Number 74 - You've Come A Long Way, Baby by Fatboy Slim

Number 74: You've Come A Long Way, Baby by Fatboy Slim

"My favorite artist right now is Fatboy Slim, that guy kicks ass"

Release: October 19th, 1998
Genre: Electronic, Big Beat
Favorite Tracks: The Rockafeller Skank, Right Here, Right Now, Gangster Trippin

 

Where I heard it: 

Prior to my discovery of dubstep in late 2010, my history with electronic music was based around a best-of electronica CD that my aunt had in her car. Among some of the tracks I remember were genre-defining classics like Cascada's Everytime We Touch, Alice Deejay's Better Off Alone, and of course Darude's Sandstorm. Now that I think about it, that compilation album immediately set my standard for electronic music moving forward. The Rockafeller Skank by Fatboy Slim was one of the first few tracks on that CD, and even if I hadn't listened to it off that disc, I would have probably heard it one hundred times over the radio or in movie trailers or whatever. You could not escape this song in the early to mid 2000's. Perhaps because of its commonality, I never fully delved into Fatboy Slim's catalog until around 2015 when a good friend of mine revealed to me that Fatboy Slim was his favorite artist at the time. I'd heard the hits off of You've Come A Long Way, Baby and liked them enough to give this album a full listen, but I wouldn't fully recognize its polish and significance until just last year. 

 

"You've Come A Long Way, Baby incorporates an amazing vision and variety of musical sentiments in throwing everything from rock guitars and acid bleeps to piano over the grooves."
~ The Independent

What to expect:

In the age of modern electronic music, there are numerous sub-genres that attempt to categorize each classification of composition style. There's trance, house, techno, dubstep, glitch...and the list goes on. Without providing a detailed history, Fatboy Slim was one of a few acts like The Prodigy and the Chemical Brothers that helped popularize Big Beat, characterized by its carefully layered samples and repetitive structure. While each individual one-to-two bar sample may not convey much by itself, several samples strung together generate a well-oiled machine made out of recycled parts. Every track from Fatboy Slim's sophomore effort You've Come A Long Way, Baby remains faithful to this formula, gradually introducing new sound patches that build toward the grand climax where each individual line gains context in relationship to the multiple layers of noise. You might think a song is headed in one direction, and then the beat kicks in, completely diverting the listener's expectations. For the most part, Fatboy Slim utilizes an expansive library of clips that revolve around obscure R&B and funk tracks. With the catchy bass hooks and risqué lyrical content, it's no secret why so many artists chose to pay homage to these otherwise unknown performers in their own music. You've Come A Long Way, Baby cleverly integrates several subtle references throughout its tracks, many of which will go unnoticed without supplemental reading. Don't fret however; the intention of leaving behind little musical easter eggs to discover seems to be more for the amusement of Fatboy Slim than any other reason. This album acts like a giant personal collage of content that influenced his style, and serves a much deeper purpose of humanizing the DJ behind the setup. The culmination of all these experiences creates an energetic and danceable album that is easily enjoyable regardless of your knowledge of the background material.

 

"The best Big Beat may not be exactly 'intelligent,' but it's only deceptively brainless; like the best slapstick routines, it's manipulative by nature, and designed to seem totally unself-conscious."
~ Spin Magazine

Why it's my favorite: 

Electronic music at the turn of the millennium was such an exciting era to experience. The technology was exponentially advancing, dance music was gaining massive popularity, and a sudden influx of DJs quickly established a creative zeitgeist that encouraged rapid innovation. Fatboy Slim's brand of bouncy beats played a vital role in crossing over big beat music to a general audience. Though the frequencies can get intense at times, You've Come A Long Way, Baby offers a much more approachable avenue to a genre of music that can come off as intimidating. Tracks like Gangster Tripping and The Rockafeller Skank are just plain fun to listen to. There do exist more advanced rhythm breakdowns on the album such as the hypnotic finale Acid 8000, but the majority of Fatboy Slim's act involves simplicity in harmony. Every piece of the puzzle fits right where it's supposed to, and putting it all together through the duration of a song's length is a delight each and every time. Even the transitions between songs flow together with impressive timing, my favorite being the lead into The Rockafeller Skank from Right Here, Right Now. It's such a clean passage that appropriately sets a jovial mood for an album that flexes its technicality without taking itself too seriously at its core. I don't have a ton of electronic albums on my top 100, but I can safely say that You've Come A Long Way, Baby has a special place in my heart as well as on this list.