Music for the Jilted Generation

Howlett recorded the second album at Earthbound Studios in Braintree and at the Strongroom in London, where Neil McLellan co-produced and mixed five tracks. XL released it on 4 July 1994 and Mute licensed it for the US in February 1995. It is largely a reaction to the way mainstream success had changed the rave scene and to the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. Their Law, with Pop Will Eat Itself, carries the plainest message. Voodoo People rests on a guitar riff based on Nirvana's Very Ape and played by Lance Riddler.

Howlett found at the cutting room that his planned tracks would not fit on a CD. One Love appears as its single edit, The Heat (The Energy) was shortened and We Eat Rhythm was left off, turning up later on a free cassette given away with Select. Samples came from Star Wars, Poltergeist III and 2001: A Space Odyssey, and from records by Johnny Pate, Skull Snaps and Kelly Charles. Many years later Howlett called the title stupid and said the album was never meant to be political.

Stewart Haygarth designed the cover and Les Edwards painted the inner sleeve, which alludes to the clashes between ravers and police. NME's Dele Fadele called the album a stormy requiem for those under siege by the Criminal Justice Bill, and Select's Andrew Harrison thought it possibly the best electronic pop record of the year. NME ranked it ninth among the albums of 1994, and the Mercury Prize nominated it. It entered the UK chart at number 1 and reached 5 in the Netherlands and 4 in Sweden. Spin placed it 60th among the albums of the 1990s, and in 2003 David Bowie named it among his favorite music of the decade. Zane Lowe profiled it for BBC Radio 1 in 2008, the year it was reissued as More Music for the Jilted Generation.