Fatboy Slim - "The Joker"

In connection to the last post, we listened to a lot of things at work yesterday, and they weren't all good. The first album of the day for us was Fatboy Slim's widely ignored fourth album, Palookaville.

In the 90's, Norman Cook rode the wave of Big Beat led by electronica powerhouses like The Chemical Brothers and Prodigy, finding mass success with the soul tinged, "Praise You", a great song in of itself, but one that's success was accelerated by the hilarious Spike Jonze video. Having had limited success with The Housemartins, Beats International, and Freak Power, Cook finally made a name for himself fifteen years into his career with You've Come A Long Way Baby (1998), a record filled with funky grooves and infectious beats.

While Paloolaville (2004) is a better outing than the disastrous Halfway Between The Gutter And The Stars (2000), featuring some notable guest spots from Damon Albarn and Lateef The Truthspeaker, the record is a predictable retread of what Cook has been doing for years. The reason I feel the reason to share this little blurb about the record is the tremendous awfulness of the album's closing track, a cover of the already despicable Steve Miller Band song "The Joker". Featuring a lead vocal from Parliament-Funkadelic's notorious Bootsy Collins, the cover is one of the most embarrassing pieces of music ever to be released by a revered artist. Treading in Kid Rock territory, the song reeks of bad R&B and stale pop sensibilities. Collins previously had contributed vocals to Halfway's lead single, "Weapon Of Choice", a song that is only remembered for its Christopher Walken tap dancing video (also directed by Jonze). Like on their previous collaboration, he completely chews out the scenery with his buttery vocals, slathering up the song with  misfired sexiness. While "The Joker" is a lame enough suburban stoner anthem in of itself, this over popped up version's nadir occurs in the new counter melody added to the song's post choruses towards the end of the song. As the album's closer, it's presence manages to completely erase any positivity one could have towards any of the other songs on the album. Check it out if you dare - as usual, there's a funny video to go with it, Cook's usual backup plan for lackluster, or in this case, horrible material.