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This is Fatboy Slim's first american debut, before he made it big. It's a good solid techo/dance album and can make anybody move around at your next party. It's full of samples and funky beats.
One can really see the roots here of how this style and sound was massaged and refined into something much more musically coherent with 'You've come a long way baby'.Song For Lindy stands out as one of the more tolerable tracks along with Going Out of My Head, Everybody Needs a 303 and Michael Jackson. Oh, was I disappointed.Perhaps if one were thrashing around at a rave party while out of their gourd on X, then this album would sound a little better, but stone cold sober I really had a hard time with this ensemble. Having really enjoyed 'You've come a long way baby' - one of my favorite albums - I had high hopes for this work, after all, they are just a year or two apart. The guitar riff in Santa Cruz never seems to stop and gives me a headache while the lyrics in Give a Po' Man a Break could do exactly that. The constant looped samples just repeat and repeat seemingly, in some instances, for ever. I see this album almost as a test case for Cook's later - and musically far better - work. The rest of the tracks are evidently an exercise in how to use a sequencer and are apparently written to cram as many repeated samples into each song as possible.I really wanted to like this album, but it offers little of redeeming quality; quite simply it's dull. Ultimately, there is just not enough here to warrant its purchase.
The music was fun, catchy and very commericial. "Everybody Needs a 303" whatever that is suppost to mean. "You've Come a Long Way Baby" became one of the most popular dance albums of the 90's and Norman Cook both had hit singles and won awards for his music. Fatboy Slim AKA Norman Cook had been part of many projects though the years like Beats International, Housemartins, Pizzaman etc. While some songs get a little repetitive, it's fun to see that Norman Cook wasn't always a sell out, he recorded music from the heart and it's quite fun to listen through his first outcast and realizing it's damn good without being particularry radio friendly. Not too surprising either, it didn't result in many hitsingles.
It doesn't use many vocals either, it's mostly a mix between dance and Trip Hop with riff or beat oriented music.
"Better Living Through Chemistry" was where the Fatboy Slim experience started though, released in 1996 (two years prior to the big break) it was a fresh new dance album from an artist full of odd ideas.
For those of you that think this will be a forgotten classic in the lines of his latter albums will be dissapointed.
But it was as Fatboy Slim he was going to become most succesful.
was only a minor hit in UK in 1996 and that was the biggest hit from his debut album also.
He does sample alot, The Who's riff from "I Can't Explain" is sampled on "What Goes Out Of My Head" and Negativeland's self titled song on his "Michael Jackson".
But this is far from a commercial album, it's more of a underground big beat album like early Chemical Brothers or Propellerheads.
"Better Living Through Chemistry" is a bluprint for latter work but not commercial, it's very exprimental, funky and I bet if he would have added some more lyrics on these songs they could have been hit singles too.
If you like dance music with big beats, like early Chemical Brothers, I defenitely recommend this.
Great CD. Great to listen to when working out or working through traffic.
Within the musical niche he's creating, he did a very good job. This album is for those who want thumping, rock-oriented, synthetic, energized, and inherently loud music. This was Norman's first big album, and I think he solidified his style with it. The sound of Better Living through Chemistry is synth-rock house with a very American, westward-looking feel to it. For people who criticize great tunes like "Everybody Needs a 303" and "Give the Po' Man a Break" as repetitive, I say that they're not listening to the way the song is developing over time. My favorite track is "Santa Cruz." It conjures great imagery and contains one of the longest and best builds I've ever heard from a song.
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