The Prodigy: Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * * *)

"I'm a firestarter", they sang in 1997. Then they forgot where they put the matches. Now they've finally found some new spark.

It's been seven years in the making. Or to be more accurate six years in the mucking about and one year in the revising.

But now the outfit that was meant to make the world safe for dance music's answer to stadium rock have finally released their follow-up to 1997's era-defining The Fat of the Land.

As you may have read in these pages last week, Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned doesn't feature the voices of Prodigy frontmen Keith Flint (he of the devil's haircut) or Maxim (he of the scary contact lenses), but the group music's brain Liam Howlett says they will return when the band hit the road.

And who needs the I'm-a-deranged arsonist-I-am Flint in the studio when you get such sterling guest shouters such as ... Juliette Lewis?

Actually of the microphone guest list which includes Liam Gallagher, rappers Kool Keith, Princess Superstar, Twista, and electro-punk outfit Ping Pong Bitches, sometime punk rocker Lewis is the closest this gets to Flint's snarl, especially on big-boom opener Spitfire. And anyway, Howlett doesn't exactly give any of his ring-ins free rein - mostly sound-biting their contributions into a sound that's relentless fuse-blowing aggro.

It also offers a its own mash-up of a variety show, from electro-punk, through hydraulic hip-hop and retooled garage rock among its 12 tracks, ending with Oasis' Gallagher brothers sounding like they're getting something particularly nasty out of their system on the otherwise forgettable Shoot Down.

But where it's strongest is when Howlett's jagged beats are duking it out with the hired help. Its hip-hop urges are among the highlights - especially on the old school-inspired kooky pop fun of Girls, the spidery syncopation of Memphis Bells (the Princess Superstar track), Get Up Get Off (with Twista in tongue-tripping mode) and Wake Up Call (with veteran Kool Keith getting a few words up over its wobbly-bottom synthesizers and warped flutes).

Elsewhere, it's reaching back into rock history with a reworking of Love Buzz originally by Dutch Band Shocking Blue but revived earlier by Nirvana. Howlett keeps the creeping guitars, adds an icy female vocal and it emerges as a weird delight which will be highly amusing to see Flint attempt to sing live. There's a bit more raiding the past on Lewis' other track Hotride, which lifts much of 60s pop chestnut Up, Up & Away and warps it into something oddly menacing.

It can all a bit typically Prodigy around the edges, at worst on the by-numbers You'll Be Under My Wheels. And yes, it can sound a bit dated - just as Prodigy did in at the 2002 Big Day Out five years after their breakthrough.

And as an album this at least offers something beyond the likely singles, which couldn't really be said of its predecessor.

Given its lateness of arrival, it's doubtful it will restore them to their former position as leader-of-the-pack. But it's still mighty impressive. Howlett still fixates on energy at the expense of everything else. But its sheer boom-factor makes it a thumping good album.