release date: Feb. 18, 2009
format: digital
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,14]
producer: Liam Howlett
label: Take Me to the Hospital - nationality: england, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Invaders Must Die" - 2. "Omen" - 4. "Colours" - 6. "Warriors Dance" - 7. "Run With the Wolves"
5th studio album by The Prodigy is released on the band's own label, Take Me to the Hospital (distributed by Cooking Vinyl). All tracks are produced by Liam Howlett with James Rushent credited for additional production on tracks #1-2. Howlett is normally credited as composer on nearly all tracks, but here is 'only' credited as co-composer of the music, and most tracks are Howlett's take with samples originally performed by Nirvana, Foo Fighters, The Breeders, and Manfred Mann.
The album peaked at number #1 in the UK and generally sold better than the 2004 album, and the two singles - tracks #2 and #6 both became top-10 singles in the UK.
Musically it follows close to the 2004 album, Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned and despite being clearly a better album it's never really great release when comparing to the band's first three albums. It's released five years following the last real studio album so expectations were not low. It feels like a better album, and the single tracks seem like more originally written but still has too much focus on original American techno, which I think, simply sounds outdated - we've been there, done that, but obviously, Liam Howlett hasn't been part of that movement, and unfortunately, he seems determined to go through his own techno evolution combining sampling and hardcore, industrial hip hop, breakbeat and hard rock with traditional techno. Strangely, "Stand Up" sounds like an attempt to make a Chemical Brothers track... and again, several tracks are samplings of old The Prodigy stuff, which is just sad when you hear bits of great old tracks cut up to new lesser songs. Best thing about it, is the comeback to both Keith Flint and Maxim on vocals.
