Music for the Jilted Generation uses elements of rave, breakbeat techno, techno, hardcore techno, and oldskool jungle. The album is largely a response to the corruption of the rave scene in Britain by its mainstream status as well as Great Britain's Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, which criminalised raves and parts 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 died down, Liam Howlett derided the title of the album, which he referred to as "stupid", and maintained that the album was never meant to be political in the first place. Many of the samples featured on the album are sound clips from, or inspired by, movies. "Intro" features a sample that sounds like it's from the film The Lawnmower Man, however it is an American voice on "Intro" instead of Pierce Brosnan's English accent and the words are subtly different. "Their Law" begins with a rephrased version of a quote from Smokey and the Bandit. Jackie Gleason's exasperated line "What we're dealing with here is a complete lack of respect for the law" becomes "what we're dealing with here is a total lack of respect for the law". "Full Throttle" contains a reverse sample from the original Star Wars movie, and "The Heat " features a sample from Poltergeist III. In "Claustrophobic Sting", a voice whispers "My mind is glowing", similar to HAL 9000 saying "My mind is going" in the film . When Liam Howlett came to the cutting room for the final phase in the album production, he realised that all the tracks he had originally planned for wouldn't fit onto a CD, so "One Love" had to be edited which resulted in a cut of approximately 3 minutes and 53 seconds, "The Heat " 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 1994 entitled Select Future Tracks. Liam Howlett later asserted that he felt the edit of "One Love" and "Full Throttle" could have been dropped from the track listing.
Artwork
The album artwork for Music for the Jilted Generation was designed by Stewart Haygarth and Les Edwards. The inner art, alluding to the conflicts of raver versus the police during the era of the 1994 Criminal Justice Act is particularly renowned.
Critical reception
Music for the Jilted Generation has received critical acclaim. Rolling Stone gave it three-and-a-half stars, calling it "truly trippy" and that it "generates universal dance fever". Alternative Press said it "throws much darker shapes than its predecessor" and "slams harder and rawer and covers more ground". Robert Christgau called it "one of the rare records that's damn near everything you want cheap music to be". Mojo ranked it number 83 in their "100 Modern Classics" list. Spin ranked it number 60 in their "90 Greatest Albums of the '90s" list. NME ranked it number 9 in their "Top 50 Albums of 1994" list. On 4 December 2008, radio presenterZane Lowe inducted it into his 'masterpieces' by playing the album in full on his BBC Radio 1 show. It was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in 1994. It is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
Track listing
Samples
Besides the movie samples described above, Liam Howlett also employed a lot of musical material from other artists:
"Break and Enter" contains sample from Baby D's "Casanova". The latter was also remixed by Liam.
"Their Law" contains sample from "Drop That Bassline" by Techno Grooves.
"Voodoo People" contains sample from "You're Starting Too Fast" by Johnny Pate and "The Shalimar" by Gylan Kain. The guitar riff is based on "Very Ape" by Nirvana and is played by Lance Riddler.
"The Heat " contains sample from "Why'd U Fall" by Lil Louis, "Thousand" by Moby and 2-Mad's "Don't Hold Back The Feeling".
"Poison" contains sample from "It's a New Day" by Skull Snaps, "Amen Brother" by The Winstons and Bernard "Pretty" Purdie's "Heavy Soul Slinger".
"One Love" uses 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.
"3 Kilos", Part One of The Narcotic Suite, is based on a riff sampled from Bernard "Pretty" Purdie's Good Livin'
"Skylined", Part Two of The Narcotic Suite, features sample from a piece of musical score by Mark Snow from The X-Files episode "Deep Throat".
Charts
Weekly charts
Certifications
Personnel
Liam Howlett – performing, synthesizers, keyboards, sampling, drum-machines, production at Earthbound studios, co-production at The Strongroom, mixing, engineering
Maxim Reality – co-writer and vocalist on "Poison"
Neil McLellan – co-production and mixing at The Strongroom
