Day 0784 - Music for the Jilted Generation

Prodigy "Music for the Jilted Generation" (1994) - got it

Liam Howlett handed Keith Flint a cassette with some dance mixes on one side and some of his own material on the other, labelled with the name 'Prodigy'.  The name was taken from an old Moog synthesizer and was being used by Howlett for his DJ performances.  The two, along with rapper Maxim and keyboardist/dancer Leroy then formed a group to pin the name Prodigy too.

The group achieved success on the rave scene with their initial singles and debut album "Experience".   Jilted Generation marked a kick against the mainstream adoption of the rave scene and the Conservative Party's attempt to crack down on that scene (the track "Their Law" seeming to be a direct attack against this).

This album still sounds pretty damned fresh for a release creeping up on 30 years old.   "Poison" is still a banger, and Howlett's mix of aggressive beats, hypnotic loops and dialogue sound samples works nicely.   I daresay that the album could stand to be a track or two shorter, but I really enjoyed revisiting it.

Day 0766 - Vauxhall and I

Morrissey "Vauxhall and I" (1994)

Morrissey's fourth album... this is another of those points where I have scratch my head at the selections on the list.   I don't really hear anything musically in this album that hasn't already been covered in Morrissey's other entries in the list so far.  There are far more musically interesting albums out there from other artists that could have been selected in place of this.

The album is pretty much Morrissey doing his thing.   It's a bit mellower than "Your Arsenal" and the lyrics seem to very much be driven by the deaths of people around Morrissey at the time, including legendary guitarist Mick Ronson (who'd produced Morrissey's previous album), his manager, and a director of some of his music videos.   With a song called "Hold onto your friends", and the line 'tell all of my friends/I don't have too many' in the song "Now my heart is full" it seemed that Mos was ruminating on mortality in general and the shrinking of one's social circle with age.   Worthy subjects, but still not really enough that the album needed to be in this list.