The term "electro-punk" was invented to describe The Prodigy, and I think it sums up this album perfectly. It is an album to take you out of your mundane daily life and transport you to a lawless warehouse of underground wonder.
When turned up loud (as one must for The Prodigy!), the recording quality reveals itself to be fantastic. There are many great electronic samples swimming around in a wonderful interplay, and stereo effects are very well executed. Surprisingly, the bass doesn't actually extend very deep, but nonetheless there's still plenty there to get the walls shaking...
However I have always found the album hit and miss. The "miss" parts are mostly songs which are more drum'n'bass or rap influenced, which isn't really my cup of tea.
But Breathe and Climbatize are outstanding songs; they are among my all-time favourites. Breathe perfectly conveys the lawless insanity of an underground warehouse rave. The layering and flow of Climbatize is brilliant, throughout the song the alien sounds drift in and out yet somehow it all sounds perfectly natural. I have no idea what the message or scene of the song is, but whatever it is sure is epic!
Two of the songs have grown on me in recent years. I now really enjoy the spiritual influence to Narayan. And I used to think that Funky Shit was just the poor cousin of Breathe. While the vocal sample is cheesy and it doesn't hit the same heights as Breathe, Funky Shit is still enjoyable in its own right.
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