As a whole, the album is jam-packed with powerful, sensuous songs which show off Goodwin’s experiences as a composer for cartoons and film soundtracks. But more importantly, the album is a lot of fun. Sometimes the band's tongues are so firmly implanted in their cheeks it’s difficult to understand how they played those tremendous horn parts. This sense of fun is apparent on “Hunting Wabbits 2”, the extremely intense tip of the hat to Stallings, and on the cover of the theme from “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes”, which Goodwin arranged right out of college.
The only false note comes at the end, with Goodwin’s piece “Ever Braver, Ever Stronger”, an elegy based on the 9/11 attack. It’s not a bad piece, but it's a little too much of an anthem for this album, and brings down the entire project. It would be more appropriately placed on a documentary of the tragic events of that day, or perhaps as background music to the upcoming Oliver Stone film.
Even with the inappropriate choice of “Ever Braver”, The Phat Pack is a must-buy for jazz-swing aficionado’s everywhere. It projects the best that swing/big band music has to offer, and will entertain for a long time to come. And it also solidly confirms what our parents and grandparents knew way back in the beginnings of this form — that the attraction of taboo jazz music was always in how satisfyingly free it made its listeners feel.
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