Music / The Fat of the Land

Exhale, exhale, exhale...

The Fat of the Land is a 1997 album by The Prodigy and their third studio recording. It became an international bestseller thanks to hits such as "Smack My Bitch Up", "Firestarter" and "Breathe". In 1999 it even entered the Guinness World Records for being the fastest-selling UK album.

Tracklist

1. "Smack My Bitch Up" (5:42)
2. "Breathe" (5:35)
3. "Diesel Power" (4:17)
4. "Funky Shit" (5:16)
5. "Serial Thrilla" (5:11)
6. "Mindfields" (5:40)
7. "Narayan" (9:05)
8. "Firestarter" (4:40)
9. "Climbatize" (6:38)
10. "Fuel My Fire" (4:19)

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Smack these tropes up!

• The All-Concealing "I": The video for "Smack My Bitch Up" is a rare example of this in visual media.
• Alternate Album Cover: The expanded edition of the album features the shot of a sole crab on the beach changed to a crowd of identical crabs.
• And Then John Was a Zombie: "You're the firestarter, twisted firestarter."
• As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Both "Smack My Bitch Up" and "Narayan" have Asian-like tribal chants in their middle sections.
• Boastful Rap: "Diesel Power" has elements of this, when it's not running with Word Salad Lyrics instead.
• Broken Record:
  • "Serial Thrilla" starts and ends off with sounds that resemble a CD stuck on one note.
  • "Climbatize" starts off with sounds that suddenly slow down in some parts.
  • Also, "Smack My Bitch Up":
  Change my pitch up/Smack my bitch up
• Cool Old Lady: The grandmother on the album cover single for Firestarter, who carries a blowtorch.
• Cover Version: "Fuel My Fire" was originally by L7.
• Deliberately Monochrome: The music video of "Firestarter", showing Keith Flint dancing around in an abandoned London Underground tunnel in Aldwych, England.
• Fading into the Next Song: "Funky Shit" → "Serial Thrilla" → "Mindfields" → "Narayan" → "Firestarter".
• Funk: "Funky Shit".
• Giant Enemy Crab: The album cover shows a crab who looks giant and menacing due to being shot in close-up. The single of "Breathe" has a fish on its cover.
• Intentionally Awkward Title: "Smack My Bitch Up".
• Limited Lyrics Song: The words to "Smack My Bitch Up" consist entirely of the phrase "change my pitch up, smack my bitch up" playing on a loop.
• Mundane Made Awesome: "Breathe", probably the most epic and catchy song about inhaling and exhaling.
• Misogyny Song: "Smack My Bitch Up" was interpreted as being an anti feminist song, though The Prodigy maintains it's actually about doing anything intensely.
• Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: The music video for "Breathe" shows the band members in a dirty apartment where creepy images such as a crocodile, a centipede, cockroaches and Maxim as a tattoed Scary Black Man with weird eyes appear.
• Ominous Hindi Chanting: Appears midway through "Narayan", courtesy of Crispian Mills.
• One-Word Title: "Breathe", "Mindfields", "Narayan", "Firestarter" and "Climbatize".
• The Oner: The music video of "Smack My Bitch Up" is filmed in first person like one long, continuous take with a Tomato in the Mirror ending.
• Pun-Based Title:
  • The album cover title is based on the old English phrase "living off the fat of the land", which means living well or being wealthy. In this context it also has a Double Entendre meaning the songs are fat (=great, cool, heavy).
  • "Mindfields", a pun on "mine fields".
  • "Serial Thrilla", a pun on Serial Killer.
• Pyromaniac: "Firestarter"
  I'm the firestarter, twisted firestarter.
• Refuge in Audacity:
  • "Smack My Bitch Up" caused controversy because of its offensive refrain. The music video too caused outrage and was banned from various radio and TV stations for showing someone on a night out in London, filmed from a first-person perspective with portrayals of alcoholism, violence, vandalism, drug use and a sex scene, all revealed in the final shot to have been the deeds of a woman.
  • "Firestarter" was controversial to some because it seemed to be a glorification of pyromania and fire vandalism.
• Sampling: Several tracks contain samples.
  • The most unusual occurs in "Mindfields", which samples John Barry's soundtrack from the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun.
  • The hook for "Firestarter" comes from Art of Noise's "Close to the Edit."
• Surprisingly Gentle Song: Proving that this trope is relative, the Boastful Rap "Diesel Power" is significantly slower and less intense than the other songs on the album.
• Sword Fight: Sound effects used as percussion on "Breathe".
• Tomato Surprise: The video for "Smack My Bitch Up". The violent, lecherous, alcoholic drug addict who drives drunk is a woman.

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