- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
Palookaville could stand one more trimming pass, but it gives Cook's canon the needed depth.
-
Alternative PressOffers yet more fun funk/blues-rock mashups for unpretentious gatherings of all sorts. [Nov 2004, p.156]
-
Halfway between a fraternity kegger and a housewarming party.
-
BlenderCook's dance music has seen better days. [Oct 2004, p.115]
-
The paucity of innovative ideas, reliance on old recipes and directionless experimenting make for a fairly tasteless repaste.
-
Succinctly, it's a crap record.
-
Palookaville will surprise you.
-
Entertainment WeeklyHis party jams... feel half-cocked, like Cook can't quite commit to the moment. [8 Oct 2004, p.114]
-
FilterThe last few numbers droop, and as a whole, the record sinks a little from the weight of all that goddamn goodwill. [#12, p.98]
-
Even the songs that rise above the simple looped-beat formula dont have much to offer.
-
MojoWhile there's some inspired moments, much should've been discarded on son Woody's bedroom floor. [Oct 2004, p.104]
-
New Musical Express (NME)Doomed to lurk unplayed at the back of your collection. [2 Oct 2004, p.64]
-
Slim still loves blabbing repetition and dropping yapping vocal samples into the gobs of the dull, and this helps make Palookaville less a reformation than merely his latest and quite bland big beat manifesto.
-
Palookaville is every bit as rewarding an experience when taken as a cohesive unit as the best songs are when taken individually.
-
Q MagazineEssentially, Fatboy Slim is doing little more than repeating his past, but the quality here doesn't suffer for that. [Nov 2004, p.120]
-
Rolling StoneFatboy hasn't stopped pandering to his core crowd of fun-loving jalapeno-poppers. [14 Oct 2004, p.99]
-
SpinAs usual, his willingness to please gives the disc its fast-food kick. [Oct 2004, p.113]
-
Songs too slow to dance to and too annoyingly repetitive for passive listening.
-
The parallels with The Prodigys similarly dreadful Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned abound, but the difference here is where The Prodigys album was just offensively bad at every corner, here Norman Cook seems to be striving to make the most mediocre album humanly possible.
-
Palookaville's highlights promise the sweat and smiles that have become Fatboy Slim's stock in trade, but its surprisingly dull lulls offer nothing more promising than a blank expression.
-
It's not enough this time around, though, simply to tack on computer-generated beats. Luckily, the "live" half suggests that he knows this and is addressing the problem.
-
UncutThat gloriously stupid clod-hopping mash-up formula remains. [Nov 2004, p.99]
-
Under The RadarHis... worst album to date. [#7]
-
UrbThe big idea of real instruments and real people is a step backwards. [Oct 2004, p.102]
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 15 out of 19
-
Mixed: 1 out of 19
-
Negative: 3 out of 19
-
andreilOct 16, 2004This is going to be seen as a landmark album in the future, nearly every track is a gem.
-
Sep 26, 2012
-
MichaelNov 19, 2004