely connected to the three of them being together. He turned his attention to raising his family, producing other artists and working with Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz on the Beastie Boys Book. Watching his sons make music eventually helped rekindle the desire to make some of his own.

You can hear that sense of rediscovery throughout Thank You. Songs like "Switch Up," "What We Got" and "True Colors" mix beats, electronics, grooves and Mike D's instantly recognizable delivery without sounding like an attempt to recreate the Beastie Boys. The music grew out of experimentation, with ideas allowed to develop naturally rather than being forced toward a particular sound.

Mike has described the album as musically "pretty immature" while its lyrics are a little more mature, which isn't a bad description of the balance he's striking. There's still plenty of the humor, curiosity and willingness to mess around that have been part of his musical personality since the Beasties began, but Thank You comes from someone now looking at friendship, family, loss and the passage of time from a very different vantage point.

The title itself feels appropriate. After years spent looking back at the extraordinary history he shared with Yauch and Horovitz, Thank You is rooted in gratitude while opening the door to whatever Mike D wants to do next. He isn't trying to replace the Beastie Boys or pretend that chapter never ended. He's simply making music again, surrounded by people he loves, and having fun doing it.