The Prodigy is one of my favorites. I've got all their CDs (including the Dirtchamber Sessions #1) and a few singles.
The first time I heard the Prodigy was back when they released
Music for the Jilted Generation some time back in 1994 (that would make me 12 or 13 years old). I was on a bus at some school trip, and people was bringing CDs up to the driver to play on the speakers. Someone put on
No Good (Start the Dance) (which became very popular at discos, parties and radio stations), I asked who that was, and that was it, really.
Ironically
No Good is probably my
least favorite on MftJG these days (
Voodoo People is usually my favorite), although that's not really saying much since I really love all of them.
My favorite album, well, that depends. I
really like the very first one,
Experience (I've got the supposedly US-only 2-disc set with the
Experience: Expanded B-sides CD that somehow made it into my hands at a local CD store here in Norway (for regular price even)), sometimes more than
Music for the Jilted Generation, sometimes less. The first time I heard songs from
The Fat of the Land CD, I was a bit disappointed, but it quickly grew on me and I like that one as well. If I were to pick a least favorite album, TFotL would be it, though again not by too much.
I had been waiting a long time for
Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned when it finally came out. The first song I heard from it was
Girls, which I accidentally heard the exclusive premiere of on radio by randomly flipping on the radio and changing to the right channel at the right time without having a clue why. Heh. Anyway, Girls was refreshingly different (which isn't such a rare thing with the Prodigy, actually, they seem to be reinventing themselves each album), and I instantly liked it. I was a bit concerned that the CD would be crippled (so called "
copy protection"
which I consequently boycott, as it doesn't really stop rippers, prevents legal use, and reduce player lifetime, won't get into that here though), but thankfully it wasn't (yay!), so I bought it. I usually don't buy CDs without having heard and liked at least a couple of the songs, but as you understand I've good experience (heh) with the Prodigy, and besides, I haven't been buying a lot of CDs lately...
Anyway, first time I heard the full CD I again was a bit dissatisfied, though. See, one thing I really like about the Prodigy is that they can make these long techno/electronica songs without using much standard repeating patterns (Fatboy Slim was/is also
excellent at this), like for example repeating a pattern 4 times, always 4, before going on... This quickly becomes very predictable, and you end up waiting for yet another 4-pattern sequence to end. Anyway, the Prodigy's songs could unexpectedly break or expand on this pattern (2 or 3 in stead of 4, or add something new after 2, for example) or somehow make it less obvious, and by doing that get a new and refreshing feel. On the new CD, there's a lot of pattern repeating. That sort of thing leaps out at me immediately, and I didn't like it.
However, again the CD has grown on me, and now I really like the entire CD, more than
The Fat of the Land. My favorite song on AONO currently is a tie between
Memphis Bells,
Get Up Get Off,
Hot Ride,
Wake up Call and
Shoot Down, but the others are not far behind at all.
My overall favorite Prodigy song... Again, I really like all of them. My favorite varies from day to day, it really depends on my current mood, the color of the sky, the phase of the moon, and so on. If I were to write a tied first place list like I did for AONO it would probably include most of them, heh.
This became a bit longer than I expected. Before I finish, though, I'd like to note that I really listen to all kinds of music. Depending on just about every variable you can think of, I prefer listening to, well, everything... Classical music, all kinds of folk music, jazz, blues, rock, hard rock, metal, pop, reggae, r&b, rap, hip hop, electronica, techno, trance, goa, even sea shanties... the list goes on and on. But I'll stop now
- Gerry