GIRLS

Prodigy

They're not a band to rush things. In fact, it's almost as if the bloke from the Grolsch advert has spent the last few years flitting between doing ads and politely informing Liam Howlett that his new album is not ready yet. Now let's be honest, seven years is one hell of a gap between albums and there's a danger he may have taken too long. Sometimes it works, New Order waited eight before unleashing Get Ready, although to be fair, the band members weren't talking to each other for most of that time, but there's also the case of Dire Straits. Everybody's heard of Brothers In Arms, but how many people remember the follow-up was called On Every Street? The only reason I know is because of the helpful nature of the Internet. If the Prodigy had put out new stuff a year or two after The Fat Of The Land, I think I'd be expecting the new stuff to resemble the old in some respects, but when the band have had so long to prepare the new set, I think it's fair to say it has to be that good it makes the old stuff sound so out of date it may as well have been released on wax cylinders. The first single's always a good indicator and if this song's anything to go by then we're in for a treat, I reckon. To start with, we have some very disjointed bits that sound like two eighties hip-hop tracks cut and pasted together and then the song proper comes in and the eighties hip-hop theme continues, in a way. It's too easy to describe it as that, because there are little tweaks and noises here and there that make this sound bang up-to-date and not only that, you can tell that somebody's put in a lot of hours on making this song sound as good as they possibly could. I read somewhere that Princess Superstar provides the main vocals and that only emphasises how different things are these days - there's no sign whatsoever of Keith Flint, suddenly Firestarter and Breathe seem an awfully long time ago. So far, so good (and not only that, the radio should like this one too), but there's one final show of creativity at the end. It's too easy to fade out songs or just bring them to a natural conclusion, so how about gradually degenerating the song into about fifteen seconds of one rather irritating noise that cuts off suddenly? Yeah, sounds good, might as well try that. It works too, you know. To say this is stunning is putting it mildly and, as my huge and loyal army of readers are both aware, I don't just hand out that kind of compliment at the drop of a hat. It's such a leap forward from The Fat Of The Land that if you heard the song without knowing who it was, you'd probably never guess. Not only that, but when you remember how tired and dated Baby's Got A Temper sounded, this is all the more impressive. It's exactly how a comeback should be done.

OBVIOUSLY

McFly

need better songs than this. This sixties-tinged cheery diet-Thrills effort is going to be another big hit as far as the fanbase are concerned, but I can't see it winning over many new fans, especially with Busted still doggedly hanging around (even though their singles have now started nosediving out of the chart in a manner that would make Morrissey proud) and V dropping by to say hello (and maybe wave goodbye). It does all the right things that need to be done in order for it to be a hit, but that's the whole problem. The formula for this sort of song was set down years ago and there's no attempt here to update it or to try and make the song stand out from the crowd. I can't say it's rubbish, because it does what it needs to to the letter, but it is very, very bland and totally forgettable. This makes Baby's Got A Temper look like a fountain of originality.