FAT OF THE LAND
The initial shock was a real surprise, you know. Definitely surprised. We were really happy because it just confirmed what we always thought. We knew it would work in the U.S. It worked everywhere else. There's no reason why it shouldn't. So we were just really happy. We were shocked, to be honest. We knew it was gonna go in to the top 10 and possibly in the top 5, judging on the amount of sales we did in that week and stuff. But, I mean, to go into #1, maybe people will take us seriously. It was about one in the morning. Richard [Russell] from XL [XL-Recordings, the English label the group is signed to] phoned me up and he told me. I think I spent like about an hour phoning people around, just saying "Yeah, what'd you think about that?"

We want to distance ourselves from it, to be honest. We're wise to hype. We've been doing this for seven years now. We know if something's hyped up too much and it hasn't got any substance then it falls flat on its face. To be honest, after being at #1, I think this helps a lot. A lot of people will take us seriously now. It's almost like we had to have that to let people realize that we're not about hype. The Chemical Brothers did pretty well to get to #14 in the American charts. But at the end of the day when you actually look at the quantity of records sold, it isn't a great deal, to be honest. It's like 200,000 the first week. We sold twice as many in England in the first week. It's like not that many records, to be honest. We were really pleased to be at #1. We were surprised. Everyone in England gets the impression that in the American market you need a million records to be at #1. The market isn't like what it used to be; it isn't the same. Two hundred thousand records [in one week] is not that many. You don't expect it to be #1. Number one in itself helps us, you know.
- Liam Howlett

Comments:
The Fat of the Land was released on June 30th 1997 and managed to reach number 1 in 22 countries in the first week including the UK where it is one fastest selling records ever. It was also nominated for a 1998 Grammy for Best Rock Album. Among the most anticipated releases of 1997, The Prodigy's third full-length album is a bulldozing rock-techno hybrid. But while the guitar/samples/hyper-beats mosaic that made "Firestarter" an MTV breakout are found in every nook and cranny of this album, the overall building blocks are far more diverse, making it a tangible melting pot of pre-millennium pop styles. There's a definite hip-hop element here. "Diesel Power," which features quality mic control by Kool Keith (of Ultramagnetic MCs and Dr. Octagon fame), is new-style hip-hop sculpture, applying techno and acid-house textures to apocalyptic ends. Both "Funky Shit" and "Smack My Bitch Up" are throbbing dance-floor ejaculations wrapped around, respectively, Beastie Boys and De La Soul refrains. Kula Shaker's Crispin Mills adds vocals to an Eastern-influenced trance workout called "Narayan. " All this adds up to proof positive that THE FAT OF THE LAND is just the tip of the iceberg.

Reviews:
Included in Rolling Stone's Essential Recordings of the 90's.
Rolling Stone (05/13/1999)

Included in Q Magazine's 50 Best Albums of 1997.
Q (01/01/1998)

Ranked #20 on Spin's list of the Top 20 Albums Of The Year.
Spin (01/01/1998)

Ranked #29 in the Village Voice's 1997 Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll.
Village Voice (02/24/1998)

3.5 Stars (out of 5) - ...packs all the visceral punch of rock at its incendiary best....populist electro punk that serves as a perfect Brit counterpart to the industrial noir of Trent Reznor or the jittery soundscapes of Wu-Tang Clan's RZA...
Rolling Stone Magazine (08/07/1997)

7 (out of 10) - ...maybe the best fusion of pseudo-rap and pseudo-punk since Rage Against The Machine...
Spin (09/01/1997)

...the first block rockin' post-Oasis amyl-techno-punk album....as well as reaffirming their position as head-warping slam-kings of the pop underground, [FAT OF THE LAND] seems set to be the ultimate party soundtrack both sides of the ocean...
New Musical Express (06/28/1997)

...Prodigy leader and beat master Liam Howlett has made THE FAT OF THE LAND harder, more subterranean, more diverse, and more vocal-oriented than previous Prodigy records....This is dance music not about release but aggression, making it ideal party music for the end of the century... - Rating: B
Entertainment Weekly (07/11/1997)