"I've decided to take my work back to the underground. To stop it falling into the wrong hands" were the opening words on 'Intro'. Those words reflect the vibe of the album very well. Prodigy released their second album, 'Music For The Jilted Generation', in july 1994. It was considered as much deeper and darker album than 'Experience'. It wasn't just a dance album - the album contained various styles of music such as hip hop, rock, goa, jungle and ambient. It went number in the UK chart which was a big surprise. Jilted was nominated for Mercury Music Award but it didn't win (M People did). The album has sold at least over 2.25 million copies.

    Originally the album was going to be titled as 'Music For The Cool Young Juvenile' or 'Music For Joyriders' but neither of them worked. On the cover was a cool gray scale painting of a screaming face, which I personally consider as one of the coolest album covers ever. The booklet contained a paining of Keith showing his middle finger to the police.

    Liam wrote all the songs on the album, except the hip hop beated 'Poison' which was co-written by Maxim. Liam had an assistanttant producer on the album, Neil McLellan who had previously worked with N-Joy. At first Liam worked with McLennan on 'One Love' but after it was a success they decided to work together on the album. McLennan co-produced 'Full Throttle', 'Voodoo People', 'The Heat (The Energy) and 'One Love' with Liam.

    Because a CD can only contain 79 minutes of music, Liam had to make some changes on tracks. Liam wanted to make a different mix of 'One Love' but he never had enough time to do it. Liam had to chop 'The Heat (The Energy)' and drop a whole tune called 'We Eat Rhythm'. However, 'We Eat Rhythm' was released on a freebie cassette called 'Future Tracks'. Even thought Jilted entered the UK chart at No. 1 - Prodigy's US record label Elektra dropped the Prodigy, following low sales of 'Experience' and loss-making US tour. Elektra wanted their music to be more mainstream and the label considered 'One Love' too extreme to be released at all.

    Though Prodigy have never wanted to be political band, 'Their Law' became an anthem for the anti Criminal Justice Bill. Prodigy didn't want to make a political theme for the album but 'Their Law' was a clear political because its "fuck 'em and their law" lyrics. Prodigy made a statement about the Criminal Justice Bill all ready in the 'One Love' single's booklet.

    Years after its release Liam said that he never had enough time to finish the album. "I was never happy with Jilted. Everyone made a big thing about the record but I was never fully happy. I liked certain songs, maybe six, perhaps, but the rest were not right. The ground breaking track were 'Poison', 'Voodoo', 'Break & Enter' and 'Their Law'" said Liam in 1997. In any case, 'Music For The Jilted Generation' is milestone in the dance-rock crossover scene and many Prodigy fans consider it as the best Prodigy album.


    Tracks

    The first single release from the album was 'One Love'. It was first released as two 12" white labels under the name of Earthbound (the name of Liam's studio). Earthbound I contained the original mix and Earthbound II Jonny L's remix. The white labels were a huge success in the dance scene but when it was revealed the tracks were actually by the Prodigy the records lost their reputation due to Prodigy's chart success. 'One Love' was released in September 1993. The second single was 'No Good (Start The Dance)' which was released in May 1994. It reached No. 4 in the national charts and stayed in the Top 10 for seven weeks and it sold over 250,000 copies. 'Break & Enter' was kind of a follow up to 'Charly' and it had a sample taken from Baby's 'Casanova' which Liam had remixed earlier. 'Their Law' was a collaboration with Pop Will Eat Itself. It was the first rock influenced Prodigy tune with radical lyrics. 'Full Throttle' was originally released as B-side of 'One Love'. To avoid any copyright problems, Liam changed the Star Wars sample which the original version on the 'One Love' single had included. 'Voodoo People' was the third single released from the album. It contained live guitars which had been sampled from Nirvana's 'Very Ape'. The single was released in August 1994 and it entered the chart at No. 12. 'Speedway (Theme From Fastlane)' was a very visual track, inspired by Liam motorcycling experience. 'The Heat (The Energy)' was a goa type of dance track which had a sample taken from Polterguise III. 'Poison' was a hip hop, 104 bpm tune with Maxim doing the vocals became the fourth single. It was released in March 1995. The Narcotic Suite was a combinationion of alternative, even ambient tunes. '3 Kilos' was a stand out track with funky flutes and laid back beats. 'Skylined' was an uplifting song and 'Claustrophobic Sting' was a deep-as-hell kind of acid track.


    Records

    'Music For The Jilted Generation' was released on XL-Recordings as XLLP 114, XLMC 114 and XLCD 114. The album was released in 1995 in the USA by Mute (9003-CD). The album was released by several distributors as well: Delabel France (7243 8 39813 2 8), UDP Italy (UDP CD 1021) and MVM (MVM 007 CD)

    The album was released in Japan by Avex Trax (AVCD-11204) as a 2CD set. The second CD was a 3" CD called CDS. It contained 'Charly (Alley Cat Mix)', 'Everybody In The Place (Fairground Remix)' and 'Out Of Space (Techno Underworld Remix)'. 'Charly' was sped up so that it could fit onto CDS. The album was also released by Guts Records (which belongs to Play It Again Sam) (XLCD 114) in Taiwan.