release date: Sep. 16, 1996
format: cd (BRASSIC 2CD)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,96]
producer: Fatboy Slim
label: Skint Records - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Song for Lindy" - 2. "Santa Cruz" - 3. "Going Out of My Head" - 5. "Everybody Needs a 303" - 8. "First Down"
Studio album debut by Fatboy Slim aka Norman Cook (aka Quentin Leo Cook) former bassist of The Housemartins. Musically, this doesn't have much in common with the former jangle pop band; however, Fatboy Slim may be Cook's new pseudonym but his experiments within the electronic scene started way way earlier, and if he's associated with The Housemartins, it's rather undeserved, 'cause fact is, he released his first electronic solo album All-Star Breakbeats Volume 1 in 1990 under his own name as well as the follow-up Skip to My Loops in '92 - both collections of... loops to use when sampling, and even before that Norman Cook was the leader and main songwriter of the British electronic dub project-band, Beats International, which had a short life-span from '89-92 releasing one fairly successful album Let Them Eat Bingo with the international hit single "Dub Be Good to Me". Before playing in The Housemartins he was already an established DJ of the early 1980s playing primarily American "black music". After ending the Beats International project, Cook went on and formed the acid jazz and hip hop trio Freak Power, which existed from '93-96 experiencing some success before internal friction had him choose a solo career and Fatboy Slim was invented. He has released music by dozens of pseudonyms incl. Pizzaman, Cheeky Boy, Chemistry, Charlie Stains, and many others. In fact, he is known for being the British artist to have featured most times on the UK singles chart list with the most aliases.
Anyway, Better Living Through Chemistry is an electronic samples album of big beat music, which really put him on everyone's lips in the mid-90s, and it's the first of two consecutive albums by Fatboy Slim to be enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". The album contains some really fine hooks and samples, but to me, it's still an album pointing to his past as a DJ mixing this and that, and being allover the place in terms of style. His force of nature keeps him so busy that creating a coherent release seems the impossible mission, although, he would do even better on the follow-up. That said, Better Living Through Chemistry is an energetic and vibrant dance album of high importance for the electronic pool of styles.
[ 👍allmusic.com 4 / 5, 👎Rolling Stone 3 / 5 stars ]
1996 Favourite releases: 1. Bob Mould Bob Mould - 2. Fatboy Slim Better Living Through Chemistry - 3. Ryuichi Sakamoto 1996
