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The Fat Of The Land

The Prodigy

1997

Buy At Rough Trade
The Fat Of The Land
Album Summary

The Fat of the Land is the third studio album by English electronic music group the Prodigy, released on 30 June 1997 through XL Recordings. The album received critical acclaim and topped the UK Albums Chart and the US Billboard 200. It has sold over 10 million copies worldwide as of 2019.

Wikipedia

Rating

3.4

Votes

12012
Genres
Electronica

Reviews

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Fri Mar 26 2021
2

because of the album cover all i could think of was crab rave.

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Tue Oct 26 2021
5

OH MY GOD THAT’S THE FUNKY SHIT

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Mon Nov 01 2021
3

Little-known fact: the biggest single event in history to contribute to climate change was the Great Co2 Emission of 1997, in which every angsty, rebellious teenage girl in the world burned her Nine inch Nails and Type O Negative posters to make room for Prodigy ones. haha fuck, can you imagine being the parent of a shitty teenage kid and seeing this come on TV on a saturday morning? Imagine that sinking feeling in your stomach as you listened to this scungy UK techno dog shit and watched Keith Flint jump around like the degenerate he was, just knowing that your horrid adolescent turd is going to latch straight onto this and start looking like it by the end of the week. And you're helpless to stop it, you can only watch and silently scream. Wouldn't you just want to kill yourself there and then? 3/5 though, cause I was one of those shithead teenagers who thought the Prodigy was pretty rad haha. The album goes for too long, all scungy UK rave techno does, but the singles are still bangers.

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Mon Dec 20 2021
1

The Fat of the Land by The Prodigy (1997) Presented with a British electronic punk album having an opening track entitled “Smack My Bitch Up” and with ‘lyrics’ that simply repeat the phrase “Smack My Bitch Up” eight times (and “Change My Pitch Up” only six times), what’s a stunned but serious listener to do? The phrase “Smack My Bitch Up” is clearly the central, attention-grabbing focus of the song. Well, in the first place, I had to turn it down so my wife couldn’t hear it. Even with headphones, the ladies would be able to tell that “Smack My Bitch Up” was being played (again and again, apparently, since this album hit #1 in the weekly charts in the US, UK, and, well, pretty much throughout the world). In 1997, a lot of women were aware that their men were listening to “Smack My Bitch Up”. If I were playing “Smack My Bitch Up” loud in the car in my driveway, my wife, daughter, and son could have heard what I was playing from inside the house. If I had been playing “Smack My Bitch Up” while pulling in to a gas station, everyone, male and female, would know. I’m sure this happened millions of times, as this album was so popular. Now, writing as one who has never “Smack[ed] My Bitch Up”, I should perhaps merely confess that I can’t relate and move on. But that wouldn’t be fair to the art. “Smack My Bitch Up” does have a pretty cool groove. And the wailing, non-verbal Asian female vocal in the last half of “Smack My Bitch Up” by Shahin Badar is very nice, but it makes me wonder if she was aware of the ‘lyrics’ when she laid down her non-verbal contribution to “Smack My Bitch Up” (or whether she was even given a choice by the artists who were laying down “Smack My Bitch Up”—she might have been somewhat intimidated). Now to be fair, in response to the obvious outcry over “Smack My Bitch Up” (by the National Organization for Women and many others), I read on Wikipedia that the men comprising this band persistently interpreted the phrase “Smack My Bitch Up” as “doing anything intensely”. Think about that. It seems disingenuous, if not outright deceptive. No, let’s call a spade a spade: That’s bullshit. I mean, “Smack My Bitch Up” should pretty well be interpreted as “Smack My Bitch Up”, right? On the other hand, I might have been tempted defend “Smack My Bitch Up” by claiming ‘at least it doesn’t say “Smack My Bitch Down”’. There’s a huge irony in the fact that the phrase “Smack My Bitch Up” is not even performed by the band members. It is sampled from “Give the Drummer Some” by Ultramagnetic MCs (1988), where it goes: “Smack My Bitch Up, like a pimp”. I suppose The Prodigy understood that the pimping in question was being done “intensely”, as in “Smack My Bitch Up? You must be doing some pretty intense pimping there, dude”. This is an intensity that eludes me, and I join with the National Organization for Women in challenging the toxic masculinity that is evident in this work. But we should not be surprised that notoriety is lucrative if it is adroitly monetized. I understand there are other tracks on this album, but we’re out of time. 1/5

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Fri Mar 12 2021
5

This album held up well. I actually gave it 2 listens. I remember being more drawn to the aggro tracks like Firestarter as a younger man, but I enjoyed the others more this time around. Also got way more of the sample references and the strong Kool Keith influence this time. Probably still more partial to Jilted Generation (2nd album) but damn Breathe is a killer track.

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Sat Sep 11 2021
5

Seminal big beat album that would influence electronic music for years to come. Tracks are among the most impressive pieces of electronic music I've ever heard, succeeding in making such a hard abrasive sound work so well. The three top hits are masterpieces. "Narayan" and "Climbatize" are just as impressive in demonstrating Liam's immense talent. The other songs are all great, with plenty of variation to keep anyone engaged in any song. The tracks are spread out in a way to keep the flow going uninterrupted. There are no out-of-place or drawn-out tracks. There's no way I could give this album anything less than a perfect score.

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Mon Sep 13 2021
5

This album was pretty great. Ultimate example of the rave sound of the 90s. Not really my thing musically so I didn't want to give this 5 stars but I have to. It's as good as anything I've heard so far.

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Wed Jul 07 2021
5

One of the best The prodigy albums. Music is driven, fast and enjoyable.

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Sun Jul 18 2021
5

Got a long drive to do through the night? This will keep you going. From the halcyon days of acid house and all night parties in unknown locations. This will take you back there.

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Tue Mar 29 2022
5

I bought this on the day of release and loved it immediately. This album easily makes its way into my personal all time top ten, and is unlike any of the other nine. I still get chills listening to this today, it puts me into something of a daze like I'm hypnotised. There are very few albums that can take me out of my mind and make me lost amid the sounds. This does it effortlessly, no matter how many thousands of times I've listened.

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Sat Apr 23 2022
5

Wow, so all those came from this album? It is a headbanger. This took me way back.

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Thu Oct 14 2021
2

Packed with interesting synths and samples. Relentless, banging, and kind of wearing after a while. EVERYONE IS SHOUTING and ALL THE SOUNDS WANT TO BE IN THE FOREGROUND and HERE'S ANOTHER ANGRY MAN SHOUTING WITH A FIZZING SYNTHESIZER

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Mon Sep 26 2022
2

There's an enjoyable song on this album. The problem is that they play it 10 times with different names.

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Wed Dec 09 2020
5

Psycho-somatic addict-insanely good!

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Tue Jan 18 2022
5

They blended electronic with rock not the first to do it but the first to do it well. Every song here is a banger. Every song something new and exciting sounds as awesome as it did at the time and blows a lot of contemporary music up.

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Tue Jan 18 2022
5

Singles like Firestarter and Breathe evoke really pleasant memories of 1997 and being a teenager etc etc. But beyond the nostalgia, this is a really good album. Techno and electronics are not a genre I would normally listen to, but messrs Howlett, Flint and Maxim recorded some timeless music. Catchy tunes, great vocals superb production and arrangements plenty of gusto. Love it. Also, hadn't played this in ages, so was nice to hear it again!

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Thu Apr 14 2022
4

An immense album of beats and aggressive electronica. "Breathe" is the nearest "dance" has got to the Sex Pistols...brilliant stuff. Play it loud, ignore the neighbours, destroy a room.

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Sat Jan 28 2023
3

I must have absorbed this record by osmosis in 1998, because I knew every single one of these songs. (Does math) …so that means I’m good on listening to this album again until 2048.

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Sun Nov 12 2023
3

To me, the prodigy has always seemed like joke music for speed freaks. Giving it a chance, I found that it actually slaps pretty hard. Some of the vocals are still embarassing to me though. Strong 3.

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Fri May 19 2023
2

Feel like I am watching a 90s piracy ad while listening to this. Wasn’t all that impressed but it is nice to turn on to get work done.

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Wed Sep 13 2023
1

If getting stoned and going to clubs is your thing, then this is the album for you. I don't enjoy either, so that's it for that.

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Tue Feb 23 2021
5

Awesome album. Loved the way the tracks flow into each other.

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Wed May 05 2021
5

Hit after hit, sound of the 90s

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Mon Apr 05 2021
5

I was obsessed with this album for about two weeks in 1999.

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Fri Mar 26 2021
5

Raveros y rompedor, es uno de los discos de mi pandilla, forma parte de nuestra historia. Y además es muy bueno.

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Tue Mar 23 2021
5

Banging basslines which are hard to resist doing firestarter-esque head bangs throughout.

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Wed Apr 27 2022
5

I had this CD... In the late 90's early 2000's that meant a lot...

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Wed Feb 15 2023
5

A whirlpool of mind bending rocket fuel that spins you inside out and leaves you dripping with an urgent sense to fuck anything in front of you. A crunched up volcano at the point of climax, pulsating and throbbing, ready to culminate all over your brand new shoes. It's the entire Chelsea first team and backroom staff jizzing all over your chest on a Tuesday afternoon.

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Fri Apr 09 2021
4

Was already a fan of the first track and the rest of the album held up pretty well

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Fri Mar 19 2021
4

Started good, but I am definitely not into Narayan, which is nine minutes long and in the middle.

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Thu Mar 18 2021
4

Two lead man suicide bands in a row... I checked out some Prodigy when Keith Flint killed himself a few years ago and I liked it. Dangerous, edgy 90s shit. Industrial, dirty, but still some polish to it. It may sound like you're in a club in the Matrix but it's cool.

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Wed Sep 01 2021
4

This is definitely phat. This is such a brilliant album - big, aggressive, moody. It’s a great techno album that throws in influences from metal, hip hop, jungle and makes a massive sound. Back in the day, you could drop Firestarter or Breathe into the set of any club night - indie, house, rock, whatever - and the place would go nuts. RIP Keith.

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Thu Sep 23 2021
4

In contrast to other 90s dance albums we've had, this is very listenable probably because it follows traditional rock formats pretty closely. Not a million miles from a clattery, electro heavy metal at times. There's a huge dose of nostalgia at play here, but Breathe, Firestarter, Smack My Bitch Up and, especially, Diesel Power (adding another Kool Keith appearance to recent listening on this app) absolutely rule.

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Tue Nov 16 2021
4

Nostalgia maybe? There are some really good tracks in there.

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Tue Dec 21 2021
4

great. i forgot how much energy it contains.

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Sat Jun 11 2022
4

Still ridiculously exciting, energetic and fun. Nobody is condoning beating up women - it’s a song title. Great mid 90s electronic music and mixed with rock instruments for the indie/alternative rock crowd - real electro-punk. They were a truly awesome live act. A brilliant experience and memory of seeing them at Park Des Princes in Paris in 1997.

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Wed Feb 15 2023
4

Go on, Bort, you big raving crab. Episode 7. Scott books flights to Thailand in a desperate attempt to try and find an animal sanctuary that he's still allowed to visit.

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Mon Jan 08 2024
4

I'd never really listened to this album all the way through before for some reason, despite loving 'Music for the Jilted Generation' as a kid. There's plenty of banging tracks outside of the big singles, although they don't all hit. In terms of quality and consistency I think someone like the Chemical Brothers were way better, but this is still decent and I'm pretty there for it. 3.5 rounded up.

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Sat Oct 23 2021
3

6/10. it got really samey but the production was nice. sounds exactly like it'd be on a Fast & Furious action sequence, which made it kinda funny to listen to while driving around in traffic in Jack's '01 Camry

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Sat Dec 18 2021
3

Même si j'ai étrangement plutôt apprecié la musicalité offerte par cet album, j'ai en revanche était bien moins conquis par le choix artistique de The Prodigy. Pourquoi avoir choisir un aquarium comme lieu de deroulement de cet album? Et pour cause: on se retrouve très rapidement trempé en lançant l'album, la faute à une immersion des plus totales dès les première secondes. Il devient très vite impossible de respirer. De plus, de multiples animaux marins viennent déranger notre concentration pendant l'écoute, ce qui au bout du 5ème crabe me chatouillant les pieds, a commencé à me taper sur les nerfs. Pour toutes ces raisons, l'album de recoltera qu'un 3/5.

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Mon Feb 12 2024
3

I liked this way too much for something that sounds like the musical equivalent of JNCO jeans with lyrics that read like those memes your unhappy/unsuccessful friends post on Facebook. I’ll probably never listen to this again, but a Solid 3.

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Sat Dec 18 2021
2

The Fat Of The Land est l'histoire d'une romance impossible entre un crabe hypermétrope et un bulot transgenre homosexuel. Cette tragédie sur fond marin nous plonge dans un merveilleux univers aquatique où trahisons et mensonges rythment une histoire d'amour gâchée par de vieilles rivalités familiales. La scène finale dans laquelle le bulot transgenre homosexuel se laisse couler bouche béante vers les abysses sous le regard impuissant du crabe semi-bigleux est à classer parmi les plus émouvantes du genre.

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Thu Sep 14 2023
2

There were one or two classics that I remember from when I was younger, but the overall sound is not my thing.

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Sun Mar 03 2024
2

“You wouldn’t steal a car…”

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Wed Oct 14 2020
5

This is the album that I think of when someone mentions "industrial-electronica". One of the best and deserving to be on the list.

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Mon Feb 01 2021
5

This is good but influenced a lot of bad imitations

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Thu Jul 01 2021
5

I know exactly where was when I listened to this. Loved it.

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Mon Jul 19 2021
5

Classic tunes from beginning to end

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Wed Sep 22 2021
5

Lo siento por desentonar pero qué maravilla de disco. En unos tres o cuatro siglos cuando se hable de música clásica se pondrá este discacho y la gente lo disfrutará en sus mecedoras galácticas.

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Wed Oct 06 2021
5

Troublesome track aside this was an album that soundtracked my younger wilder years and I love it

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Sat Nov 13 2021
5

Mamalon el disco! De lo mejor qué hay en el mundo mundial!

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Sat Nov 13 2021
5

Seminal album from my Teenage years just disappointed to hear how much of the drumming was since. Should go look up if there any drum parts to these songs.

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Sat Nov 20 2021
5

This was the first album to make me realise dance music is great, as a nu-metal loving kid. Every track on this is still great. Best played loud in the car.

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Thu Nov 25 2021
5

I know this album from inside to out. It was a move towards the more hard edged sound that howlett wanted from the beginning. Getting away from the rave scene singalongs to using experimental cuts and beats. This album represents true creative freedom when not tied to shifting units.

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Mon Nov 29 2021
5

Amazing from start to finish.

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Sat Dec 18 2021
5

The prodigy at their peak, a great album

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Sat Jan 08 2022
5

While we nauseously headed towards the new millennia, The Prodigy settled the edge where the anxiety of what's next was conjoined with excitement and frustration and turned it into dance music.

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Mon Jan 17 2022
5

Partially just a nostalgic thing

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Tue Jan 18 2022
5

Quintessential late 90s electro-rock dance music!

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Thu Jan 27 2022
5

1997 - Genre: Big Beat (Big beat is an electronic music genre that usually uses heavy breakbeats and synthesizer-generated loops and patterns – common to acid house/techno.)

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Fri Jan 28 2022
5

Outstanding. Great throwback to 20something years ago :)

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Sat Feb 12 2022
5

The music and the album cover both go hard. Music gets better the louder it is

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Wed Apr 27 2022
5

One of them had his team win Isle if Man TT twice. Even Bob Dylan would get 5 stars if he had done that (but he didn't, he's just a fag). Anyways, Prodigy is cool

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Fri Apr 29 2022
5

The Fat of The Land is a super high octane outing from Prodigy, in which you'd really expect no less. With the controversy of 'Smack my Bitch Up', it only saw to drive the popularity of the record itself and cement Prodigy as psych-electro gods. I know 'Breathe' is more about the pull that drugs can have, but it has been a part of my workout soundtrack for the better part of at least the last 20 years (which blows my mind!), and it always gets me to push further. Best: Breathe Worst: Narayan

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Tue Jun 14 2022
5

This album is great from start to finish. Such a listen

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Sat Jun 25 2022
5

Controversial and infectious. Very 90's and hypnotic. This was around long before the Wokes were weeping into their Lattes and the Prodigy are a breathe of fresh air in turgid times. I need to play this every morning before I trudge to work to remind me there is life. 25 years on I struggle to think of anyone with as much energy nowadays. Glastonbury is full of comeback bands relying on past times and youngsters copying old masters. This is tremendous.

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Fri Jul 01 2022
5

A monster album with aggressive base and aggressive lyrics in the most part from Keith (RIP). Listen loud!

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Fri Jul 08 2022
5

What a start. RIP fellow park runner

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Tue Jul 12 2022
5

I loved this album back in the late 90’s. It really hooked me on the electronica genre

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Fri Jul 15 2022
5

Smack My Bitch Up - 10/10 Breathe - 9/10 Diesel Power - 8/10 Funky Shit - 6/10 Serial Thrilla - 10/10 Mindfields - 7/10 Narayan - 9/10 Firestarter - 9/10 Climbatize - 10/10 Fuel My Fire - 5/10

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Tue Jul 26 2022
5

All thriller, no filler. What a banger

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Sun Aug 28 2022
5

Great album and Les really hits hard during this period.

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Thu Sep 08 2022
5

Had this as a teenager. Totally forgot how awesome this album is!

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Sun Sep 11 2022
5

It's a classic. One of the defining records of the 90s.

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Mon Sep 12 2022
5

I fucking love big beat. This album is one of the best pioneers of that genre.

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