The Prodigy is the type of band that frequently churns out legendary tunes, all highly revered and respected by the electronic music fanbase, and even by metalheads.
- Music for the Jilted Generation was the album that started Big Beat, along with The Chemical Brothers' Exit Planet Dust and Fatboy Slim's Better Living Through Chemistry. It was the ultimate diss to Great Britain's Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. It's also over 70 minutes of unbelievable breakbeat techno. Contains legendary singles like:
- The Hip-Hop-influenced "Poison" is sinister as hell - it goes the other way from breakbeat and lays the groundwork for what the next album would bring us.
- The Nirvana sampling, Hard Rock-leaning "Voodoo People."
- The climax of political anger that is "Their Law", a distillation of the band's resentment towards the aforementioned Criminal Justice act. Fuck them and their law!
- "Break And Enter" is already some pretty exhilarating Epic Rocking to get the album going, but add an electric guitar and modify the beat, and it's even BETTER live.
- Be sure to check out the B-side, "Rhythm Of Life," an exhilarating, concentrated blast of breakbeats going a thousand miles an hour. Would've fit in perfectly on Jilted, if it hadn't already been filled to the brim.
- Jilted was already awesome, but The Fat of the Land managed to top that with no sweat - 1998 surely was the golden year for Big Beat. Maybe it's not hyperspeed breakbeat like Jilted, but with its rock and hip-hop overtones being more pronounced than ever, The Fat Of The Land actually hits harder, resulting in classics such as:
- The manic buzzsaw synths of "Smack My Bitch Up" (which even managed to bait feminist organizations).
- "Breathe," notable for its unsettling, moaning bassline. Here's a song you really need a subwoofer to truly appreciate.
- The one-of-a-kind "Firestarter". Mixes a classic Prodigy breakbeat with a huge Epic Riff and Keith's rather belligerent vocal debut.
- The standalone single "Baby's Got a Temper" met derision from critics (and Liam Howlett himself) but fans love it for its fiery mid-tempo stomp, and for the fact it sampled the legendary riff from "Firestarter".
- Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned may be the most divisive album in the band's catalog, but "Spitfire" manages the rare feat of carrying one huge guitar chord through much of its running time and never once sounding repetitive. Also, the "Thriller"-sampling "The Way It Is" is beloved by fans. Yeah, remember the loop from the famous dance sequence? Liam stretches that loop into nearly six minutes of old school funk goodness.
- The entirety of Invaders Must Die. Definitely. From the bombastic "Omen", to the towering "Piranha", all the way to the mythical title track, most people would say this is the Prodigy's best moment since The Fat of The Land.
- The Day Is My Enemy throws in a bit of everything heard in the band's discography, from Jilted-esque high-speed jams like "Nasty" and "Roadblox", slower but more rock-influenced songs in the vein of The Fat like the title tracknote and "Get Your Fight On", as well as noisier tracks a la Outnumbered and Invaders like "Ibiza", "Rebel Radio", "Rhythm Bomb" and the crushing album closer "Wall of Death". There is something for literally every Prodigy fan to enjoy in this album. Liam Howlett's own take on the title track manages to be even more awesome than the original, further helped by the guest appearance of highly revered Dutch horrorcore trio Dope D.O.D. "Drunk drove the Rover, got pulled over", indeed.
