Rocktrospectiva: The Bold And Contrast "Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned" Turns 20

 

Released on 11 August 2004 in Japan and on 23 August in the UK, "Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned" was the fourth studio album by British outfit The Prodigy, recorded almost entirely using Propellerhead Reason and mastered with Pro Tools, this is a contras album with the outfit previous released, featuring a large use of vocals with Keith Flint and Maxum Reality not providing any contribution on the record leaving Liam Howlett as the sole band member to performed on it. 

The curious title comes from a play on the name of the Walter Mosley novel "Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned", the album achieved commercial success but is amongst the band's lowest sellers, this led their label XL and Maverick to dropped the band. The album spawned three singles "Girls", Hotride", & "Spitfire.

The pre-production process was done at Mews Recording Studios this began in September 1998 and ended in April 2004, basically this was recorded by Liam Howlett mostly by himself, using the Propellerhead Reason program on his laptop, although the album recording process started in 1998, Howlett dislike the sound of the album, and decided to take a break, returning a couple of years later to resume the work on the record, unfortunately, nothing came out, so Howlett purchased a laptop a got a copy of the Reason program, a Korg micro keyboard and some other gadgets and write the songs and then create for the new equipment and finally finished, mastered and completed the album. 

 

The composition is a shift in style, featuring contributions of various musicians, the album opens with Spifire" a tribute to the WWII plane of the same name featuring Juliette Lewis on backing vocals, "Girls" the main single began with a sample from "Style Of The Street" by Broken Glass, featuring beats and bass, industrial hop hop covered with excessive distortion and noise, other remarkable tracks are "Get Up Get Off" featuring Twista on lead vocals, "Hotride", "Up, Up And Away", "Cake Up Call", and "Action Radr" influenced by early hip hop sound. 

 

"Medusa's Path" inspired by Damian Taylor's parents trip to Iran, "Plastic Dreams" called a sort of synthesizer analogue shit featuring samples of Shocking Blue's song "Love Buzz", "You'll Be Under My Wheels" featuring Kool Keith, "The Way It Is" features a sample from Michael Jackson's 1983 single "Thriller" and finally "Shoot Down", includes a sample from "My World Fell Down". 

 

The album debuted at the top of UK Album Chart,  and despite being commercially successful, it had mixed reviews, called a confused and disordered recording, sounding more like a underdeveloped album, lack of any relevant highlights, in contrast, the fans apparently loved it. 

 

Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned Track List:

 

1. Spitfire

2. Girls

3. Memphis Bells

4. Get Up Get Off

5. Hotride

6. Wake Up Call

7. Action Radar

8. Medusa's Path

9. Phoenix

10. You'll Be Under My Wheels

11. The Way It Is

12. Shoot Down