Music for the Jilted Generation

Music for the Jilted Generation uses elements of rave,[2] breakbeat techno,[2] techno,[3] hardcore techno,[4] and oldskool jungle.[4]

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.[2] 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.[5]

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 accent and the words are subtly different (on "Intro" the words are "So, I've decided to take my work back underground, to stop it falling into the wrong hands",[6] but in The Lawnmower Man the line is "So I'm taking my work underground, I can't let it fall into the wrong hands again"[7]). "Their Law" begins with a rephrased version of a quote from Smokey and the Bandit.[8] 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 (The Energy)" features a sample from Poltergeist III.[5] In "Claustrophobic Sting", a voice whispers "My mind is glowing",[9] similar to HAL 9000 saying "My mind is going"[10] in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

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 (The Energy)" 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.[5]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
The Boston Phoenix	[12]
Christgau's Consumer Guide	A[13]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[14]
The Guardian	[3]
NME	9/10[15]
Q	[16]
Record Collector	[17]
Rolling Stone	[4]
Select	5/5[18]

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".[4] Alternative Press said it "throws much darker shapes than its predecessor" and "slams harder and rawer and covers more ground".[19] Robert Christgau called it "one of the rare records that's damn near everything you want cheap music to be".[13] 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.[20] NME ranked it number 9 in their "Top 50 Albums of 1994" list.[21] On 4 December 2008, radio presenter Zane 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.[22]

All tracks are written by Liam Howlett, unless indicated otherwise. Tracks 5-9 from the second CD are previously released.

• Liam Howlett – performing, synthesizers, keyboards, sampling, drum-machines, production (on tracks 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 11, 12, and 13) at Earthbound studios, co-production (on tracks 4, 5, 7, 9, and 10) at The Strongroom, mixing, engineering
• Maxim Reality – co-writer and vocalist on "Poison"
• Neil McLellan – co-production and mixing (on tracks 4, 5, 7, 9, and 10) at The Strongroom
• Pop Will Eat Itself – performer on "Their Law"
• Phil Bent – live flute
• Lance Riddler – live guitar on "Voodoo People"
• Mike Champion – management
• Les Edwards – inside sleeve painting
• Stuart Haygarth – front cover
• Jamie Fry – rear sleeve

• Music for the Jilted Generation at Discogs (list of releases)