Album Review
The Prodigy Invaders Must Die [Take Me To The Hospital] Rave pioneers set out to make Fat Of The Land part two.
Apparently, when The Prodigy’s 1997 album Fat Of The Land went to number one on both sides of the Atlantic, the band’s producer and songwriter Liam Howlett celebrated by having a wank. There was no such cause for self congratulation when the follow-up, Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned, finally arrived in 2004. Howlett and Firestarter singer Keith Flint had fallen out, and Always Outnumbered… was more or less a solo record by Howlett. It had its moments, the explosive aggression of Spitfire for example, but overall it wasn’t just a bug-eyed bloke with funny hair that was missing; the sense of throbbing urgency was gone, too.
Howlett and Flint have since settled their differences. Even so, it’s make-or-break time for the band on album five, and particularly in light of new competition. Last year, Justice and Pendulum retrofitted The Prodigy’s template of noisy dance music and rock posturing, adding youthful exuberance.
Howlett and co’s answer is to remind everyone they invented this stuff by returning to first principles. The squawking synths and avalanche of beats on lead single Omen set the tone, which Howlett has neatly summarised as “_Fat Of The Land_ part two”. Hence Warrior’s Dance samples the rave classic Take Me Away by True Faith and slams it on top of a vicious break beat. If there’s a new development it’s that Flint and fellow frontman Maxim have started singing as well as shouting — see Colours — and to surprisingly good effect.
The album comes to an incongruous and disappointing close with Stand Up — the blaring horns are perilously close to big beat — but, all told, Invaders Must Die is an exhilarating return to form. (7)
- 24.02.09
