Fatboy Slim The Greatest Hits
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Reviews Dance
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Sunday, 18 June 2006 |
 At his peak in the late nineties Fatboy Slim was the soundtrack to most hedonistic gatherings. By this time, along with Chemical Brothers, Armand Van Helden and Aphex Twin, those at the dance perpendicular end of alternative had all successfully made the cross-over from their own unique cliques to much bigger audiences. NME front covers, guest remixing, achingly good videos, beach parties, advert soundtracks.… The musical landscape of the late nineties was in part defined by these guys.
As Norman Cook, aka Fatboy Slim, is about to release his Greatest Hits, what has obviously set him apart from those mentioned above was his emphasis upon good times and unashamed fun, for everyone. Perhaps this was a result of his well exercised pop muscle, witnessing a career that saw him play bass in The Housemartins to playing to 300,000 clubbers on Rio’s Flamengo beach. The mainstream sensibility and colourful approach to his production technique saw him have hit after hit. It wasn’t only the record sales (even though there has been 8 million), his songs were universally played at all parties (from the super clubs to your mother’s 40th) and his bubbly, smiley tracks have helped define the memories of a generation.
It all started when a grinning Fatboy Slim put out ‘Santa Cruz’ on Skint Records, the big beat revolution was in full swing, and Fatboy Slim was happy leading from the front. After debut album ‘Better Living through Chemistry’ Fatboy hit pace with ‘You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby’. The singles that were the soundtrack to many memories from that album are here: Rockafeller Skank, Praise You and Right Here Right Now. The hits continued from album number three ‘Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars’ which saw him collaborate with Macy Gray on Demons, and produce a irrevocably timeless video for Weapon of Choice. From full length album number four, ‘Palookaville’ Fatboy released the new singles Don't Let The Man Get You Down and his mighty come back single Slash Dot Dash. His remixes of Brimful of Asha and I see you Baby are here to for lots of guaranteed fanciful footwork. And in true greatest hits style there are also new new tracks here.
The Hawaiian shirt wearing Fatboy Slim might well be best know for his ‘You’ve Come..’ era, but this whole album reveals what an incredible DJ Fatboy Slim has been for the entirety of the last ten years. The DJ with a love for Brighton has taken his tracks from the club, to the living room and to the top of the charts, and throughout this time his Cheshire cat grin a constant fixture.
Words By: Sarah Bates
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