Additional information
Personnel includes: Fatboy Slim, Ashley Slater, Roger Sanchez, Macy Gray, Bootsy Collins, Roland Clark, Shinehead. HALFWAY BETWEEN THE GUTTER & THE STARS was nominated for the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album. Personnel includes: Fatboy Slim, Ashley Slater, Roger Sanchez, Macy Gray, Bootsy Collins, Roland Clark, Shinehead. HALFWAY BETWEEN THE GUTTER & THE STARS was nominated for the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album. The cover of Norman Cook's breakout Fatboy Slim album, You've Come a Long Way, Baby, was a good clue to the contents, picturing as it did thousands of LPs straining the racks in Cook's record room -- undoubtedly just a small portion of his massive collection of sampling material. Inside, Cook unfolded a party record for the ages, long on fun (though understandably short on staying power), chock full of samples pillaged from all manner of obscure soul shouters and old-school rap crews, triggered and tweaked ad nauseam. With his third LP, Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars, Fatboy Slim's Norman Cook pulls away slightly from the notoriously fickle pop charts and crossover kids courted on his last record. Instead, he makes a conscious attempt to inject some real hedonism back into the world of dance -- he is a DJ, after all. After a short intro, Cook tears into an acid techno rampage named "Star 69," a track that takes few prisoners and sounds closer to Plastikman than Propellerheads. Despite the torrid pace set early on, there's still quite a bit of the used-bin scavenger left in Cook; the most patented big beat anthems here, "Ya Mama" and "Mad Flava," include all the expected displays of crowd-moving hip-hop calls, unhinged beatbox funk, continual drum breakdowns, and plenty of rawk riffs. The first single, "Sunset (Bird of Prey)," is another potential crossover move, featuring what is easily the album's most recognizable sample source -- Jim Morrison from the Doors. Sniffy electronica purism aside, though, Cook remains, if not the best overall producer in the dance world, certainly in its top rank. Cook recruited collaborators for the first time -- nu-soul diva Macy Gray, funk legend Bootsy Collins, fellow superstar DJ/producer Roger Sanchez -- and the two tracks with Gray, "Love Life" and "Demons," are the highlights of the album. Cook's ample production talents are served best with a vocalist lending focus, and "Love Life" is a seven-minute ride veering from dirty, warped funk to noise-heavy hip-hop breakdowns while Gray scats, growls, and purrs with clearly audible glee. In all, Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars is possibly Norman Cook's best possible statement after being -- nearly simultaneously -- picked up by a multitude of notoriously fickle pop consumers and thrown away by his previously rock-solid dance fanbase. ~ John Bush
Reviews
Rolling Stone (1/4/01, p.107) - Included in Rolling Stone's "Top 50 Albums of 2000" - "...Booty-shaking tracks surrounded by gospel-charged songs....irresistible..." Spin (12/00, pp.213-4) - 6 out of 10 - "...A post-masterpiece puzzler....it finds an edge and cuts itself open, almost shocked at its own capacity to say something new..." Spin (12/00, pp.213-4) - 6 out of 10 - "...A post-masterpiece puzzler....it finds an edge and cuts itself open, almost shocked at its own capacity to say something new..." Entertainment Weekly (11/10/00, p.88) - "...An assortment of sampled or live funk-soul brothers, from Bootsy Collins to the more obscure Roland Clark...wed to club-ready tracks that are grittier, loopier, and more driving than...YOU"VE COME A LONG WAY BABY..." - Rating: B- Entertainment Weekly (11/10/00, p.88) - "...An assortment of sampled or live funk-soul brothers, from Bootsy Collins to the more obscure Roland Clark...wed to club-ready tracks that are grittier, loopier, and more driving than...YOU"VE COME A LONG WAY BABY..." - Rating: B- Q (1/01, p.90) - Included in Q's "50 Best Albums of 2000". Q (12/00, p.122) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Dance music for grown-ups..." Q (1/01, p.90) - Included in Q's "50 Best Albums of 2000". Q (12/00, p.122) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Dance music for grown-ups..." Alternative Press (12/00, p.89) - 3 out of 5 - "...A genteel album that's as typified by expansive breakbeats and dirty funk as it is by hard dance rhythms and Big-Beat nostalgia..." Alternative Press (12/00, p.89) - 3 out of 5 - "...A genteel album that's as typified by expansive breakbeats and dirty funk as it is by hard dance rhythms and Big-Beat nostalgia..." Muzik (11/00, p.83) - 5 out of 5 - "... Deeper and more introspective....Both thumping and atmospheric, every groove is permeated with a warm glow..." Muzik (11/00, p.83) - 5 out of 5 - "... Deeper and more introspective....Both thumping and atmospheric, every groove is permeated with a warm glow..." Melody Maker (11/14/00, p.51) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Dares to go out on a potential lethal limb....Old-skool Fatboy fans will lap up the gritty, Prodigy-esque 'Yo Mama' and the kooky, slap-happy beats of 'Weapon Of Choice'..." Melody Maker (11/14/00, p.51) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Dares to go out on a potential lethal limb....Old-skool Fatboy fans will lap up the gritty, Prodigy-esque 'Yo Mama' and the kooky, slap-happy beats of 'Weapon Of Choice'..." Mojo (Publisher) (12/00, p.114) - "...Great pop music..." Mojo (Publisher) (12/00, p.114) - "...Great pop music..." NME (Magazine) (11/4/00, p.45) - 9 out of 10 - "...It's ace! True Fatboy concrete handbag-style disco-metal!! Yeah!..." NME (Magazine) (11/4/00, p.45) - 9 out of 10 - "...It's ace! True Fatboy concrete handbag-style disco-metal!! Yeah!..."
