The Prodigy : Invaders Must Die

I wanted the new Prodigy Album to be good so badly. I’d had a renewed vigor regarding the Prodigy over the last few months in the lead up to the release of ‘Invaders Must Die’. El Dan had been rinsing a CD on the office stereo that my head rockin’ and my fingers desk-drumming like never before, prompting me on more than 1 occasion to turn and ask “What we got on here, pal?”. After the reply came back, always starting with “Prodigy, beht” and ending with a small explanation of where the tracks had come from, it was clear that he had made a ‘Mix Tape’, if you will, of previously unreleased, re-mixed and soundtrack specific tracks that I had never heard before.

Awesome, it was on. I now had some hype in me about the new album release.

My personal favorite Prodigy Album is ‘Music for The Jilted Generation’ and, as I imagine a few other people did too, I wanted to hear a little of that ‘By Christ, I cant help but get up and Dance to this Techno Punk madness’ back in the new album. I had lost interest after ‘Fat of The Land’ was released, maybe because my wondering musical mind was focused on something altogether different, or maybe because I had overdosed on the The Prodigy with the previous Album and didn’t have the heart to face up to the fact that ‘Fat of the Land’ might not meet with the high expectations I had for it, and except for a few single releases filtering through the radio, I pretty much forgot about The Prodigy until now.

Over the last couple of weeks the radio has been playing ‘Omen’ the new single, and by rights this should really have prompted Pendulum to pack up their shit and go home. If that didn’t do it then the release of the album this week might.
It’s a bit of a blinder ladies and gentlemen, I believe The Prodigy are…how do you say?…BACK!

The opening track ‘Invaders must die’ get the hairs on the back of my neck to stand and salute as the dirty distorted bass and soaring synths smack you square in the face . The beat sounds like one you’d use while kickin’ a door in, and the simple vocal refrain ‘We are the prodigy’ cements this band at the forefront of your mind for the next 40 minutes, or so.

The neck hairs stay stood for tracks 2 and 3, ‘Omen’ who anyone owning a radio would not have been able to avoid over the last couple of weeks and who’s chorus will have you reciting ‘Omen men men men men’ over and over again, and ‘Thunder’ which sports a dark dirty bass line and ragga vocal refrain.
‘Colours’ is more of a conventional song, a techno punk tune with male/female harmonizing vocals – something relatively new for the prodigy, but still retaining something that says, err…we are the prodigy.
‘Take me to the Hospital’ immediately transports me back to early prodigy circa ‘Charli’ and ‘Out of Space’ then bring be crashing back to the present with a classic Keith Flint delivery.
Straight back to the old school for ‘Warriors Dance’ with a classic female house vocal, super fat bass line and break-beats running the show with those ever present melodic synths on top.

You’d be forgiven for thinking of Ministry at the start of ‘Run with the Wolves’ it’s a downright dirty driving track, balls to the wall noise war, with drums courtesy of rock-god, Dave Grohl.
The album finishes up with classic sounding ‘Worlds on fire’ and ‘Piranha’, another hard-driving punk tune but littered with awkward melodies that wouldn’t be out of place in a 60’s horror flick.
The biggest surprise on the album is the last track ’stand-up’ and probably the biggest departure from the prodigy sound you will have ever heard. A horn led anthem with fat beats and spiky synth melodies. It’s a really positive sounding tune and truly a different tack for a band like The Prodigy.

So, I’m proper chuffed that the album is as good as I wanted…no, needed it to be. I am reformed again, The Prodigy are back in my life, and as this seems more like an album review, Ill give it a score…hrmm…9/10. Buy It.