my review for what it's worth.
The Prodigy new album.. my mini review.. pardon the typos!
The day is my enemy 5/10
So even tho its not my thing, Its a tightly produced track.. I like the vocal and where its coming from but sadly for me the prodigy making slow quasi metal has no appeal, far too americanised for me to be interested with a really dull arrangement. Sonically it kicks but ideas wise it lacks.
Nasty 1/10
Maybe one of the weakest prodigy tracks in recent years, borrowing from “Omen” beats and trying to repeat the top 5 magic Omen brought them, it never reaches those kind heights. Never as catchy as omen hence its poor 98 position in the charts.. yes ladies and gents.. 98. Liam whats with the loops?
Rebel Radio 3/10
Wow..seriously.. The *break incase of emergency” stock pile of beats has been raided here.. oh great.. firestarter gets an outing now. He couldn’t even be arsed to do anything really different with the firestarter beats either.. nice one. Again a really uninspiring arrangement accompanied by a vocal that just doesn’t work with the groove. Loops loops and more loops.
Ibiza 1/10
This is officially Liam howletts “dad dance at a wedding” moment in music . Its spectacularly embarrassing. The instantly forgettable “sealford mods” vocal just seems to.. happen.. zero engagement with the track, the subject matter.. you guessed it folks.. IBIZA and how all these superstar DJs are just making stacks of money from plugging in USB sticks..Liam..my good man.. you’re doing exactly them same.. just re-hashing track after track.
On this album alone I’m hearing pretty big slices from Firestarter, Diesel power, Omen, Take me to the hospital and I’m sure if a listen closer ill be able to pick out more. You whinge about pre mixes in ibiza while you’re charging fans £64 for a deluxe version of your album.. Ibiza indeed, PS sleaford mods are gash. Totally forgettable.
Destroy 4/10
Certain elements are ok, but again.. the beat is way to weak and lacks any bite or definition. No punch and strangely sounds like a prodigy fan trying to make a prodigy record but without really
ever getting there. Arrangement also absolutely buries the track.. just uninteresting loops.. Sounds like it should have been on some early 00s made for TV matrix-esq nightclub scene.
Wild Frontier 2/10
Again this feels like a fan made track. Id have never of believe you if you told me this was liam howlettt.. Also again.. borrowing from Oman. Vocals don’t work, The beat isn’t sitting.. it sounds like a mishmash of ideas from someone who’s either coked up or suffering with terrible ADHD. Remarkably With all the chaos thats been flung at you in spades.. It still manages to sound painfully dull.. Never really managing to generate any energy
Rok-Weiler. 2/10
Fuel my fire and serial thrilla was by far the prodigy worst moments of the 90s, to have them both revisited in the one track is a shocker. You can barely hear the flint vocal on the track.. which is probably a good thing. Weak generic breakbeat and the re-occuring theme of the 15 track album so far is.. arrangement lets the track down.. its NEVER kicks in.
Beyond the Deathray 0/10
So you know in those great prodigy albums where theres always a crazy atmospheric section, think skylined, claustrophobic sting. Climbatize, weather experience well.. THIS ISNT THEM.
LAZY LAZY LAZY LAZY KEEP YOUR FINGER PRESSED ON A PRESET ARPEGIATED RIFF FOR
3 MINS. This track is absolutely crowbarred into the album, its thrown in for the sake of “oh shit we need to make this interesting and cinematic” .. absolutely doesn’t work.
Rhythm Bomb (feat. Flux Pavilion) 5/10
The Jomanda - Make My Body Rock sample stands out.. but the flux pavillion input.. was it necessary? again despite been hammered to the wall and drenched in crunchy distorted repetitive beats it never seems to truly get you in the gut.. no WOW moment
Im giving it a 5 because the sample is cool.
Roadblox 1/10
Awful.. just how has it got to this? theme park funderland music. I cant even really have a go at the vocal as ALL prodigy vocals are daft..but maxim manages to sound so lifeless here..the music is just nondescript.. this could be anyone making breaking music. Again just a pile of loops thats somehow just knocked into a 5min track!
Get Your Fight On 2/10
Are those the “take me to the hospital” beats just straight lifted? Vocal seems jarring, again everything just seems to be swamped in distortion.. Someone would probably want to tell Liam Howlett that drowning your tunes with thermionic culture vulture doesn’t give you a “SOUND”. It seems like the more crunch and distortion thats added on these tracks the softer they get.
Medicine 3/10
This is really frustrating as I feel theres the nucleus of a really decent track here, the beat is at least defined and is allowed to breathe a little.. borrowing from diesel power and Schooly D.. It also uses a middle eastern riff that sounds similar to “medusas path” from their AONO album.
The vocal is unlistenable I’m afriad. For a start its out of tune, terribly jarring and as silly lyrics go.. this tests my patience.
Shame.. could have been a good track
Invisible Sun 3/10
Again howlett crowbarring some much need atmospherics into the LP and slowing things down. I don’t know if you're familiar with the famous Miami Vice scene where Phil Collins’s “in the air tonight” is playing.. if you don’t.. check it.. its kind of cool :
https://vimeo.com/33935936but back to my point.. think of that scene.. only with ron burgundy playing electric guitar.
Wall of Death 4/10
This track is just lost in distortion, making the beats very very tame accompanied by a flint vocal of “fuck this and fuck the cash” .. so you’ll be giving your half up to oxfam flinty? sound bloke.
Lack of progress on the arrangements and rehashed invaders must die sessions are all over this track..
Rise of the Eagles 1/10
Going for a sleezy new york punk thing here.. but fails.. let it go liam.. its just not you..
The weakest prodigy album to date, AONO had at least 3 great singles, Invaders Must Die had had two top 10 singles and i won’t even bother listing the 90s gems.
What ruins the album is the lack of ideas, 2 minute loops been made to play out over 5 minutes, no progression and surprisingly so un-catchy..Liam always had the ability for me to hit the sweet spot when it comes to making hard tracks sound incredibly catchy but their isn’t one stand out song on this.. Drowning things in distortion to the point where there’s a terrible lack of brightness, definition and clarity in the tracks really exhausts the ears and makes you wonder is he doing this to disguise just how uninteresting the tracks are? I thought this kind of thing peaked out with Ed Banger?