Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | |
| Entertainment Weekly | (B) |
| Robert Christgau | |
| Pitchfork Media | (7.9/10) |
| Q | |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Music Emissions | |
| Sputnikmusic | |
| Spin | |
| BBC Music | (very favourable) |
The Fat of the Land has received critical acclaim. The album debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. The album has since gone double platinum, selling over 2 million copies in the U.S. In 1999, the album entered the Guinness World Records as the fastest-selling UK album and was also nominated for a Grammy Award.
It has been featured in a number of music publication lists:
- In 1998, Q magazine readers voted The Fat of the Land the ninth greatest album of all time.
- In 2000 Q placed it at number 47 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. It has also been ranked number 43 in Q's "Best 50 Albums of Q's Lifetime" list, and was included in their "90 Best Albums of the 1990s" and "50 Best Albums of 1997" lists.
- Rolling Stone included in their "Essential Recordings of the 90s" list.
- Spin ranked it number 20 on their list of the "Top 20 Albums of the Year " list.
- Melody Maker ranked it number 13 on their list of "Albums of the Year" for 1997 and number 29 in their 1997 Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll.
- NME ranked it number 17 in their 1997 Critics' Poll.
The album is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. The album was also nominated for the 1997 Mercury Music Prize.
In 2004, KISS co-founder Gene Simmons covered "Firestarter" on his second solo album, Asshole.
The album also caused some controversy. The National Organization for Women objected to the seeming misogyny of "Smack My Bitch Up", though the band maintains that its true interpretation is "doing anything intensely".
Read more about this topic: The Fat Of The Land
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“But in the reception of metaphysical formula, all depends, as regards their actual and ulterior result, on the pre-existent qualities of that soil of human nature into which they fall—the company they find already present there, on their admission into the house of thought.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)
“He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)
“Aesthetic emotion puts man in a state favorable to the reception of erotic emotion.... Art is the accomplice of love. Take love away and there is no longer art.”
—Rémy De Gourmont (1858–1915)