The Prodigy
The Day Is My Enemy
(Take Me To The Hospital)
Six albums in 25 years is not a prodigious amount, and there are those who would argue that the Essex trio reached their creative peak a long time ago with 1997's The Fat Of The Land, when they provided an electro-industrial flipside to Britpop's guitars, their feet in 1980s raves rather than 1960s rock. But subsequent albums Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned (2004) and Invaders Must Die (2009) kept them at the No 1 spot, and I'd be surprised if The Day Is My Enemy doesn't do the same.
Energy levels seem to be restored after the six-year break. The title track blasts out of the blocks with divebombing synths, military rat-a-tat-tat drums, a catchy keyboard interlude and Martina Topley-Bird adding a Cole Porter sample that gives the album its name. Then comes Nasty, a Prodigy single from the Firestarter mould, with Keith Flint confirming his bid to be Johnny Rotten for the dance generation.
But although Ibiza co-opts rap/laptop duo Sleaford Mods to slag off superstar DJ culture and Wild Frontier has Liam Howlett working overtime on keyboards, the album eventually settles into an indistinguishable cycle of thumping beats, abrasive synths and shouty phrases. On record, it's wearing; but it'll doubtlessly explode when The Prodigy properly come into their own in the live arena.
Alan Morrison
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.Â
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.Â
That is invaluable.Â
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article