"Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars" is the third studio album by English electronic music producer Fatboy Slim, released on 6 November 2000 in the UK by Skint Records and a day later in the United States by Astralwerks. The album features collaborations with Macy Gray, Ashley Slater, Bootsy Collins, Roland Clark, and Roger Sanchez. The title of the album, referenced in the song "Weapon of Choice," is an allusion to the Oscar Wilde quote, "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."
An edited version of the album exists, which removes the song "Star 69" due to the use of the word "fuck," which led to the Parental Advisory label. The edited version also omits the reprise of "Song for Shelter." The artwork for the edited version is cropped to avoid showing a possibly nude subject and has a label saying "Kiddies' Clean Version," designed similarly to the Parental Advisory label on the standard release.
Critically, Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars received generally positive reviews. Robert Christgau of The Village Voice praised the album, calling it "pure escape, pure delight," and noted its transcendence, stating that "we all want it." The A.V. Club described it as "a big load of disposable fun and funk that's fluffier than cotton candy and just as weighty."
However, some reviews were less favorable. Pitchfork criticized the album, stating that the big-beat genre's popularity was waning and calling the album "no fun at all," although acknowledging that this decline was more due to the changing landscape of electronic music rather than Fatboy Slim's skills. Entertainment Weekly described the album as melodically repetitive, with songs that "only intermittently approach the energizing highs of earlier Fatboy cuts." Spin called the album a "post-masterpiece puzzler," struggling between pop limitations and artistic aspirations.
Later, Tim O'Neil of PopMatters referred to the album as "extremely underrated."
