Prodigy - Fat of the Land

[Titan]

Elright. I’m going to review this one here, Prodigy’s “Fat of the Land”. Sorry UB, I would have done the “Music for the Jilted Generation” sex, but like I said, I think it would appeal to the masses on here even less than this one. I’ll probably end up ranking them like in UB’s “By the Way” review, because this album is only 10 tracks long, and I’ve had it for ages. While my rankings have changed much over the years, I know what I like nowadays. I really hope Chuck ends up posting his comments especially, seeing as how I know he’s the only other Prodigy expert around the state of Indiana. And I /know/ his ranking will be quite different from mine; we like electronica for alot of the same reasons, and alot of different reasons. Chuck - I promise I won’t bash your skull in with an iron wrench, feel free to rape me if you want though. Anyone else that can offer insight or anything (pliedes, UB, whoever), please do, everyone may not own this album, but everyone knows of it. (How could they not? It was the quickest selling album EVER, sold copies faster than even Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”. I proceed.


Prodigy - Fat of the Land


<LI>Smack My Bitch Up
Alright, no doubt 95% of you have heard the lines “Change my pitch up, smack my bitch up.” This still stands as one of the most controversial songs to date. It even was chosen by good old MTSuck as the song with the #1 controversial video ever. Which is understandable with it’s drugs, vivid sex, alcohol, vomiting, destruction, violence against women, and to make matters worse, well... if you really want me to ruin the end for you I will. But I’ll save it for those of you who haven’t seen the video yet. Anyway, this is probably the perfect track to open the album. It’s hard-hitting tripplet of a bass beat kicks in gear after a short intro and later on snippets of the “Smack my bitch up” vocal start to arise. After a breakdown with some chanting by a female vocalist that I do not recall the name of, the listener is hurled back into the breakneck beat full force. This song definite makes you want to fuck something up, or just commit a hate crime against women.

<LI>Breathe
No doubt at least 90% of you out there have heard the lines “Breathe the pressure, come play my game I’ll test ya.” This, like “Smack My Bitch Up” is one of the most popular songs in the history of that which is Prodigy. Debuting (if you want to pronounce that word the British way, say “DEB - yoot - ing”) in 1997 as the second single off of “Fat of the Land” this song instantly captivated audiences with it’s frighteningly chaotic and unique vocal style consisting of Keith (spikey haired freaky guy) and Maxim (black guy with dreds) spouting threats at each other. The video consisted of a very similar idea, and was very scary - to this day, this is my favourite video ever. Anyway, featuring very cool sword samples taken from the classic Wu-Tang movies, and an enormously heavy bassdriven beat, this song pounds away at your brain and taunts you with it’s psychotic vocals. Lyrics include: “Breathe the pressure, come play my game I’ll test ya” - “Psycho-somatic, addict insane” - “Inhale, inhale, you’re the vicitm!” and things of this nature. This song has it all together, which is why it is still one of my favourite songs off of this album to this day. Oh, and on a side-note, according to pliedes, it is the best song to run to. Understandable.

<LI>Diesel Power
Easily the most hip-hoppish track the Prodigy has ever done. It’s formulaic hip-hop. The beat (indeed a phat one) stays the same throughout the whole song whilst Kool Keith (the same guy who is sampled saying “Smack my bitch up” - a rapper from the UK rap group Ultramagnetic MC’s) spits out some very cool rhymes & rhythms. I recommend this song to all you hip-hop heads out there, it’s worth a listen for the rhymes alone. Once I had mastered the rapping on this song, and rapped it over and over, it became a song I listened to only so I could rap with it (it doesn’t have the most dynamic beat, but the beat does kick ass). It is the perfect song to blair while you’re cruising down Center St. and honking at Johnny Rose’s house. Again - all you hip-hop heads should definitely download this song, it’s very fun to rap.

<LI>Funky Shit
It took a very long time, but eventually, this song became my favourite on the album. The beat just kicks ass. The song starts off with a Beastie Boys sample saying “Oh my god that’s some funky shit!” It then slowly progresses, building up, until the beat drops - and it drops hard. You won’t appreciate the true fuctup energy in this song unless you listen to it on a worthy system. My personal choice to blair in my car whenever I’m terrorizing the streets of Warcity. This song has the right amount of breaks and lead-ins (and perfect length lead-ins) to keep you energized throughout and make you want to listen to it many a time. Again, it can only be appreciated on the proper system, you need the bass for this song to kick ass to it’s potential.

<LI>Serial Thrilla
Here’s the thing, this song is somehow, for some reason given the worst reviews out of the whole album by almost everyone. In my ranking, I put it as #5, I like it that much. I don’t know if people pick on this one simply because it was the last one Liam worked on before the album came out, or whether it just doesn’t have enough stuff to captivate them or what. For me, the rhythm of this song purely kicks ass. And I think that Keith’s vocals fit the song very well, giving it that nasty edge. Lyrics include “Damage distructah, crowd distruptah, youth corruptah, everytimah.” - “Serial thrillah, serious killah” of course, this is all said with a British accent, so there are no “er” sounds. While the bridge is not the most intermaresting, the beat of this song, continuous and very rhythmically hard-hitting, are enough to keep me engaged in this song.

<LI>Mindfields
Now I know Chuck is going to hate me after this one, if I remember correctly this is one of his favourite songs, that or he at least likes it alot. This is one of the Prodigy songs I have worn out the most, and it got boring to me rather quickly. Don’t get me wrong, it is a VERY good song, but just for me, it lost interesting sooner than the others, and that’s why it’s last in my ranking, I would still give it like at least a 7.5 out of 10, that just tells you how good the album is. It’s got a very cool beat, like a drum’n’bass beat slowed down 100 BPM. The vocals are actually some of my favourite from the album. Lyrics include: “This is dangerous, open up your head, feel the shellshock” - “This is dangerous, I walk through mind fields and watch your head rock.” This song is featured on the “Matrix” soundtrack and was originally going to be the 2nd or 3rd single, so it’s good, just not one of my favourites anymore.

<LI>Narayan
Now this song on the other hand, holds probably the largest amount of replay value for me from this album. I have owned this album for about 4 years now and have always liked it a decent amount up untill about 6 months ago when it became one of my favourites. This is easily the most progressive song on the album, weighing in at a total of 9:06 minutes (a 9 minutes long song??? you’ve got to be kidding me!!! not really, download some autechre or orbital some time). With actually very cool vocals by Crispin Mills of Kalua Shaker (I didn’t look that up, I think that’s right... and then Saffron does vocals on “Fuel My Fire”... whatever). This song really has a mystic psychosis about it the whole way through. After about 4.5 minutes of a deep flip-flop beat and the neat vocals it goes into an interlude with strange chanting vocals and then goes back into the beat at about 6.0 minutes elapsed. The best part however is at 7.0 minutes when it complete breaks down and regergitates itself into a new kickass break-beat. By this time you’re rockin’ out totally. Again, excellent replay value in my book.

<LI>Firestarter
Uh huh, no doubt at least 85% of you have heard the lines “I’m a firestarter, twisted firestarter”. This was the band’s first single off of this album, and still one probably their most popular globally. This song features a heavy simple beat powering over continuous guitar licks and snatches of echoing vocal samples. Keith is also the vocal star on this track, delivering what many mummies in Britain determined to be the most frightening thing they’ve ever heard. It really isn’t frightening, not by today’s standards, especially since we live in America. The lyrics are actually quite good - “I’m the bitch you hated, filth infatuated” - “I’m the one-invented, twisted animator” - “I’m the self-inflicted, mind detinator” and blah blah blah. Quite insightful for someone who doesn’t claim to be able to write lyrics or sing. This is a classic track, not the most dynamic on the 806th listen, but still good.

<LI>Climbatize
A beautiful track. Another progressive masterpiece from “Fat of the Land”. On every album Liam (keyboard god and writer of prodigy tunes) has one completely instrumental progressive track, that would be this one. This one actually has relaxing, yes disturbed, yet journey-ful feelings all wrapped into one song. This is a good one to just sit back and play. It doesn’t have anything that instantly grabs at your throat or anything like many of the others, it’s just an all around good track.

<LI>Fuel My Fire
One of the fastest and most energetically charged Prodigy songs to date. This was Liam’s attempt to create the perfect electro-punk track. While he’s still attempting that, this song was a good try. The vocals (Keith on main, Saffron from Republica in the background) are superb. This track offers a pretty good punk beat, sparse feedbacky guitar licks, and deep bass, it's just all around good energy. But again, to me, it doesn’t have much replay value, which is the only reason I ranked it lower. It used to be my absolute favourite track. It’s psychotic how much opinions can change just from how much you listen to an album. This would definitely be the favourite of die-hard real (British) Punk fans out there. It has been said to sound Sex Pistolsish, but not nearly as much as the Prodigy’s new and unreleased-as-of-yet “Nuclear”. Through interludes you can hear some neat little organistic sounding piano lines, funny thing. This song is actually a cover of (The Ping-Pong Bitches’ [i think] song). Keith’s vocals on this song really do just make you want to kill someone I would say. If there is anyone who has ever done you wrong, just play this song and you’ll feel better (and angrier). “I got a word of thanks, thanks that I’d like to say. For the rage that I feel, the rage that I feel today. Got stacks, got stacks, stacks of chips on my shoulders, in everything I do. ‘Cuz I made, I made, I made the mistake, of trusting you!” - “Yeah people like you just fuel my fire!” - “Yeah my layers are thick and I’ve got a bad attitude. Yeah that knife in my back has fingerprints that belong to you! Got a grudge, got a grudge, got a grudge that I’m holding for as long as I live, ‘cuz you lied, you lied, you lied to my face, and that’s something that I can’t forgive!”


<LI>My Ranking:
1. Funky Shit
2. Breathe *
3. Smack My Bitch Up *
4. Narayan
5. Serial Thrilla
6. Climbatize
7. Fuel My Fire
8. Firestarter *
9. Diesel Power
10. Mindfields
* - Singles released


<LI>My Rating - 90%
Definitely a good album. Also definitely (in my opinion - and many, many Prodigy fans actually) not as good as it’s prior “Music for the Jilted Generation”. If want, me or Chuck or both can review this album as well. Wow... one giant dual-author written review... that would be a milestone. This one is worth buying if you want an album with energy, and something that is just the definition of HARD.


Prodigy - Fat of the Land




[This message has been edited by Titan (edited January 24, 2003).]

[Ugly Bastard]

Nice review of a nice album Titan. Keep em comin.

-Ugly Bastard

[Titan]

Non-applicable question. Moving on.
Download some of the songs you Ugly Bastard.


[This message has been edited by Titan (edited January 24, 2003).]

[Combat Chuck]

Alright, Titan, don't have time right now, but you know for sure that I will make time to give you my personal view of one of my fave albums that gets my shit pumpin (eh?) all the time.

I have to agree that Jilted is another awesome awesome hard hittin solid album by them, and I think a future review of that album should be coming in due time.

Til then, keep smacking your bitches all the way up.

[Combat Chuck]

Okay guys and gals....er, more like guys....anyway, I've designated some time out of my strangely busy schedule to bring you my take on this prize fighting album.

I'll just get down to business then....

Fat of The Land -

as reviewed by Combat Chuck

Smack My Bitch Up -
As Titan has already stated, this is one of the more well known Prodigy tracks off of this certain album, as well it should be. I love the building of the beats in the beginning, and it's come to a point where I can tell you exactly when they will come in. However, the one thing that I love about this track is the female vocalism towards the end of the song....just adds a whole different feel to a straight-forward hard hitting song. I think that without some of the different sounds (such as the vocals), this would have soon turned into a forgettable track for me. This is still a perfect example of how hard. Prodigy. can. fuckin. rock.

Breathe
Be sure to add that 'e' at the end there kids, cause if ya don't, then it'll turn into the other millions of songs that are also entitled 'Breath'....actually, there are many songs out there entitled 'Breathe', so forget about them, and focus on this track. I can't tell you how much this track gets the blood boiling and the heart going on overdrive. The swords, the vocals....can't go wrong with this track.

It's also a great track for making everyone uncomfortable and queasy at Senior Semi-Formal....

Deisel Power
I will never be able to totally kick ass on the rapping part of this song as much as Titan, but it's fun to try anyway. I have to say, if it wasn't for the hip-hop aspect, the beat would get tiresome after the first minute, and this song would be the throwaway for the album. But the lyrical tactics and vocal gymnastics () are crazy in this track, and it makes the listening experience so much more than the underlying rhythm and beat would have you think.

Funky Shit
I actually thought that the guy saying "Oh my God, that's some funky shit!" was Keith when I heard this album, but it wouldn't be until last year that I would realize that they sampled this off of the Beastie Boys. Took me a while. Sheesh.

Anyway, this is Titan's fave track, and I think it's a great one too. One of my favorite parts of this track is the subtle ending of one of the layers that ends with a...damn, how to say it on a silent computer screen. Titan'll know what I'm saying....he's heard me mention it before.

It's not my fave track, but it's up there.

Serial Thrilla
You know, I have also read a couple of reviews of this album in general, and this track has seemed to be the least favorite. I don't think it's a great track either, but I agree with Titan that the vocals by Keith fit the song perfectly. And it's a harder track, and it effectively fulfills it's purpose....it's a solid track.

Mind Fields
Ah, now, this is my favorite track. I know that Titan really liked this when it came out, but now it isn't as high on his list anymore.

I think that my main reason for loving it so much is the layering. There's a synthesizer part in this song that is the perfect example. There will be a few bars where it is solely in the background and suddenly the layer it's playing will become the sole focus. While the vocal sampling on this track isn't as great as some others, there is a...mechanical...sterility that comes with this song that paints a picture of cold steel and clean, sharp, hitting jaggedness. It cuts your mind and leaves the shards to put themselves back together. There are so many things to hear in this song, and the overload for me is all too welcome.

Narayan
Thisun's a long one. And while there are some gem moments to this track, there are some slow moments as well. However, I think that the gem moments overshadow the bad ones. Titan already mentioned the best moment, when it hits the 7 minute mark and the break beat smashes in.

But I think the best part would be where the chanting is the focus, and it's just "Mmmnaba...narayann....". It's a great part of the song, and it's cool to vocalize too. I think of a really freaky tribe in the Congo when I listen to this song....I need to visit the Congo sometime...

Firestarter
This would be my least favorite track. This is the only Prodigy song where the vocals annoy me. And it's just a bit too straight-forward. I enjoyed it as a techno song when it was first released, but I don't think that it's Prodigy material....I mean, it's got that definite Prodigy feel, but I just don't enjoy this song anymore.

Climbatize
I think that this track is to me what 'Narayan' is to Titan. I also recently re-discovered this track, and I noticed a fuckload of things that I hadn't before.

The problem was probably that it was at the end of the album. On an album such as this, when I first listened to it, all I would listen to would be the first 6 tracks, just cause there were times when I couldn't listen to the whole thing. And while this is now one of my favorite tracks, at the time, it wasn't as much of a stand-out track as some of the others.

As Titan said, this is a Liam intrumental piece....and it's a great example of the talen that this man has. The fast conga/bongo part that comes in just has me seething with envy (not that someone can do it with their hands, but that he has a beat machine that can take care of that)....it's just a beautiful track.

Fuel My Fire
This is a fun track. Just grunge up yourself, get some gook in your throat and fling some sweat off of your glistening hair. This song just makes you feel punk/grunge. And it's one of those that would be great when you just want to blow up poeple or large abandoned buildings. Titan basically summed up everything on this track, and I have the same sentiments as he does.

Combat Chuck's rankings:

1/ Mind Fields
2/ Climbatize
3/ Breathe
4/ Funky Shit
5/ Smack My Bitch Up
6/ Narayan
7/ Fuel My Fire
8/ Serial Thrilla
9/ Diesel Power
10/ Firestarter

Album Ranking: 90%

This album is not only a very solid album, but it was Prodigy's tidal wave. With singles such as Smack My Bitch Up and Breathe, Prodigy became a well-known name in not only dance halls in the UK (and other places, but mainly there), but now they were even on the radio. Prodigy made their break with this puppy, and they did it was a fucking shitload of style. This album just screams of exactly what Prodigy is about, and while I also prefer Music For a Jilted Generation over this, I just think that's because MfJG is longer....

There ya have it.

[Titan]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Combat Chuck:
It's also a great track for making everyone uncomfortable and queasy at Senior Semi-Formal....<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Bless you Chuck.


<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Mind Fields... there is a...mechanical...sterility that comes with this song that paints a picture of cold steel and clean, sharp, hitting jaggedness. It cuts your mind and leaves the shards to put themselves back together.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Quite the vivid and accurate description!


<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Fuel My Fire... Just grunge up yourself, get some gook in your throat and fling some sweat off of your glistening hair. This song just makes you feel punk/grunge. And it's one of those that would be great when you just want to blow up poeple or large abandoned buildings.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

So true... again with the vivid description. But please stop poking fun at my sweaty hair...?


<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Prodigy made their break with this puppy, and they did it was a fucking shitload of style. This album just screams of exactly what Prodigy is about<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Well said Chuck.

[Combat Chuck]

Thanks bud. Has anyone else listened to this album?