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

Norman Cook is no dummy. The former bassist for The Housemartins knows that in the faddish world of dance music, he who makes the biggest noise wins. So, in the guise of Fatboy Slim, Cook has dispensed with all subtleties, offering techno distilled to its barest essentials, serving it up at its most brashly accessible. You've Come A Long Way, Baby is Big Beat with a pop bent, a work of collage that's equally infectious and obnoxious, and as fun as it is insulting. Forget making it look easy; Cook knows that making this stuff is easy. From the catch phrases he incorporates into his songs—"Right here! Right now!"—to the savvy samples that provide the hooks, his music is made to be marketed. It's like the audio equivalent of a TV dinner, a prepackaged but oddly satisfying hunk of easily digested material. On You've Come A Long Way, Baby, Cook literally pushes all the right buttons: Bouncing from funky nods to old-school hip hop to surf music to disco, Cook's music is irresistible. Of course, millions of drug users around the world could say the same about crack, but that doesn't necessarily make crack good. Songs like the impossibly catchy "The Rockafeller Skank" and "Gangster Tripping" make perfect singles, because, like crack, they provide a quick rush that subsides just as quickly. By the time the song is over, it's already forgotten, so when the local alt-rock station plays "The Rockafeller Skank" again, your brain perks up for its hourly fix. If you find a roommate or loved one listening to the disc regularly, an intervention may be in order, lest the scourge of the dorms and the radio dial spread further out of control.