Liam Howlett must have spat out the banana skin he was smoking when The Klaxons won the Mercury Prize in 2007. Those pretentious, genre-grabbing wannabes had probably never been to a rave in their lives, let alone a ‘nu-rave.’ After 2004’s Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned didn’t do too well, possibly due to having guest vocalists instead of the usual vocal fire of regulars Maxim and Keith Flint, it seems as if the band have gone back to their rave roots for new album Invaders Must Die.

In preparation for this album, it seems Howlett has listened to first album Experience on a constant loop, whilst at the same time ingesting every single soundtrack to every Commodore 64, Spectrum ZX and Atari ST game ever made.  It seems as if some of the tracks slip these in almost subliminally, like in Colours, World’s On Fire and Omen.  

Take Me To The Hospital harks back to the days of SL2 and The Awesome 3, but the modern incarnation sounds so much better, bass-heavy and driven, and ultimately sinister. For me, the highlight is Warrior’s Dance, which is like a No Good (Start The Dance) for the new (jilted) generation, replaced with the techno rock sound that only this band can pull off. It makes you yearn for those nights where you were monged off your face in a field at 5am, dancing like a damned fool. Run With The Wolves is a more visceral assault, like an angry Voodoo People. If you look hard enough, the references to the past are there in every song, but as a record nothing else sounds quite like it. Who knew music rooted in the old school could be so fresh?

Naysayers will be queuing up to point out faults, and there are some, but only a few. As good as all the tracks are, they are all one-paced affairs that could seamlessly merge into each other, as some tracks in the latter half of the album sound similar to others. It’s not like The Fat Of The Land, where no track sounded like another, because the influences on the songs were separate rather than all lumped in together. But with songs as good as Invaders Must Die and the brilliant Omen, it’s hard to argue. 

Now, where did I put that old World Dance record bag and smiley face T-shirt? 

Posted In Album Reviews, Feb 26 2009. Words - Paul