Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars

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Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars
Fatboy Slim - Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars.jpg
Studio album by Fatboy Slim
Released 6 November 2000
Genre Big beat, electronica
Length 68:14
Label Skint
Producer Fatboy Slim
Fatboy Slim chronology
You've Come a Long Way, Baby
(1998)You've Come a Long Way, Baby1998		 Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars
(2000)		 Palookaville
(2004)Palookaville2004
Singles from Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars
  1. "Sunset (Bird of Prey)"
    Released: 16 October 2000
  2. "Demons"
    Released: 8 January 2001
  3. "Star 69"/"Weapon of Choice""
    Released: 23 April 2001
  4. "Song for Shelter"/"Ya Mama"
    Released: 3 September 2001
  5. "Drop the Hate"
    Released: 10 December 2001
  6. "Retox"
    Released: 14 January 2002
  7. "Talkin' bout My Baby"
    Released: 17 June 2002

Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars is the third studio album by British big beat musician Fatboy Slim. It was released on 6 November 2000 through Skint Records. It features Macy Gray, Ashley Slater, Bootsy Collins, Roland Clark, Jim Morrison, and Roger Sanchez as guest contributors. The album's title, mentioned in the single "Weapon of Choice" is an allusion to the Oscar Wilde quote "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars".

Critical response

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source Rating
Metacritic 64/100[1]
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic 4/5 stars[2]
Entertainment Weekly B–[3]
Melody Maker 4/5 stars[4]
Muzik 5/5 stars[5]
NME 9/10[6]
Pitchfork Media 4.2/10[7]
Q 4/5 stars[1]
Rolling Stone 3.5/5 stars[8]
Spin 6/10[9]
The Village Voice A–[10]

The album received generally positive reviews from critics.[1] Robert Christgau gave it an A- rating and wrote "this is where Norman Cook achieves the nonstop stupidity breakbeats alone could never bring him", calling it "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."[10] The A.V. Club called it "a big load of disposable fun and funk that's fluffier than cotton candy and just as weighty."[11]

On the other hand, Pitchfork wrote "After enjoying a few years of relative popularity, it seems big-beat's appeal and relevance are waning. [...] After listening to Slim's latest, Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars, it seems we've reached come-down time. And surprise! It's no fun at all", though "the problem lies more with the everchanging landscape of electronic music and the dying big-beat genre than it does with his technical skill."[7] Entertainment Weekly called it "Melodically repetitive, the songs only intermittently approach the energizing highs of earlier Fatboy cuts."[3] Spin called it a "post-masterpiece puzzler where the kicks just keep getting harder to find, spread-eagle between pop limitations and artistic aspirations."[9]

Track listing

No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Talkin' bout My Baby"   Fatboy Slim, Jack Hall, Jimmy Hall, John Anthony, Richard Hirsch, Lewis Ross, Leslie Bricusse 3:43
2. "Star 69"   Fatboy Slim, Roland Clark 5:43
3. "Sunset (Bird of Prey)"   Fatboy Slim, Jim Morrison 6:49
4. "Love Life" (featuring Macy Gray) Fatboy Slim, Macy Gray, Ashley Slater 6:58
5. "Ya Mama"   Fatboy Slim, Jon Hiseman, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Frankie Cutlass, Doug Finley 5:38
6. "Mad Flava"   Fatboy Slim 4:33
7. "Retox" (featuring Ashley Slater) Fatboy Slim 5:17
8. "Weapon of Choice" (featuring Bootsy Collins) Fatboy Slim, Bootsy Collins, Slater 5:45
9. "Drop the Hate"   Fatboy Slim 5:30
10. "Demons" (featuring Macy Gray) Fatboy Slim, Gray, Bill Withers, Ray Jackson 6:52
11. "Song for Shelter" (featuring Roland Clark and Roger Sanchez; includes the hidden track "Talking 'bout My Baby (Reprise)") Fatboy Slim, Clark 11:26

On the iTunes release, "Talking 'bout My Baby (Reprise)" is separated from "Song for Shelter", making the track times 9:00 and 2:26 respectively.

Edited version

An edited version also exists, which removes "Star 69" (due to the song's recurring use of the word "fuck", which is the sole reason for obtaining a Parental Advisory label), and removes the song's reprise used in "Song for Shelter".[citation needed]

References

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