Music for the Jilted Generation is the second studio album by English electronic music group the Prodigy. It was first released on 4 July 1994 by XL Recordings in the United Kingdom and by Mute Records in the United States. As with the group's debut album, Experience (1992), Maxim Reality and Liam Howlett were the only official members of the group to contribute to the album. The other two members, Keith Flint and Leeroy Thornhill, were not credited on any tracks (although all four individuals were pictured in the liner notes).[1]
A remastered and expanded edition of the album, titled More Music for the Jilted Generation, was released in 2008.[2]
The album is largely a response to the corruption of the rave scene in Britain by its mainstream success, as well as the United Kingdom's Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, which criminalised raves and aspects of rave culture.[3] This is exemplified in the song "Their Law", with the spoken-word intro and the predominant lyric: the "Fuck 'em and their law" sample. Many years later, after the controversy had subsided, Liam Howlett criticised the album's title, referring to it as "stupid", and insisted that the album was never intended to be political.[6]
Many of the samples featured on the album are sound clips from, or inspired by, films. "Full Throttle" contains a reversed sample from the original Star Wars film, and "The Heat (The Energy)" features a sample from Poltergeist III,[6] while "Claustrophobic Sting" includes a recreation of dialogue from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
When Liam Howlett arrived at the cutting room for the final stage of the album's production, he realised that all the tracks he had planned would not fit onto a CD. As a result, "One Love" was edited down to approximately 3 minutes and 53 seconds, "The Heat (The Energy)" was slightly shortened, and "We Eat Rhythm" was omitted. "We Eat Rhythm" was later released on a free cassette with Select magazine in October 1994, titled Select Future Tracks. Howlett later stated that he felt the edited versions of "One Love" and "Full Throttle" could have been omitted from the track listing altogether.[6]
Artwork
The album artwork for Music for the Jilted Generation was designed by Stewart Haygarth (cover) and Les Edwards (inner). The inner artwork, which alludes to the conflicts between ravers and the police during the era of the 1994 Criminal Justice Act, is particularly well-regarded.[7][8]
Music for the Jilted Generation has received critical acclaim. Rolling Stone awarded it three-and-a-half stars, describing it as "truly trippy" and stating that it "generates universal dance fever".[5]Alternative Press noted that it "throws much darker shapes than its predecessor" and "slams harder and rawer and covers more ground".[17]
Robert Christgau praised the album, calling it "one of the rare records that's damn near everything you want cheap music to be".[10]
Mojo ranked it number 83 in their "100 Modern Classics" list,[citation needed] while Spin ranked it number 60 in their "90 Greatest Albums of the '90s".[18]NME placed it at number 9 in their "Top 50 Albums of 1994".[19]
On 4 December 2008, radio presenter Zane Lowe inducted the album into his 'Masterpieces' series by playing it in full on his BBC Radio 1 show.
In addition to the film samples mentioned above, Liam Howlett incorporated a significant amount of musical material from other artists:[22]
"Break and Enter" contains a sample from Baby D's "Casanova," which was also remixed by Liam.
"Their Law" includes a sample from "Drop That Bassline" by Techno Grooves.
"Voodoo People" contains a sample from "You're Starting Too Fast" by Johnny Pate. The guitar riff is based on "Very Ape" by Nirvana and is played by Lance Riddler.[23][24]
"The Heat (The Energy)" samples "Why'd U Fall" by Lil Louis, "Thousand" by Moby, and 2-Mad's "Don't Hold Back The Feeling."
"One Love" features the "Arabic Muezzin" sample from the ethnic vocals section of a Zero G sample CD by Time + Space Records. The same sample was also used in "Everybody Say Love" by The Magi & Emanation, which was remixed by Liam Howlett.[25]
"3 Kilos," Part One of The Narcotic Suite, is based on a riff sampled from Bernard "Pretty" Purdie's "Good Livin' (Good Lovin')."
"Skylined," Part Two of The Narcotic Suite, features a Proteus/3 preset also used in the musical score by Mark Snow for the The X-Files episode "Deep Throat" (season 1, episode 2).[26]
Liam Howlett – performing, synthesizers, keyboards, sampling, drum machines, production (on tracks 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 11, 12, and 13) at Earthbound Studios; co-production (on tracks 4, 5, 7, 9, and 10) at The Strongroom; mixing; engineering
^"The Prodigy: Music for the Jilted Generation". Q. No. 266. September 2008. p. 117.
^"The Prodigy: Music for the Jilted Generation". Record Collector. 2008. p. 83. Under the booming breakbeats, thrash guitars and inflammatory soundbites, Howlett's supernova's talent was on overdrive...
^"The Prodigy: Music for the Jilted Generation". Alternative Press. No. 81. April 1995. p. 84.
^Dimery, Robert; Lydon, Michael (23 March 2010). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: Revised and Updated Edition. Universe. ISBN978-0-7893-2074-2.
^Lowe, Steve (March 2003). "Q200 – David Bowie". Q. No. 200. p. 62.