Originally posted by sonickteam2:
the new Prodigy album, i love it
i love it, i love it.
From the Washington Post (Sept 22)
ALWAYS OUTNUMBERED, NEVER OUTGUNNED
The Prodigy
Upon initial encounter, the Prodigy's comeback feels irrelevant and borderline pathetic.
"Firestarter" was the British act's breakout song. So it begins the new CD with a similarly snarly, electro-punk tune called . . . "Spitfire"? Dudes, you had seven years. Is that all you got?
Don't be fooled. By the end of this entertaining, sometimes excellent cut-and-paste journey, the Prodigy comes close to recapturing its genre-bending electronica crown. Just one man deserves to wear it. Prodigy guru Liam Howlett wrote and recorded this without vocalists Keith Flint (the double-Mohawked, child-scaring evil clown) and Maxim Reality. Armed with a laptop and a penchant for beat thievery, Howlett enlisted eclectic guests instead: looney-tune actress Juliette Lewis, rappers Kool Keith and Twista, Shahin Badar (who sang on the Prodigy's 1997 hit about smacking up your, uh, female golden retriever) -- even Liam Gallagher of Oasis, who sounds reasonably sober.
Howlett refocuses on dance aesthetics here, smoothing out the group's hybrid of rave ecstasy and headbanger crunch. "Girls" pumps out thumping, high-volume discotheque chic, while "Hot Ride" transforms the 5th Dimension's "Up Up and Away" into a slinky grind with a new-wave punk edge. The Prodigy's minimal lyrics are reliably stupid, repetitive and sometimes delivered in ridiculous voices ("If I was in World War II, they'd call me Spitfire!"). No matter. This album is best when nobody's singing and Howlett is pilfering melodies from somebody talented. "The Way It Is" gets supercharged by an incredibly funky reworking of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" riff. Unless the lawyers tell him to beat it, Howlett is one of the best at stealing in the name of groove.
-- Michael Deeds