Music : Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 7243850460256
Format: Explicit Lyrics
Label: Astralwerks
Manufacturer: Astralwerks
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Astralwerks
Release Date: November 07, 2000
Sales Rank: 47845
Studio: Astralwerks
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Editorial Review:
Album Description:
As usual, the Japanese version features a bonus track: 'Sunset' (Darren Emerson Remix).
Amazon.com's Best of 2000:
Featuring house-music savvy and gospel-tinged samples among the big beats, Fatboy Slim's first record of the new millennium strays into meatier territory than the more pop-oriented material for which he's known. Importing help from the likes of Macy Gray and Bootsy Collins, as well as an irresistible, posthumous turn from Jim Morrison, Slim burns his colossal stamp on the dance/DJ landscape once again. --Matthew Cooke
Amazon.com:
British techno wizard and crossover superstar Norman Cook's (a.k.a. Fatboy Slim) Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars is 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 between Play-era Moby and the Chemical Brothers circa Surrender, 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. There are at 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 with Bootsy 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 which Macy Gray sing are worth the price of admission alone. Cook continues to skirt the line between innovation and accessibility with mad-scientist glee. --James Conde
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
Reading all these reviews, you've got a whole buncha people bashing on this CD because it's a dance album. Well, to all you that don't know Norman Cook, AKA Fatboy Slim is in fact a dance artist who produces dance music, don't go into this album expecting anything different. Mr. Cook is a genious and his singles time & time again are proven not only to be sucessful, but also timeless(aside from the tracks that the top 40 radio DJs get ahold of and cram down our throats a zillion times until we never wanna hear 'em again... Thanks for that by the way, you're doing the world a great service). As far as not understanding "Star 69",; what is there to understand. "Star 69" was made for one reason & one reason only, to make you shake your butt. If you're looking for meaning in music, go listen to Yanni, or Enya, or Celine Dion, only listen to Fatboy if you wanna boogie to the MFin' oogie. As far as the guy bashin' "Bird Of Prey", it's Jim Morrison dude; what more do you need. For those of you who don't know musicians outside of the Backseat Boys, Jim's the lead singer from The Doors, & one of the few truely brilliant musicians of ours any other generation... ever. Basically I'll put it like this, don't bash on the man because you're to sheltered to understand good music unless it's played for you twice every hour on the hour on the radio or MTV. Cook's music'll be around alot longer than any one of your 1 hit wonder's out there. Just because Norman makes his own ... Read More
Rating:  -
I reckon this is the BEST fatboy slim cd, mainly because it has weapon of choice! It's a great dance track, infact, most of them are! (the video clip to weapon of choice is great too!) five stars!
Rating: -
While reading reviews for this album, I read one reviewer who commented that "Bird of Prey" is a song that "crys loudly and pretentiously for attention (and airplay)."
The lyrics were actually written in 1969 by Jim Morrison, lead singer for The Doors, and the vocals in the FatBoy Slim version are Jim's vocals dubbed in... The track was never released by The Doors (until their recent box set). It was written by Jim himself (with no help from the band) and included acapella on his underground "Rock is Dead" opera album, which was released in very limited quality overseas and is practically impossible to find in its original version today.
The "Rock is Dead" album criticized the very foundation of modern commercial radio and "pop rock music," at least in the way Jim saw it in the late 1960s... It is ironic that the reviewer perceived the lyrics to "Bird of Prey" as an attempt to sellout, when actually the roots of the track were rooted in self-awareness, philosophy and Jim's perception of big record labels/execs killing rock and roll by stifling musicians' creativity.
To my knowledge, no attempt was ever made at releasing this track to any studio.
The reviewer also writes, "Pretending to be cerebral is a very bad thing." Indeed.
Rating:  -
The best song on this album is 'Weapon Of Choice'. In fact, it's the only song that's really good. The others are okay, but nothing to go nuts over. Weapon Of Choice is the real great song that makes you want to dance and do stuff. Also the music video for it is simply hilarious.
Rating: -
On this album, Norman Cook decided that he should go for a change of style, thus he worked with Macy Gray and Bootsy Collins, to give the album a more experimental feel. The result is Norman's worst album. His unique style gets lost on many of the tracks on this album, but still a few carry the energy that "you've come a long way, baby" had. Thus, it's nice to go through this track by track:
1. Talking 'Bout My Baby - starts off originally, but it is an average track, very strange too (3/5)
2. Star 69 - easily my favourite, keeping the fatboy vibe created by the presceding album (5/5)
3. Sunset (Bird of Prey) - first single, great video, enjoyable track, but still it could have been better (4/5)
4. Love Life (feat. Macy Gray)- this is what ruined Norman on this one, macy gray is great, but she spoils his stuff (1/5)
5. Ya Mama - fourth single off the album, a great track, very catchy, very fatboy-like (4.5/5)
6. Mad Flava - another great track, fatboy keeps his style on this one (4.5/5)
7. Retox - this track is similar in quality to the above, a bit more weird though (4.5)
8. Weapon of Choice (feat. Bootsy Collins) - third single off the album, incredible video, the song however, does not represent fatboy, it is experimental and pretty bad (2/5)
9. Drop The Hate - a dissapointing track, very hard to listen to it, very strange, boring and lame (1/5)
10. Demons (feat. Macy Gray) - second single, again a great video, but ... Read More
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