The Fat of the Land

On The Fat of the Land, voices do more than carry a tune. Breathe and Firestarter present brief, insistent statements that seem to approach the listener directly. Yet the record is not composed entirely of compact slogans. The long spans of Narayan and Climbatize make the maintenance and transformation of intensity equally important.

The original ten-track album appeared in 1997. Breathe occupies the second position, followed by Diesel Power, Funky Shit, Serial Thrilla and Mindfields. Narayan then extends beyond nine minutes before Firestarter arrives at track eight. Placing that familiar single after a long scene gives it a particular dramatic entrance. Climbatize and Fuel My Fire still remain, so the two best-known singles cannot stand in for the whole sequence.

Not simply a move into rock

Rough timbres and prominent singers can make the album seem like an abandonment of electronic music. In an interview, Liam Howlett instead stressed continuity in the attack of beats and bass. A change in audience does not automatically erase that continuity. After concentrating on the vocal presence, listen again to what keeps each scene moving when the voice drops out.

What the longer tracks contribute

Narayan and the approximately six-minute-thirty-eight-second Climbatize are not empty stretches between singles. Repeated material can make listeners wait for changes in density, emphasis or space. A texture seems to open, percussion recedes, or an established sound acquires a different weight. Expecting every track to contain the same number of verses and choruses obscures these ways of organising musical time.

Hear the single in its position

Played alone, Firestarter immediately places its vocal character in the foreground. Following Narayan, it can also feel like a broad scene contracting into a forceful individual presence. Climbatize subsequently opens another extended space before Fuel My Fire closes the album. The record’s impact need not be explained solely through publicity or sales. Its decisions about duration and order offer something more precise to hear inside the volume.