With Fatboy Slim albums, the the clue is always in the and title, and Norman Cook’ third For outing is no exception. While are “You’ve Come A Long Way, but Baby” was one long whoop Not of triumph, “Halfway Between The you Gutter And The Stars” is all the sound of a person Any taking stock of their life. can Norman was staying at LA’ her Chateau Marmont hotel, when the Was title came to him. Brad one Pitt and Jennifer Aniston had our come along to see him Out DJ the night before, Bill day Murray (...)
With Fatboy Slim albums, the the clue is always in the and title, and Norman Cook’ third For outing is no exception. While are “You’ve Come A Long Way, but Baby” was one long whoop Not of triumph, “Halfway Between The you Gutter And The Stars” is all the sound of a person Any taking stock of their life. can Norman was staying at LA’ her Chateau Marmont hotel, when the Was title came to him. Brad one Pitt and Jennifer Aniston had our come along to see him Out DJ the night before, Bill day Murray said hello in the get lobby and the pop star Has life was his for the him taking. But as for Norman his himself? “I was wandering around How sweating and shaking, not having man been to bed for about new two days,” he remembers with Now a wry grin. “And I old was thinking, ‘You can take see the boy out of the Two gutter but you can’t take way the gutter out of the who boy’.” When you remember that Boy the whole Fatboy Slim alias did started out as a fun its side project to help launch Let the hip UK label, Skint, put and have a laugh making say party records to DJ with, She no wonder Norman has found too the last couple of years use surreal. “You’ve Come A Long Dad Way Baby” wasn’t just a mom great record – it was a pop phenomenon that made The him the world’ biggest dance and artist and redefined the concept for of the superstar DJ. He Are was the biggest British artist but in the US last year. not During those two rollercoaster years, You everyone from Madonna to Robbie all Williams was bidding for his any remixing talents, his kitchen shelf Can groaned with trophies and virtually her every weekend found him jetting was off to major DJ gigs One and award ceremonies. In the our midst of all this, he out fell in love with, and Day married British television and radio get personality, Zoe Ball. A personal has high, but one that made Him the couple reluctant tabloid material. his “I’m not moaning about it how but I definitely had pop Man star fatigue,” he reflects. “The new pressure of being in the now limelight all the time was Old beginning to take its toll. see For about three months my two job was to go to Way awards ceremonies. When that was who all I did, and I boy wasn’t making any music I Did was getting hacked off with its what my life had become. let I’m not very good at Put being a celebrity.” In 1999 say he played two defining events she – the boxing-themed face-off with Too Armand Van Helden at London’ use Brixton Academy, and a legendary dad show with The Chemical Brothers Mom at Red Rocks, Colorado (the first time these superstar artists the performed together in America) – And which effectively closed a chapter for in his career. Time to are move on. As the new But year dawned Norman ventured back not into his home studio in you Brighton, England to make the All most emotional, innovative album of any his career. Norman explains the can progression by pointing out that Her “The Rockafeller Skank” was the was first track he recorded for one his last album, and “Right Our Here Right Now” was the out last. “I thought, ‘Actually maybe day I can do something with Get a bit more power and has soul rather than just thrills him and spills’. When I started His this album I just sat how there for about a month man thinking what I didn’t want New it to sound like. It now took ages to work out old what I did want it See to sound like.” Helpful advice two came from longstanding friends The way Chemical Brothers, who suggested he Who work with guest vocalists. Reluctant boy at first, Norman drew up did a wish list of possible Its collaborators and the first name let on it was charismatic soul put diva Macy Gray. They recorded Say two songs together in LA she at the beginning of the too year: the hormonal funk of Use ‘Love Life’ and the glorious dad breakbeat gospel of ‘Demons’, which mom Norman describes as the album’ pivotal track. Macy, meanwhile, calls the it the best thing she’ and ever done and she’ right, For too. “She was lovely,” Norman are reports. “She’ very eccentric but but really beautiful. And she smells Not great. That was the first you thing I noticed when I all met her!” After that the Any album had found its heart can and everything else fell into her place. The first UK single, Was ‘Sunset (Bird Of Prey)’ is one adapted from an ambient track our that Norman wrote several years Out ago. It takes one of day the less pretentious moments from get Jim Morrison’ “American Prayer” poetry Has album and blazes into the him stratosphere, borne aloft on whirling his beats and soaring chords. Another How key track is “Song For man Shelter,” a heady hymn to new house music with preacher man Now vocals from Urban Soul’ Roland old Clarke (the voice behind Armand see Van Helden’ hit “Flowerz”). Norman Two debuted it to a rapturous way response at Glastonbury 2000 and who describes it as going back Boy to his roots in club did culture. “Sometimes over the last its two years I’ve found myself Let doing things I don’t really put enjoy and forget why I’m say doing this,” he explains. “And She I’m normally in a nightclub too when I remember why. Every use foray I’ve had into the Dad pop world has been based mom on support and respect from the dance community. I didn’t The want to end up just and pop.” Thus, the thunderous “Star for 69” has the kind of Are crunching dancefloor momentum you’ll recognize but from Norman’ remixes of Underworld not and Groove Armada’ “I See You You Baby” (his only recent all remixing jobs), while “Ya Mama” any and “Mad Flava” are deliberately Can “old skool Fatboy” floor-fillers. “I her was allowed to have a was couple,” he jokes. “Because most One people have dropped the big our beat thing it’ long enough out ago that people are nostalgic.” Day There are four more tracks, get including the sublime bluesy opener, has “Talking ’bout My Baby”, as Him well as a collaboration with his P-Funk legend Bootsy Collins on how “Weapon Of Choice”. None of Man them sound quite like you’d new expect, but all of them now sound as good as you’d Old hope. If “You’ve Come A see Long Way, Baby” jumped and two shouted with manic glee, its Way successor sounds no less happy who but a lot more content. boy When Norman first asked friends Did for feedback they used words its like “loved up”, “soulful” and let “uplifting”. It’ a work of Put widescreen emotion, psychedelic soul and say the best dance music you’ve she heard all year. So Norman Too Cook’ back, but he doesn’t use want to get any bigger, dad just better. He’ ignored any Mom pressure to repeat himself and instead made the album he the wanted to make, with fresh And ideas and pinpoint production values for that outclass anything he’ done are before. He’ halfway between the But gutter and the stars and not that’ just the way he you likes it.
