Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned

1	Spitfire 5:07
2	Girls 4:07
3	Memphis Belle 4:28
4	Get Up Get Off 4:19
5	Hot Ride 4:36
6	Wake Up Call 4:56
7	Action Radar 5:32
8	Medusa's Path 6:08
9	Phoenix 4:38
10	You'll Be Under My Wheels 3:56
11	The Way It Is 5:46
12	Shoot Down 4:32
13	More Girls 6:57

Barnes & Noble

At one point, they were touted as spearheading the return of evil to pop music -- with all the fury surrounding "Smack My Bitch Up" and such -- but these Brit industro-rockers wax surprisingly Regular Joe on this long-anticipated comeback. "Spitfire" employs many of the band's standard sonic tricks -- manipulated machine-gun drums, distorted vocals by Liam Howlett -- but the resultant brew is more intoxicating than purely acidic. "Showdown" mixes things up a bit by using similarly hypnotic beats but overlaying them with snarling vocal intonations courtesy of Liam Gallagher. The Oasis singer is just one of a handful of guests thrown into the maelstrom here; actress Juliette Lewis adds a passable purr to "Hot Ride" while motor-mouthed rapper Twista revs up to match the blistering BPM of "Get Up Get Off." There's even an attempt to -- more or less -- craft a power ballad, in the form of "Phoenix," a '60s-flavored concoction that's probably the most mainstream song the Prodigy have yet created. Always Outnumbered isn't so close to the middle of the road that the Prodigy have to worry about being made into roadkill, but it does come wrapped in an acknowledgement that the road itself exists. That in itself is a first. David Sprague

All Music Guide

The Prodigy's main man, Liam Howlett, said in an interview that usual bandmembers Keith Flint and Maxim weren't on the new album because this is a back-to-the-core record, one to find the soul of the Prodigy (dancer Leeroy Thornhill left the band years ago -- losing your dancer, always crippling). For anyone rooting for the band, it sounded like a good deal. Howlett came off as a mad beat scientist of great genius on his goin'-it-alone CD The Dirtchamber Sessions, Vol. 1, rockin' the beats with mad style and blowing the dust off Babe Ruth's "The Mexican" just to prove how he was cooler than you. It was a sweet mix, but then nothing -- and then it got worse. But at least Howlett himself called 2002's dull "Baby's Got a Temper" single an F'n piece of S. Seems like he was well aware things were going wrong and has gotten himself back on the right track, so let's all go nuts for Prodigy again. There's an inspired list of guest stars on the album -- Princess Superstar, Kool Keith, Liam Gallagher, Twista, Juliette Lewis -- and Howlett is working hard throughout, twiddling the knobs and making noises fly every which way. "Girls" is a good electro roller, the surprisingly different and slinky "Phoenix" is proof Howlett hasn't lost it, and you're bound to fall for at least one of the generic fist pumpers, as they do have that whipping sting in the tail of which Howlett is the master. Unfortunately, Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned isn't the success 1997's Fat of the Land was. It's steps ahead of the "Baby's Got a Temper" single and worth it for the faithful, but not up to the old standards. David Jeffries