Though hardly a stranger to number one (he's been here before as part of The Housemartins, Beats International and as remixer of Cornershop), 'Praise You' was the first (and last to date) solo appearance by Norman Cook, albeit under the Fatboy Slim non de plume. As Mr Slim, Cook was initially a key player in the Skint Records/Big Beat scene, but 'Praise You' is more than one step back from those booming, house brick beats of old. Based around a sample from Camille Yarbrough's 'Take Yo Praise', Cook fashions Yarbrough's dry creak of a vocal into a soft shuffle dance track that simmers quietly without ever managing to come to the boil, with that vocal sample being the main source of the lack of heat. More a mood piece than out and out danceathon, to my ears 'Praise You' seems to have no purpose other than to demonstrate how good Cook's record collection is (check out the cover shot) and how clever he's been in spotting then stitching its disparate elements together. I'll admit its mixing old and new has a certain surface appeal, but its wrapping paper stiffness feels too much like dried goods for me to regard it with too much love I'm afraid.** Moby had already done better in sampling Bessie Jones on 1998's 'Honey' and would do better again with further samples of blues field recordings on the remainder of his 'Play' album.
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