To those of you who had pegged the Prodigy as the remnants of a disinherited electro race, think again. After the non-event that was ‘Baby’s Got A Temper’, with its dodgy casino riff and lyrics about bad drugs, Liam Howlett returns to the fray without his erstwhile bandmates. Seemingly intent on undoing the damage caused by the band’s disastrous non-event of a comeback, the boy Howlett sounds eager to counter claims that the Prodigy have been on the verge of self-parody for some time.
For an album that was effectively seven years in the making, Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned is about as Zeitgeist-y as it gets. ‘Spitfire’ is a fantastically bootylicious slice of mayhem, and like Aphex Twin’s ‘Windowlicker’, ‘Girls’ is a hugely infectious ode to high-octane smut. In short, the album is consistently refreshing and neatly experimental, although the collaboration with brother-in-law Liam Gallagher on ‘Shoot Down’ is just plain bizarre. Not in a good way either.
Add to that Howlett’s other collaborators (Princess Superstar, Kool Keith, Juliette Lewis and Twista), and you get an insight into the many stylistic directions in which he wants to take the album.
As Fat Of The Land’s follow-up, this album was always going to be something of a statement of intent. Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned makes for wonderfully vital listening.