Music Review - Ukmusicsearch - Reviews

This is the second single to be taken from Fatboy Slim's current album, halfway between the gutter and the stars. It's more in the territory of previous more melodic soulful singles like sunset (bird of prey) or praise you than the big beat excesses of gangster trippin' or right here, right now. Demons starts off really promising with a huge gospel build up, bringing up images of churches in the Deep South with its bluesy piano chords and slide guitar over a slinky drumbeat. Then Macy Gray's distinctive vocals come over a more big-beat drum frenzy. It's at this point that you just know it's going to be something really special, Macy's vocals as always, are sublime, in a weird Kermit the frog kind of way and complement the music perfectly.
The only unfortunate thing is that the track doesn't really go anywhere after this, it just carries on in the same fashion. Unlike the similar sounding, praise you, which built up in the same way and then exploded into big-beat nirvana, Demons never really reaches the same heights, plodding on for four minutes and then suddenly stopping. Norman Cook puts in all the required squelchy noises and beats and it comes close to being really essential, so near, but not quite. Maybe a future remix may elevate this from good to sublime. The extra tracks on the CD are more in the gonzo big-beat school, The Pimp is a disco infected groove with a perverted Barry White sounding vocal sample over it and Camber Sands is a late eighties acid house track, the kind of music you hear coming out of dodgy boy racer cars on Saturday nights. In the end then, Demons is a near classic let down by a lack of originality and an abrupt ending.