The Prodigy Album: “Invaders Must Die [CD//DVD]”

Prodigy have long been off the top of the charts but they finally manage to come back and garner attention across the globe. Catchy tracks such as "Smack My ***** Up" and "Firestarter" were what captivated the world the first time around when The Prodigy released their to date best selling album

. They have since experimented quite a bit and fell off the radar a bit and even alienated some fans, but the boys are back and in fine form.

'Invaders Must Die' reminds me of

in that it's songs are catchy yet hold enough originality to not come off as the band trying their hardest to get back in the spotlight. The albums first two singles 'Omen' and the album's title track are exactly what the band needed to push the album beyond their UK fan base. Both songs border on popish Techno but push their original style enough to set them apart, 'Omen' is in my opinion one of Prodigy's most mature and addictive tracks to date.

The music on IMD keeps a fast beat beginning to end and each track stands on it's own. The major difference between IMD and the rest of their discography is that vocals are much more prominent on IMD then previous releases, almost every track has singing or vocals of some sort. "Colours" has a chorus that will probably be heard on dance floors world wide for years and is also one of my personal favorites on the album. Also I would advise getting your hands on an imported version as they come with some amazing bonus tracks.

All in all in my humble opinion this is The Prodigy's best release and is easily the most accessible to a wide range of music lovers. New fans of the group definitely need to check out their older material but be cautious as this album stands out against the gritty more experimental sound of earlier releases. Old fans may be a bit alienated due to the extreme contrast to previous albums but I think most will appreciate Invaders Must Die as much as I do. Be sure to check out the video for Omen that I included with my review, it's their best video to date. Thanks for reading and I hope my review has helped your choice to purchase this album.

-A loyal Prodigy fan.

Mmm. The anger is back. This is the key attribute of the music that drove the masses worldwide to The Prodigy a decade ago. It was angry. Steaming. Explosive. Even the track names sparked controversy. With really only "Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned" to gap the time since the rage nirvana that was "Fat of the Land", there were justifiable worries about the direction of something new. Fans will be pleased to know that, instead of another questionable attempt to reinvent themselves, The Prodigy have walked back a few steps and decided to charge forward from there.

Anger. It really is all about anger. A lot of the old appeal was listening to the music and feeling that it was a bunch of guys who wanted to scream at the universe. In 2003 it's almost at though they got together and thought "let's just record a bunch of stuff that's been our minds and sounds cool" and triggered an identity crisis by accident. Not this time. There is so much anger in this album, it tugs at your very soul-- see 'Omen' and 'Run With the Wolves' in particular. Now older and more matured, the group has surrendered the need to have a shock factor in their music and have gone ahead to work on the finer details of the art instead.

Not every track is 100% pure rage coming out of your speakers, but you don't get any real chances to relax. It's The Prodigy as they originally intended you to enjoy them. This is a lovely message of "thanks for waiting and putting up with us", though they certainly don't need to make any kind of apology. The music speaks for itself. It's not a revolutionary release like what we saw in 1997, but the vibe and background feeling are here again.

2009 graced us with Invaders Must Die, which is a classic-sounding Prodigy album with all original members returning. We do see some evolution however, as Prodigy are a band that constantly introduces new sounds and styles to their mix. The title track is amazing and catchy, but "Take Me To The Hospital" stands out, as it manages to blend Liam Howlett's signature break beat sound with the fiery vocals of Keith Flint better than 1997's overrated single "Firestarter".

"Colours" pummels the listener with a fast, inventive, and enticing beat, backed by a buzzing synth bass and topped off with a catchy 8-bit-sounding keyboard crescendo melody that makes this the album's best track.

"Run With The Wolves", a vocal-heavy track, features the group's new-found

love for more distorted synth sounds and the signature Prodigy pounding beat, avoiding the standard four on the floor that every other electronic artist embraces in nearly every song. The group also manages to avoid falling in the trap many of their peers do that involves repetitive dance songs free from any musical progression (besides getting louder and faster).

The only song that really lacks anything special would have to be "Stand Up", a completely instrumental closing track that sounds more like a high school marching band than Prodigy. It does feature some synth, but only for a few seconds at a time. Other than that, the album displays the group's power, creativity, and progression.

Musically, the beats are more calculated, but not overly complex to the point where you can't follow them. The synth melodies follow this pattern as well ("World's On Fire") and both of these points illustrate Howlett's patience, skill, and passion as the primary composer.

Invaders Must Die is easily the best electronic album of 2009 and definitely one of the ten best releases of 2009.

This album is for those of you who have been wishing that Prodigy released another album like Fat of the Land. Heavy bass, infectious beats, this album takes no prisoners with no filler tracks. There are old school rave-style synths that are somewhat dispersed throughout the album that just adds to the goosebumps of nostalgia, but laid over heavy beats reminiscent of Fat of the Land style production. Vocals (when available) are on point. The production in this album is ingenious: even infectious beats, when they play for long enough, can become monotonous and this album is full of clever build-ups, breakdowns, pauses, all ingeniously placed at just the right time. I'm not trying to hype up this album too much, but honestly if you're one of the ones missing the 90's big beat tracks then this album is your dream come true.

The only prerequisite for this album is that is MUST be listened to through speakers capable of doing the album justice, very unique and heavy basslines. You have to crank the songs up loud to do them justice!

I can't believe the other reviews on this CD. "Sounds too much like their old albums." Uh... that's because they are the Prodigy. I expect their songs to sound similar. Each music artist has "their sound" and you should expect to hear "that sound" from each album.

This CD is fantastic. The opening track is great and booming. The drums in the "Run with the Wolves" track are killer. The DVD is nice - two music videos and the rest are live performance tracks.

If you even remotely like The Prodigy then this is a must buy.

I would buy from Amazon.com's MP3 store, but I like FLAC encoded audio these days and a CD-ROM is the only way you can get that unfortunately. Listen up Amazon: put up FLAC and I'll buy your digital tracks instead.