Considered by many as a failure, “Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned”, the fourth studio album by The Prodigy, released on 23rd August 2004, 7 years ago, is the band lowest sold album and it was a departure from the band’s previous, mainstream success album, “The Fat of the Land”. Of the three members of The Prodigy, only Howlett is present on the album, some consider it almost a solo release of Howlett with the appearance of a lot of guest stars including actress Juliette Lewis, Oasis frontmen Liam and Noel Gallagher, Kool Keith of the Ultramagnetic MCs, who was previously featured in “Diesel Power”, American rapper Twista, Shahin Badar, English hip hop musician Princess Superstar, and The Magnificent Ping Pong Bitches.
Critics might dislike this one, I’m still loving it.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnxLinrHzKk&w=540&h=435]
Liam Howlett recorded the album mostly by himself in similar vein to “Experience” (1992), using the Propellerhead Reason program, with the mastering being done on Pro Tools installed in his Macintosh laptop. Howlett purchased and brought a laptop, a copy of the Reason program, and selected a Thermionic Culture Phoenix valve compressor and Culture Vulture distortion unit, a Korg Micro Keyboard, a Manley valve EQ and a 1980s Korg MS20 analogue keyboard in order to be able to write songs and work in his bad. Although the production process started in 1998, with breaks and several re-starts, the work was finished only in April 2004.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvmGbkYDWz4&w=540&h=435]
Track list:
01. Spitfire (5:08)
02. Girls (4:07)
03. Memphis Bell (4:28)
04. Get Up Get Off (4:19)
05. Hotride (4:36)
06. Wake Up Call (4:56)
07. Action Radar (5:32)
08. Medusa’s Path (6:08)
09. Phoenix (4:38)
10. You’ll Be Under My Wheels (3:56)
11. The Way It Is (5:45)
12. Shoot Down (4:28)
XL Recordings, 23rd August, 2004.
The album title is a play on the name of the Walter Mosely crime novel “Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned”.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82Av1YBQSVU&w=540&h=333]
This is a dense, noisy and heavy s*it, sometimes have some particular chaotic vibe, but it goes with the flow, it blows your speakers. Dig it!
