Prodigy, The - Music For The Jilted Generation

"so, I've decided to take my work back underground, to stop it falling into the wrong hands." Straight off into the full speed of Break and Enter, slowing for the heavy guitar rock of Their Law, speeding up again for the breakbeats of Full Throttle and the ultimate rock/dance hybrid of Voodoo People. After Speedway there's a dramatic slowdown for some ambient sounds and it's straight back into business with The Heat (The Energy). Dipping again for the hard hip-hop of Poison. The anthemic No Good (Start the dance) and One Love come straight at you at Full Throttle , with the album mellowing out for 3 Kilos and Skylined. The grand finale hits home in the shape of Claustrophic Sting, probably one of the hardest tracks ever. Thirteen tracks of hip-hop, rock, ambient, hard dance, and even some jazzy undertones (3 Kilos) are all crammed perfectly onto 79 minutes of musical genius. This release was well received and went straight into the album charts at number one, outselling the rest of the top three put together. Within three weeks it had sold over 100,000 copies, and within two months it had sold more copies than "Experience". After five months it had sold over half a million copies. Rave reviews came flooding in from all over the music community, and the long player was heralded as "Definite album of the year" by many.

The Sample used in Full throttle was reversed since Liam didn't want any trouble with copyrights. The sample is taken from the motion picture Star Wars and can be heard just as Luke is about to enter the death star trench. The unscrambled version of the track can be found on the One Love single. "Biggs, Wedge, let's close it up - we're going in - we're going in full throttle that ought to keep those fighters off our back"

When Liam came to the cutting room for the final phase in the album production he realized that all the tracks he had originally planned for wouldn't fit onto a CD so One Love had to be edited, The Heat [The Energy] was slightly cut and the track called 'We Eat Rhythm' was left out. We Eat Rhythm was later released on a free cassette with Select Magazine in October '94 entitled 'Select Future Tracks'. A remixed version of the track can be heard during the intro and ending credits of the video 'Electronic Punks'. This mix is often referred to as We Eat Rhythm (Jungle Mix) and was often played live in gigs around '95.

In Japan a special edition of Music for the Jilted Generation was released by Avex Trax, The Prodigy's Japanese licensee. The CD album featured an extra 3" single with 3 old tracks.

The album was voted the 62nd greatest of all time by Q readers in early 1998.

I can't help myself but to come back to this CD. This, IMHO, is Prodigy at its finest! 'Experience' is also great and 'Fat Of The Land' had it's moments too but man is this full length chock full of energy! Liam and the boys grew up with this album and their sound evolved...Rave Band? hardly. Prodigy at this point were way ahead of their time. I recently dropped Voodoo people at a party and the crowd went berzerk! Excellent outing.

The album was meant to have been longer, with a full mix of 'One Love' and an additional tune called 'We Eat Rhythm', however, this wiould exceed the amount a CD could hold so they had to put on the Edit of 'One Love' and cut 'We Eat Rhythm' out completely (it has since only appeared on a tape free with Select Magazine, it's a very tribal sounding tune, with no stabs or kicks). The 'Star Wars' sample on 'Full Throttle' had to be put on backwards at the insistence of Lawyers representing George Lucas.

What is needed left to say about this album. This album represents the quality and originality of 'The Prodigy' and Liam Howlett at the same time. Very diverse and powerfull album that shows that The Prodigy has developed from a young rave band to something more serious.

To bad they went a totally different way after this album, as I would have loved having a third album with tracks as full of energy as the ones on this album (and on 'Experience', too), something I miss on 'The Fat Of The Land'. The prodigy at this moment was far ahead of its time.

This version of Charly (Alley Cat Mix) is different than the one on the Charly single. This version is sped up and therefore lasts 30 seconds shorter. There are no other differences besides the track speed, therefore it's most likely to simply be a mistake. This is the only release on which you can find this sped up version.