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Type: Album Release date: 23/02/2009
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Everyone's favourite punk / dance crossover act, Pendulum - sorry, The Prodigy - are back to take off your head, and transport your body to a claustrophobic dance floor before catapulting you into a gurning oblivion. After the underwhelming Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned, ringleader Liam Howlett has tracked back to the smash rave crossover of Jilted Generation and mashed up vintage polysynth lines with broken guitars and a scattering of whirlwind beats; mostly repeating his recipe for success.

So Pendulum strayed from their Drum 'n' Bass roots and tried to wade into Prodigy territory with the (mostly awful, yet commercially successful) In Silico. Though these Australian voodoo people came full throttle, out of space, and onto the same speedway as our beloved, British, Prodigy - the heat's been on for Liam to break, and enter, new ground since 1997; being unable to fully do so has left a gap in the market for these young pretenders. Perhaps that serves as some explanation to the somewhat territorial title, Invaders Must Die. Or maybe it's just because Invaders Must Die sounds super cool.

Assuaging any doubts of whom you are listening to, the first lyric on IMD is helpfully "We are the Prodigy!" I suspect that works well live. Fans of The Prodigy will either be overjoyed or miffed that vocalists Keith Flint and Maxim are back on duty to try and recreate some of the commercial success of The Fat Of The Land. Falling, as I do, into the haters camp, I find the tedious lyrical surges as invasive and painful as having a wisdom tooth removed without sufficient anaesthesia. OK, Keef and Max were great on the first three albums, but c'mon, Liam dropped them on Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned for a reason!

Track three, 'Thunder' contains neither vocalist and is a prime slice of electro-breakbeat phatness (yes, it deserves a 'ph'), fully composite of raucous 808 kick-drums and beset by throbbing synth bass - it is topped off with a fab, sampled ragga vocal. It's what The Prodge do best, and we love to hear them excel. Similarly 'Warrior's Dance' is classic old skool rave, with its souped up hip-hop break underpinning a sexy enticing female vocal. If they're no longer a health and safety hazard – it's time to reach for those lasers.

Second single 'Omen' is so dull, it gets a 'reprise' on the album. Feels like a bit of a cop out to me. However, 'World's on fire' is so clever, it contains the repetitive lyric "The world's on fire, it's about to expire". If this is a smart, socio-political script about global warming, then I don't wanna hear it. Surely ravers are more concerned about where the water's at, not the heat. Well, they're probably concerned about both, I don't know. Though Liam pretty much runs out of ideas mid-way through IMD, album closer 'Stand Up' sits on a nice hip-hop break with horns and tweaked 303s: it's a bit of a Fatboy Slim moment – circa'96.

A majority of IMD is destined to end up splattered across car adverts and in film soundtracks where the scene is of a pulsing, throbbing, energetic nature. Sadly, that won't lend it any more substance, but is that really why you love The Prodigy? No, it's probably because you were there, in the halcyon days, throwing shapes in the church of dance.

Was 'Always Outnumbered....' really underwhelming?

And if so, why is the return of Keith Flint & Maxim on vocals such a bad thing ("c'mon, Liam dropped them on Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned for a reason!").

Maybe I'm just being confused.

Harsh

I really like The Omen. So will I actually like the rest of this record?

this review

does seem a little confused.

"so dull it gets a reprise" gave me question marks.

doesn't really seem to justify the mark, the only real in-depth breakdown is largely positive. can't complain though, i'm fairly indifferent to the prodigy.

The Prodge??

eugh

jesus

is this really the standard of reviewing that's allowed on DiS these days!?

^ this

Please never write for DiS again. Or learn to write a music review and then come back.

Dare I say

(well, yes I do) The Fat Of Land was a big bag of shit and Always Outnumbered was actually modestly good.

prodigy hav been shite for years

experience and jilted generation were amazing albums

but after that its been drivel

craigx

I think you need to get more Prodigy song titles in, that'll help.

Oh no, wait, that won't help at all. Horrible review.

jilted was their last good album

they need to follow underworld's example and keep up.

My review

Is a little different...

http://www.clashmusic.com/reviews/the-prodigy-invaders-must-die

I honestly think this sits well in their catalogue, which goes...

NUMERO UNO: Jilted Generation
Fat of the Land
Invaders Must Die
Experience
Outgunned

Well I scored the album a 6.

But apparently it didn't read as such. It does sit well in the catalogue, because it's another Prodigy album - and (imo) it's never bad to hear them.

For the record, my order is:

Jilted
Experience
Fat
Invaders
Outgunned

Whether you like it or not; Prodge is a perfectly acceptable term for the band. Was and is.
http://tinyurl.com/cc4u3n

Yes.

Cheers.

Bang. On.

6 makes

a lot more sense with your review :)

"OK, Keef and Max were great on the first three albums"

what did "keef" do on the first two albums?

i seem to remember him dancing but he did it silently

haha

funny all you guys should said 6

i myself gave it a 5.8. but yeah this review is pretty bad

Fair point.

Well made.

this reads like an amazon.com user review.

Not keen on the singles myself, so not hugely anticipating this here release. Methinks The Prodigy are hurtling down a steep hill on rollerskates

yuck.

"Sadly, that won't lend it any more substance, but is that really why you love The Prodigy? No, it's probably because you were there, in the halcyon days, throwing shapes in the church of dance."

Maybe I'm in the minority...

but I really liked 'Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned'. And I reckon the new album is going to be great, even if it is just The Prodigy's rip-off of Pendulum's rip-off of the Prodigy!

Can...

this review be erased and restarted better next time...

This reviewer (Ash Akhtar) needs to re-learn his trade...

He doesn't make any sense!! As stated below his mark (4/10) does not relate to what is, in the majority, a positive review. Picking up on Prodigy lyrics is ridiculous; they never mean anything in the real world...! Firestarter, Smack... etc, it's all for the sound not the intent. Only a fool would read things into them. The only thing wrong with Omen Reprise is that it's 2 minutes long, other than that it's a brilliant euphoric piece. The worst track on the album is probably the title track for it is the only one that sounds like Pendulum/Justice... the rest Pendulum could only dream of making! And what is with his track name dropping in the second paragraph? That's just amateur. Ash doesn't seem to have any balls and is clearly more Coldplay than Prodigy, this album is on a par with Fat and is there most coherent piece... although it's not as groundbreaking as Jilted. The energy on show here will break the house down, which is exactly what you want The Prodigy to do! (8/10)

come on

he was pivotal in 'Death of the Prodigy Dancer'

I was disappointed by what i heard of this album

I heard the 5 track promo of this a few weeks back
I was really disappointed with how dull the songs were. I really enjoyed the kind of sleazy vibe of the last album but this album really sounds recycled and tired. I mean i'll give it another go and hear the full album of course but the songs i did hear were really boring. Uninspired. I reckon 4/10 is harsh in anyones books. it should get half marks just for being a Prodigy lp ;)

Precisely

"Keef" sang nothing on the first two albums (as did Leeroy) and Maxim only sang on Death Of The Prodigy Dancers and Poison. It wasn't until Fat Of The Land that they had a major part to play (along with Kool Keith, Crispin Kula Shaker and Saffron Republica).

If anyone has time for an epic read

a two-part Prodigy interview here:

http://www.clashmusic.com/feature/the-prodigy-interview-part-1

It's, like, 9,000 words...

Second single 'Omen' is so dull, it gets a 'reprise' on the album.

No, it gets a reprise because it's so damn addictive!

Crappy Reviewers Must Die

Despite what this review says this is an amazing album of hard hitting electro dance goodness. Omen is a savage song with a subtle reprise that holds the album together and gives the album a greater sense of flow between songs connecting it all together not "so dull it gets a reprise" like you say in your ignorant views.
I would highly recommend this album to Electro/Dance/Rock and even Drum'n'Bass fans as it has something in it for everyone to blare out loud and dance to.
My Rating 9/10
P.S Please don't pay homeless people to write your reviews for you XD

A comment for Everybody In The Place

Prodigy can't handle The Heat (The Energy), from the Fire, so they should not Fuel The Fire any longer unless they want to cause a Weather Experience involving fire and the Death of the Prodigy Dancers.

A comment for Everybody In The Place

Prodigy can't handle The Heat (The Energy), from the Fire, so they should not Fuel The Fire any longer unless they want to cause a Weather Experience involving fire and the Death of the Prodigy Dancers.

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