The Fat of the Land

The Fat of the Land is the third studio album by The Prodigy. The album was released by XL Recordings on 30 June 1997 and on 1 July 1997 in the United States by Maverick Records. The album title comes from the old English phrase 'living off the fat of the land', which means 'living well' or being wealthy.^[1]

Composition

Samples are used on a majority of tracks on the album (see the Samples section for more details). Matt Cameron of Soundgarden and later Pearl Jam, who is falsely credited as "Mark" in the liner notes, is also understood to have contributed samples to the album, though it is not clear where.^[2]

In popular culture

The song "Mindfields" was featured in the soundtrack for The Matrix.

Reception

The Fat of the Land has received critical acclaim, with many Prodigy fans considering it their best album. The album debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart.^[9] The album has since gone double platinum, selling over 2 million copies in the U.S.^[10] In 1999, the album entered the Guinness World Records as the fastest-selling UK album and was also nominated for a Grammy Award.^[11]

It has been featured in a number of music publication lists:

• In 1998, Q magazine readers voted The Fat of the Land the ninth greatest album of all time.
• In 2000 Q placed it at number 47 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. It has also been ranked number 43 in Q's "Best 50 Albums of Q's Lifetime" list,^[12] and was included in their "90 Best Albums of the 1990s"^[13] and "50 Best Albums of 1997" lists.^[14]
• Rolling Stone included in their "Essential Recordings of the 90s" list.^[15]
• Spin ranked it number 20 on their list of the "Top 20 Albums of the Year [1997]" list.^[16]
• Melody Maker ranked it number 13 on their list of "Albums of the Year" for 1997^[17] and number 29 in their 1997 Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll.^[18]
• NME ranked it number 17 in their 1997 Critics' Poll.^[19]

The album is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. The album was also nominated for the 1997 Mercury Music Prize.

In 2004, KISS co-founder Gene Simmons covered "Firestarter" on his second solo album, Asshole.

The album also caused some controversy. The National Organization for Women objected to the seeming misogyny of "Smack My Bitch Up", though the band maintains that its true interpretation is "doing anything intensely".^[20]

Track listing

Personnel

The Prodigy

• Keith Flint – vocals
• Liam Howlett – keyboards, producer, art direction, mixing
• Maxim Reality – vocals

Additional musicians

• Shahin Badar – vocals ("Smack My Bitch Up")
• Matt Cameron – drums
• Jim Davies – guitar
• Kool Keith – vocals ("Smack My Bitch Up", "Diesel Power")
• Crispian Mills – vocals ("Narayan")
• Tom Morello – guitar ("No Man Army")

Other personnel

• Christian Ammann – photography
• Jake Holloway – illustrations
• Alex Jenkins – art direction, design, photography
• Neil McLellan – engineer
• Pat Pope – photography
• Alex Scaglia – photography
• Lou Smith – photography
• Terry Whittaker – photography
• Konrad Wothe – photography

Samples

• The main vocal sample from "Smack My Bitch Up" is taken from "Give the Drummer Some" by American hip hop group Ultramagnetic MCs. Thus, The Prodigy invited group member Kool Keith, who raps the portion sampled by the Prodigy in the original track, to do the lyrics and vocals for another track, "Diesel Power". The track also features a looped sample of the bassline and drums from the beginning of "In Memory Of" by jazz musician Randy Weston and a sped-up riff from "Funky Man" by American funk group Kool and the Gang; both of these samples remain uncredited on the album.

• "Breathe" samples sound effects from American hip hop group the Wu-Tang Clan's music video for their single "Da Mystery of Chessboxin'".

• Three credited samples are present on "Funky Shit": the main vocal sample which gives the song its title is sampled from "Root Down" by American hip hop group the Beastie Boys, the horn riff that appears throughout the song is sampled from "Theme from "S.W.A.T."" by American disco-funk group Rhythm Heritage, and the "Break!" vocal is sampled from "2, 3, Break" by American hip hop duo the B-Boys.

• "Serial Thrilla" features a sample of a riff from "Selling Jesus" by English rock band Skunk Anansie.

• The main riff on "Mindfields" is sampled from English composer John Barry's "Hip's Trip", from the 1974 film The Man with the Golden Gun.

• "Climbatize" samples a horn riff from "The Horn Track" by Egyptian Empire, the stage name of electronic musician Tim Taylor. The main drum loop was sampled from "Air Drums from Outer Bongolia" by English electronic duo The Jedi Knights; Liam Howlett sampled the drums without the group's permission, and The Jedi Knights threatened to sue The Prodigy. However, Howlett already knew that The Jedi Knights themselves had sampled the drums from an older track entitled "Bongolia" by American funk group Incredible Bongo Band without permission; XL Recordings, the Prodigy's record label, bought the rights to the Incredible Bongo Band track and threatened to sue The Jedi Knights. The media coverage cornered around the event attracted film producer George Lucas, who sued The Jedi Knights for taking their stage name from the Star Wars term "Jedi Knight", which Lucas created.^[21]

• "Firestarter" samples a guitar riff from "SOS" by American rock group The Breeders, and the "Hey!" vocal from "Close (To the Edit)" by English dance group Art of Noise (the vocal was also previously used by the band in "Full Throttle" on Music for the Jilted Generation). The drums on the song are sampled from a track on the Time + Space Recordings drum recording album Jungle Warfare, Vol. 1; another Time + Space Recordings album track was sampled on The Prodigy's previous single, "One Love".

Sales chart positions

Album

Singles

Appearances in other media

• "Mindfields" appeared on the soundtrack of the film The Matrix
• "Smack My Bitch Up" has appeared in films Charlie's Angels, Scary Movie 2 and Closer. "Firestarter" and "Breathe" are both featured in the second instalment of Charlie's Angels. It also had an appearance in the show "Chuck" Season 2 and "Misfits" Season 1.
• "Funky Shit" appeared in the trailers for the film Event Horizon and also played over the end credits
• Crispian Mills, who contributed lyrically to the track "Narayan", later adapted "Narayan" and elements of "Climbatize" for his own band's 2007 album, Strangefolk as "Song of Love/Narayana".
• "Climbatize" appeared in the pilot of the TV show "Harsh Realm", also appeared in the trailer for Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.

References