quoted 5 lines From: KaisrSolze@aol.com
>From: KaisrSolze@aol.com
>
>!) Has anyone heard the, um, I forget the name, something like The Land of
>the Fat or The Fiat of the Lame or The Fart of Liam? Comments? Reviews?
> How 'bout them thar lyrics?
"The Fat Of The Land", The Prodigy's 3rd album, sucks. Now, this opinion is
based on actually listening to it repeatedly (and very much wanting to like
it), not on any premeditated hate of all things Chemical & Prodigous -
"Jilted generation" is one of my favourite albums of the decade. This one
though, it's pretty bad, for three reasons. First of all, there are hardly
any songs on it, second, it sounds a bit thin, and third, the singing is
embarrasing.
Several tracks start off good, promising drum loops kicking in, good
sounds.... and that's it. Nothing else happens. They just go on like that,
have a break somewhere at 3/4 of the song, and come crashing back in, just
like before. I loved all those little synth riffs on "Jilted...", but they
are mostly absent here. And three chord guitar-heavy tracks might work for
the Young Gods, they don't impress here.
The all-over sound doesn't really have any impact. Although production is
good and crispy, it doesn't go over the top anywhere, there's hardly any
noisy bits going on in the back. It's too clean for my taste. Good for
marketing, I suppose.
As are the vocals, I guess. Keith plays the "dangerous" bad boy throughout
the album, moaning like a fifth-rate Johnny Rotten. The lyrics are abysmal
("Damage instructor! / Serial thrilla! / Succumb to me!"). You're actually
glad when Maxim takes over, because he doesn't annoy as much. "Diesel
power", featuring Dr. Octagon, is okay, but doesn't really go anywhere
beyond the first eight bars.
There are some nice tracks - "Mindfields" has got some melody (though
Maxim's assurance that "this is dangerous!" is laughable), "Climbatize" is a
pretty good instrumental (thank god!), a bit like one of the last three
tracks on "Jilted..". "Narayan" could've been epic, but isn't anywhere near
over the top enough (besisdes, it features Crispian Mills from Kula Shaker -
ouch!).
The album finishes with "Fuel my fire", an cover of US punk band L7.
Electronic punk? Even something ridiculous like Cubanate sounds meaner.
I waited three years for a glorious and heavy follow-up to "Jilted...", I
was prepared for a bit of a nod to MTV and the mainstream, and I get an
album that could probably be played in a red-neck bar somehwere in deep
Texas (no offense to any Texans here) without any complaints and have
everyone nodding along after a while.
Maarten
onnow: spiritualized - ladies & gentlemen we are floating in space
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