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Originally Posted by holden
Back on track, I've been listening to Fat of the Land a lot lately. Just a stunning, startling album, even 20 years on. I hope that the new LP will similarly inspire. Some records are of their time, some immediately forgettable, others transcendent.
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I think that new track "Light Up The Sky" sounds promising. I wasn't too thrilled with "Need Some1" as I heard an earlier live version with a different synth line that I prefer over the album version. But it seems "Need Some1" isn't meant to be their big official comeback single, more of a little welcome back taster. They did something similar with Invaders Must Die when they released the title track ahead of the album, but "Omen" was the real single they pushed. Actually, they've done this since the beginning now that I think about it. "One Love" came out almost a year before Jilted dropped and "Firestarter" was over a year before FOTL arrived.
I love The Fat Of The Land, my favorite Prodigy album. I started listening to them in 1993 when I was 9 years old. A lot of folks praise Jilted as their fave, which it is an amazing record, but FOTL is a whole other level. The accumulation of so many sounds and styles, just powerful. Like Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral, it transcends electronic music and brought electronic music to a bigger audience. That era also had some great b-sides: "Molotov Bitch," "The Trick," "One Man Army / No Man Army".
In 2002, Liam finally put out their cover of The Specials of "Ghost Town" that was done during FOTL, but was scrapped after Tricky dropped his own cover around the same tine. So if you like the production of FOTL, check out "Ghost Town." It was included on the NME & Warchild Presents 1 Love and Independents Day ID08 charity compilations. Also, "Back 2 Skool" is an FOTL era leftover that was played live in 2002 and finally finished abd released in 2005 on the Their Law compilation bonus disc. That bonus disc also features "Voodoo Beats," which is Liam's remix of The Chemical Brothers remix of "Voodoo People" that he used to drop live during FOTL tours.
It's a shame for it's 15th anniversary, the label reissued the album with newly commissioned remixes instead of just putting the album together with its b-sides and any other unreleased material. Leftfield did the same crap with their Leftism 22 release meanwhile they have loads of b-sides and alternate versions from that era. No one wants new remixes.
There was an unreleased FOTL track called "Take Me On" that featured Skin from Skunk Anansie on vocals which never surfaced. Liam did sample some guitars from a Skunk Anansie track on "Serial Thrilla." She would eventually collaborated with vocalist Maxim on his track "Carmen Queasy" for his solo album Hell's Kitchen. "Climbatize" was also structurally very, very different and was intended to fear Perry Farrell on vocals. It was originally more of a building and evolving type of track. Liam met with Perry who asked them to play Lollapalooza at the time. Sadly, their schedule was full with writing the new album and shows they already booked. Liam had to turn him down, so Perry responded by telling him he couldn't do the track.