“Music for the Jilted Generation” is the second studio album by the Prodigy, an English electronic dance music group formed around producer, keyboard player and songwriter Liam Howlett (synthesizers, keyboards, sampling, drum-machines, production, mixing, engineering) in Braintree, Essex, in 1990.
The album was recorded in the end of 1993 and the early 1994, and it was released in 1994 by XL Recordings in the UK and by Mute Records in the US. It topped the UK album charts.
The Prodigy debuted with the breakbeat hardcore style rooted in the underground rave culture in the UK from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. After that, they changed their style from rave/breakbeat hardcore to more alternative rock-oriented one, and they played the central role in the popularization of the genre called “big beat” (electronic music with lots of heavy breakbeats and basslines, samples and loops) in the 1990s, along with Fatboy Slim and the Chemical Brothers.
The first three studio albums released by the Prodigy during the 1990s differ from each other in style: their debut album “Experience” (1992) is a breakbeat hardcore album for rave parties. Their second “Music for the Jilted Generation” is a hardcore techno album released during the transition from rave/breakbeat hardcore to big beat. Their third “The Fat of the Land” (1997) is a blockbuster big beat album like arena rock.
Compared with their first and third albums, this second album stands out in terms of complex and melodic song structure, dark atmosphere, and delicate beauty.
The album includes four single tracks: “One Love” (1993, the number eight in the UK charts), “No Good (Start the Dance)” (1994, the number four in the UK charts), “Voodoo People” (1994), and “Poison” (1995).
The third track “Their Law” is a collaboration with Pop Will Eat Itself.
“No Good (Start the Dance)” includes a vocal sample from the house song “You’re No Good for Me” (1987) by Kelly Charles.
“Voodoo People” includes the guitar riff quoted from “Very Ape”, a song in the album “In Utero” (1993) by Nirvana.
The seventh track “The Heat (The Energy)” includes a voice sample from the film “Poltergeist III” (1988).
The thirteenth track “The Narcotic Suite: Claustrophobic Sting” includes a voice sample from the film “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968).
In 2008, a remastered and expanded edition (a set of 2 CDs) of the album titled “More Music for the Jilted Generation” was released by XL Recordings.
