Music for the Jilted Generation (1994)

Music for the Jilted Generation is the second studio album by the English electronic music group the Prodigy. It was released on 4 July 1994 through XL Recordings.

The album combines a variety of genres, including electronic and breakbeat, with heavy basslines and energetic, aggressive beats. Tracks such as "No Good (Start the Dance)" and "Voodoo People" exemplify a sound which helped define the 90s electronic music scene. As with the group's debut album, 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).

Music for the Jilted Generation was widely acclaimed for its innovative approach to electronic music, pushing the boundaries of dance and rave genres at the time. Music for the Jilted Generation was a commercial success, solidifying The Prodigy's place as one of the more influential acts in the genre. A remastered edition, More Music for the Jilted Generation, was released in 2008, featuring additional tracks and remixes.

Music and content

Music for the Jilted Generation incorporates elements of rave, breakbeat techno, techno, and hardcore techno. It was released on 4 July 1994 through XL Recordings.

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. 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.

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, 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 replaced by the single edit, "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.

It was licensed to Mute Records for a US release in February 1995.

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.