Album Review: The Prodigy – The Day Is My Enemy

Being the first The Prodigy album for six years, I had incredibly high hopes for ‘The Day Is My Enemy’. My hopes were bolstered with the release of the first three singles, which definitely delivered, but the album in its entirety is not quite as good as it could have been.

That isn’t to say it isn’t a solid effort and that I’m not grateful for the new offering, but there are a few ways in which the album falls short and, undeniably, it lacks the X factor of its brilliant predecessor, ‘Invaders Must Die’.

‘The Day Is My Enemy’ is three tracks longer than ‘Invaders Must Die’ and, whilst I’d be usually be thrilled to have even more new music, on this occasion it belies part of the problem with ‘The Day Is My Enemy’. The eighth track, ‘Beyond the Deathray’, is wonderfully atmospheric and has a great melody; however, it doesn’t really go anywhere or have the kind of spark I’ve come to expect from a Prodigy track. I’m not saying that The Prodigy will ever be answerable to my expectations, but the track is right in the middle of the album and it sucks out a lot of the pace and energy.

There are three or four tracks that feel like filler, taking the whole stock and pace of the album down.

Whilst The Prodigy can tap into a range of styles and genres, something they do well on this album, I really don’t feel they executed ‘Beyond the Deathray’ with any particular panache. This track epitomises the problem with the lengthy album, and that is that there are three or four tracks that feel like filler, taking the whole stock and pace of the album down; a shame as it is a good album overall and it is growing on me with every listen.

In contrast to some of the filler tracks, there are some really killer tracks, such as the title track, ‘The Day Is My Enemy’, which is a great blend of percussion and oozing bass; a great example of what The Prodigy do best. Other bangers include ‘Rok-Weiler’ and ‘Medicine’, which bring oodles of energy and help to make up for some of the flatter spots on the album.

A big plus point for the album is the way it covers a variety of aspects of what The Prodigy do well. ‘Wild Frontier’ is fairly far from their usual brief but it’s probably my favourite track off the album; it also happens to have a cracking video, which is well worth checking out.

A brilliantly nostalgic sound that encompasses everything that has been great about The Prodigy over their many years.

Despite this variation, the album has most certainly not lost the distinct Prodigy identity that allows most people to recognise one of their tracks without necessarily knowing it was produced by them. Arguably the biggest triumph of this album is how certain tracks, such as ‘Destroy’ and ‘Rhythm Bomb’, have a brilliantly nostalgic sound that encompasses everything that has been great about The Prodigy over their many years. I even picked up elements of their sound from the nineties in many of the tracks.

It has definitely been worth the wait for ‘The Day Is My Enemy’, but I still can’t help feeling a little disappointed by some of the tracks on an otherwise very accomplished album from the masters of dance music. I have immense respect for The Prodigy as artists and their contribution to dance music over the years and no doubt that this album will proudly go along with the others as successes, but I think I was just hoping for something a little less flabby, and with that almost indescribable X factor some of their previous work has had.