Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars
British techno wizard and crossover superstar Norman Cook's (a.k.a. Fatboy Slim)Halfway Between the Gutter and the Starsis uneven as heck and nowhere near as frat boy-friendly as his previous releases. But if you're up for a ride, this eclectic, 68-minute roller-coaster trip contains tunes airier and more house-savvy and gospel-flavored than what you've heard from him before. Not needing to create another "Rockafeller Skank" has left Cook free to experiment. There are lovely, slowly building tunes: "Talking 'bout My Baby" sounds like a collaboration betweenPlay-era Moby and the Chemical Brothers circaSurrender, while "Sunset (Bird of Prey)" is an ethereal track that samples a rare a capella vocal by Jim Morrison and does not suck. Breakbeats do eventually kick in on that tune, the album's first single, but they're almost an afterthought, not the music's guiding force.This is not to say that because Fatboy embraces the pop song he can't kick it down and dirty with the best of them. "Ya Mama" is crazy-ass handbag big beat with super-distorted breaks and loud squealing synths that will severely disturb any authority figure or small dog within earshot. Thereareat least a few super stupid songs--like "Star 69," which seems to exist solely to facilitate a daft sample of a man using a bad word--but these make the good ones just sound even better. The pure party tunes, like the deep house-inspired "Retox" and the super-bad disco-funky "Weapon of Choice" (a collaboration withBootsy Collins), are the meat of the album, and it's top sirloin stuff. In a year with dozens of attempts at crossover success built on watered-down dance pop and well-known guests, Fatboy Slim shows how it's really done, sacrificing no artistic integrity in the process. The two tracks on whichMacy Graysing are worth the price of admission alone. Cook continues to skirt the line between innovation and accessibility with mad-scientist glee.--James Conde