The Prodigy Album: “Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned”

Starting off strong with the indian beats that make anything cool, 'Spitfire' is a brilliant single and an excelent way to sell this album. It sounds like a track that could have been on 'Fat of the Land' and since that is their BEST album it only makes sense that any likeness to it would sell a record. But it doesn't end there. Another favorite is 'Memphis Bells' which uses the 'bells' perfectly to create a masterpiece gone arry. The guest stars are a perfect choice, from Juliette Lewis on 'Hot Ride' and Twista (my personal favorite) spitting fury on 'Get Up Get Off'. The ode to Michael Jacksons 'Thriller' is apparent on 'The Way it Is' but Prodigy manages to make something new and different out of it, not just recycling it but acually reimagining it. 'Phoenix' is another standout track that takes advantage of the indian vibe and 'Action Radar's "a little action is all i need" will get the mood right (and is it just me or does she sound like Shirley Manson? I mean, this sounds like a track that could have come out on Garbage's 2.0) ANyways, buy this album, it's that good!

Who wants to know why The Prodigy are regarded as one of the most important electronic acts of the 90s? Actually, most of you probably already know, but I'll tell you anyway. Their music was always good enough to achieve mainstream success, yet they never milked it seeing as they didn't need to. They released a completely different sounding album each time, all three of them being symbolic of the culture from which they spawned; Experience is the epitome of early 90s rave, Jilted Generation showcases rave's move towards darker and harder sounds while Fat Of The Land answered the call for something new, combining rock and electronic music in previously unheard ways. This, combined with their (im)famously intense live shows (I'm yet to experience one myself though) garnered them a lot of respect and quite the fanbase.

When I initially got into Prodigy as a 12 year old kid back in 1997, I fell in love with all their albums despite them sounding so drastically different and despite having no knowledge of the culture behind them. Why? Because the songs just screamed out to be loved. It didn't matter to me that Experience sounded nothing like Fat Of The Land (which is what I was expecting and hoping it would sound like). Instead of being disappointed, I just listened. The music was just really well made. I listened to that album the other day and forgot just how good it was. It was well written, full of energy and feeling. That was nine years ago and while The Prodigy are far from my favourite band the way they were back then, they've still gotten play from me since then to this day.

So, seven years after arguably their best album, The Prodigy brought us Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned in 2004. Is it bad? By no means. Crunchy drums, cathy vocal lines, some cool samples here and there and some memorable riffs and melodies certainly doesn't make a bad album. Where does it fall short then? Well, for starters it's really nothing new. Nothing on this album makes you sit up and take notice like they did on previous albums. Secondly, it doesn't feel connected to anything. The other three albums all said something about their culture. By contrast, this one seems to stand alone like a lost sheep. The songs are simply to bland and repetitive for me to feel like this album is truly something special. This album just doesn't feel like it's saying anything or that it means anything.

After seven years, I'd have thought there'd be something a little more remarkable than this.

With seven years between albums an eon and a half for an electronic music outfit, Prodigy should hope to pick up a whole slew of new fans after they play the first track on this return. Spitfire comes out swinging, big, loud, obnoxious, addictive. It's followed by perhaps the best track on the album, the single Girls, combining the hip-hop of old, a whole slew of styles and a massive, fuzzy, Fat of the Land-style beat.

Those two tracks may likely be the strongest, but it's a good album right through the end. It's all Liam Howlett here, as Keith Flint and Maxim don't contribute a lick, and perhaps for the best. Howlett's got his beats, his laptop, his toys, and he's generating a massive sound. Instead of vocals by Flint, we have a string of guests, most notably Juliette Lewis (whose Spitfire lyrics are so distorted I thought it was Zack de LaRouche at first), as well as Kool Keith, Liam Gallagher and others. I like how the guests are often so distorted that they sound like old samples, an interesting technique.

Basically, Howlett scrapped the direction of Prodigy after the lousy 2002 single Baby's Got a Temper, a lame ode to Rohypnol that came and went and is thankfully not included here. This is pretty raw, and promising. It remains to be seen if Howlett can come up a new 'thing' in less than seven years now.

Forget the critics, this is good, it's not deep stuff, it's loud, it's fist-pumping, you can move. There's nothing absolutely ground-breaking or anything to really make you think, but it's good at what it does.

Being a massive fan of the previous Prodigy albums, I was so disappointed in this album I very nearly sold it after one listen. Basically, if you're expecting anything FOTL you won't get it here. It's logical to consider that after 7 years, the Prodigy sound has changed massively. If we had got more 'Baby's Got A Temper', it might as well be called Fat Of The Land II. Tracks such as Spitfire, The first six tracks contain the club funkability of the previous CD, yet at a more hip hop, bouncy pace. The whole vibe of the album is spiky, punky and raw. I'd say the only bad tracks are 'Phoenix' and 'Action Radar', because neither contains the pure sonic energy nor funkability and production skill of The Prodigy. Overall, depending on whether you're a hardcore fan, a massive fan (like me) or just interested, you'll either rate AONO as either a weak, crappy collection of songs, a fat and different change to The Prodigy sound, or a wholesome break from normal dance.

This cd is more along the lines of the chemical brothers than what weve all come to know as prodigy especially with the gallagher collaboration, but i agree with liam that the band needed a change in vocalists because a fat of the land 2, 7 years later wouldnt have cut it. This album is more fun than past efforts and thats a mood that liam has not ventured into much. The only problem that i have with this cd is that a lot of the songs give you the full force when they start and by about 2 minutes it gets a bit repeditive and boring. Standouts for me would be, Girls, Hotride, Medusas path and the way it is...

Overall this cd is not as revolutionary as fat of the land, jilted or experience but it feels like a breath of fresh air in its originality over most of the electronic music that we are hearing today. And after all with fat of the land being such a huge album that branched out to so many different people and musical tastes, and with what started as dancers... that started to front the band and leave liam in the shadows, liam needed to reclaim his territory and lay down what music the prodigy will be and has always been about. HIS music.