FATBOY SLIM - YOU'VE COME A LONG WAY, BABY

• Skint / Astralwerks

I don't know what it is, but Norman Cook, AKA Fatboy Slim has a thing for naming his albums after old advertising slogans for products that back in the days were thought to be harmless but are now known to kill people. (Better Living Through Chemestry was the slogan for some pesticide company.) Now we have You've Come A Long Way, Baby (from a cigarette ad). While Fatboy Slim doesn't stray too far from the basic sound of his first record, that is not necessarily a bad thing. It was, after all Slim who, along with the Chemical Brothers ushered the "big beat" sound into the US. "Right Here, Right Now" is a classic example, as is "The Rockafeller Skank" which takes Slim's densely layered cut-and-paste vocal samples and skipping record effects to an almost obscene height. Add some twangy surf guitar and massive (and I mean MASSIVE, in capitals) beats and you have one hell of a song. Realizing, I think that with "The Rockafeller Skank" he had taken the sound as far as it could go, Slim wisely does not try to top himself and instead serves up jewels like "Gangster Tripping" on which he samples from sample-master DJ Shadow, something which must have taken guts. "Praise You" has a wonderful 70's rock vibe to it that I guarantee you've never heard in dance music before, and while I still don't know if "In Heaven" is an example of clever wit or just plain immaturity, it doesn't really matter when you've got songs with the subtle funk of "You're Not From Brighton". Though anyone familiar with Fatboy Slim's songwriting style will immediately recognize this as his work, (the CD could accidentally start skipping and you wouldn't know it for a full minute) there are still plenty of suprises, like the elegantly wasted psychedelia of "Acid 8000". Groovy, baby.

Review by Aram at:  Frames Per Second

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