Music for the Dooyoo Generation! (Music for the Jilted Generation - Prodigy)

Member Name: DanielKemp

Product:	Music for the Jilted Generation - Prodigy
Date:	30/06/09 (56 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The album is fantastic, very consistent throughout. It still sounds great today!

Disadvantages: It is a very long album, so may be too much to sit through in one go!

The Prodigy - Music for the Jilted Generation (1994)

Producer: Liam Howlett, Neil McLellan

Intro
Break & Enter
Their Law
Full Throttle
Voodoo People
Speedway (Theme From Fastlane)
The Heat (The Energy)
Poison
No Good (Start the Dance)
One Love
3 Kilos
Skylined
Claustrophobic Sting

Music for the Jilted Generation is the second studio album by electronica act The Prodigy. Many people view Music for the Jilted Generation as The Prodigy hitting out at the laws which all but criminalised rave culture and all that came with it. "No more partying in disused barns in Suffolk little children," said the law, "I'm afraid you'll just have to pop your Ecstasy and get off your face in your bedroom!" Liam Howlett wasn't too happy and this is best detailed in the track Their Law, where the vocal sample repeats, "F*ck 'em and their law!" It's one of their best songs, with an enlivening set of guitar riffs cutting through the soundscape, which are amplified at the half-way point by a timeless keyboard sequence.

The album's artwork is truly classic and representative of the restrictive times we live in. Inside the sleeve you find an artist's illustration of the conflict between the ravers and the law, a disagreement which still ensues to this day. The artwork shows a bridge crossing a gaping ravine, on the one side you have the law and on the other you have the ravers. The artwork is both simple and yet highly effective in the imagery it portrays. I'm not a raver, never will be, but I do feel that people are unfairly controlled today with regards to enjoying themselves.

The best thing about Music for the Jilted Generation is how well it has aged. Anyone who has read my review of their debut album, Experience, will know that the biggest detracting factor I could find with it was that it now sounds terribly outdated. Music for the Jilted Generation has no such problems and still sounds as fresh and exciting as it did when it first hit record shops a decade and a half ago.

The introductory track seamlessly flows into the 8 minute long Break & Entering. It sounds how you'd expect it to, and indeed, it creates the effect of someone breaking and entering into locked premises, due to the sampled glass smashing effects. As all good electronica epics do, it twists and turns its design and makes several transformations musically, continually building on its initial premise and improving upon it.

Voodoo People is a live favourite of the band, a favourite of mine too. It starts in much the same way that Their Law does, with a heavy guitar riff providing the primary means of aural assault. By the time the electric flute kicks in it has become an instant classic with one and all. Like Their Law, it was released as a single in a slightly shorter and re-jigged format.

Speedway is an anthem to get the adrenaline surging through your veins if ever there was one. Lasting for almost 9 minutes, it makes the most of its running time and provides constant entertainment. Again, it sounds incredibly fresh and hasn't become a product of the era it was created in. When people have fond memories of The Prodigy it is because of recordings such as this one.

I mentioned in my review of Experience that many Prodigy tracks were altered for their single release. While this is less noticeable on the singles taken from Music for the Jilted Generation, Poison still had some minor tweaks here and there. I wouldn't say that I prefer the single release to the album version, but it is worth checking both of them out, as they are two very different experiences. Undoubtedly, the album version fits in place better on Music for the Jilted Generation.

No Good and One Love are both classics of the genre. The latter had to have its running time cut, for when Liam came to the editing process he discovered that he had too much material to fit on the one disc. One Love is a mish-mash of all sorts of differing sounds which in theory shouldn't work, but like all good electronica tracks, it is able to deliver on all fronts. The song has a very speedy programmed keyboard loop which is set over what sounds like sped up tribal chanting. Do you dig it? Because I do!

And now on to what makes Music for the Jilted Generation the definitive Prodigy experience. Ladies and gentlemen, I bring to you, The Narcotic Suite.

3 Kilos starts The Narcotic Suite off with a bang. For the uninitiated, The Narcotic Suite is a set of songs which are a lot more thoughtful and open to personal interpretation than the songs which have preceded them. Whereas the main bulk of the album is made up of hard hitting tunes to get jiggy to in that barn I was talking about earlier, The Narcotic Suite is simply for chilling out to, or as I see it, an unrivalled adventure of personal discovery. Yes, I do sound pompous, but it's just so damn good! It is the jazz flute which makes 3 Kilos such a defining experience; it simply keeps on at you with this invigorating piece of flute playing and it ultimately becomes the best moment on the entire LP.

Skylined begins with the distorted sound of propeller blades encircling the listener, a gentle piece of bongo playing in the background and the sound of waves crashing. As the shortest moment of The Narcotic Suite, Skylined is very tight with regards to the musical side of things, but it introduces enough pieces of innovative instrumentation to keep you on your toes.

Claustrophobic Sting closes the album and is the love child of Aphex Twin's Richard D. James, only more terrifying. A disturbing sample of evil laughter repeats itself and the track only becomes sketchier as time goes on; I particularly find the baby screams which are introduced at the 1 minute 20 seconds mark nothing short of terrifying.

When people call Liam Howlett a genius they are either mad or they are talking about Music for the Jilted Generation, which remains to this day the best Prodigy experience. It incorporates enough in-your-face recordings to keep your typical electronica fan happy, but goes a step further and widens out its appeal by including The Narcotic Suite for the shrewder fan of the genre.

What else can I say? I feel the vocal sample in Claustrophobic Sting says it all, "My mind is blowing!"

9/10

Daniel Kemp

Read more reviews at www.danielkempreviews.co.uk

Summary: The best Prodigy album which money can buy (or hands can steal)!