Biographers of Norman Cook should look no further than the title of this–his second album under the pseudonym Fatboy Slim.
From humble beginnings as the bass player in prole rock band The Housemartins, through chart-topping fame with Beats International, and even a spell scraping a meagre living from writing computer game soundtracks in the early 90s, Norman Cook has done it all.
You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby, though, is the Fatboy’s culmination, the quintessential, and utterly essential big-beat album. The Rockafeller Skank is a manic collage of surf-guitar looped into ever-tightening spirals, utterly simplistic, but a work of devilish genius.
Gangster Tripping and Fucking In Heaven are in a similar celebratory mood, but to prove that the Fatboy doesn’t always work by a formula, try the purloined gospel of Praise You, or the rave nostalgia of Acid 8000. It’s seldom poetry, but dumb dance music doesn’t get much better. Exclusive anniversary sleeve notes from Ralph Moore (Editor at Large, Mixmag) and album timeline from Damian Harris (Skint Records).
