If you're so special, why aren't you dead?

"Feel the beat to the dance floor, you and me, cos that's what it's for. Show me now are you ready, you gotta be doing it, cos the music in the house" - Warrior's Dance

Here at Watchmen towers, it's fair to say we like silly dance music. And one of the best silly dance music pioneers is The Prodigy. They make BANGIN CHOOONS man. Or something. Sadly, it looked like recently that the band had peaked, gotten old and were going into decline. The last album, Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned, was a strange beast. Basically a Liam Howlett solo album, it was half full of some great songs, but also contained some really really crap ones.


The Prodigy: Keith Flint, Liam Howlett and Maxim

Most of the press had written them off as past it, but luckily, the band regrouped, took stock and decided to go back to basics. What they returned with was Invaders Must Die.



Invaders Must Die is a stonking album. Its also one of their shortest albums, packed with dirty guitar riffs and the usual beats, it also has a reappearance of the silly keyboard riffs and breaks that would standout from their early songs. It seems the band have remembered that their music can and should just be fun. They have also thankfully made some more uptempo songs, which is helpful if you're on the dance floor or driving really fast.

It's obvious that the band have looked back on their history and melded the best bits of all their works - namely loud drums, Casio keyboards and a filthy guitar riff, with Maxim and Keith sharing vocal duties on the occasional track. But if it isn't broke, why fix it? The band seem to have remembered that instead of being known as controversial, they should be known as simply making great dance music. And where their rivals have failed due to getting rubbish (Daft Punk) or running out of ideas fast (Pendulum) the Prodigy have succeeded in staying fresh and energetic.

The album hurtles along at a breakneck pace, never outstaying it's welcome. The key standout tracks would be World's On Fire, Warrior's Dance, Invaders Must Die (the title track) and Stand Up.

The first time I heard any of the new material before the album was at T in the Park, where I saw the band perform a few of the new songs with the old hits, the strange thing was, the new stuff seemed better than their old hits. So I had high hopes for the album. Thankfully, these hopes have not been shattered.

To end with, here is the footage of the band performing World's On Fire at T in The Park.



Awesome.