Better Living Through Chemistry

Released on 16 September 1996 by Skint in the UK and Astralwerks in the US, the debut was certified gold by the BPI. Going Out of My Head charted in the US. Skint founder Damian Harris described it as more of a compilation than an album, because some tracks had been recorded earlier while Cook was busy with other projects. Three of its songs had already appeared on the first Brassic Beats compilation.

The sleeve shows a 3.5-inch floppy disk, a nod to New Order's Blue Monday sleeve. The title varies a DuPont slogan, and Cook said it also reflected the influence of the Chemical Brothers, whose DJ sets he had attended. Cook made it at home around an Akai S950 sampler, an Atari ST running C-Lab Creator, a Studio Electronics SE1, a Roland Sound Canvas and a Roland TB-303. The 303 had no MIDI, so he used a Kenton Electronics sync box and recorded his live manipulation of its parts to ADAT. Everybody Needs a 303 is named for it.

Rolling Stone's 1997 review called it one of the most fun, shamelessly genre-hopping dance albums of the year. AllMusic gave it four stars out of five. Looking back in 2024, Pitchfork's Brad Shoup called it a glorified singles compilation that largely kept to dance conventions of gradual builds and patient hooks, and singled out Give the Po' Man a Break and The Weekend Starts Here. Give the Po' Man a Break is heard in the 2000 film Traffic, and The Weekend Starts Here in the first episode of the sitcom Spaced. In 2026 Cook said the album was basically him figuring out what he was doing. A 30th-anniversary edition was announced that year, with a remastered double LP and a double CD with a bonus disc of B-sides and a new remix by Sem Jacobs.