Fatboy Slim

Coming a long way from his last album, baby, the fat one dug into his vast vinyl collection and whipped up another original mix of sample-driven, dance breakbeats. Revealing a more introspective side, the LP is produced with a hybrid of electronica styles such as the Trance-influenced "Sunset (Bird of Prey)," which features Jim Morrison as the sampled subject.

As someone who's about as intimate with modern dance music as the radio jocks and collegiate punters Slim accesses with such drunken disregard for subcultural niceties--and who believes house divas are only slightly smarter, popwise, than Slim's fellow sot Jim Morrison--I say this is where Norman Cook achieves the nonstop stupidity breakbeats alone could never bring him. One great idea per song, from anywhere--embellished, of course, with all the sonic tricks he's filched and made his own. "What duh f*ck" muttered to infinity. A retox anthem whose time has come. Macy Gray B-in', C-in' and F-in' ya. And for that essential soupçon of soul: a Wet Willie sample! All shallow, all pure as a result--pure escape, pure delight, and, as the cavalcade of gospel postures at the end makes clear, pure spiritual yearning. Transcendence, we all want it. Good thing Cook knows most of us aren't deluded enough to want it all the time. (Grade - A-)