‘No Tourists’ Suggests that The Prodigy’s Maximalism is Growing Old

No Tourists, the latest album from The Prodigy, is a good collection of Big Beat songs and not much else.

No Tourists is the sonic equivalent of waking up at 3 o’clock in the morning, chugging a case of Red Bull, and going joyriding around town in a stolen car. It’s an album that starts at 100 mph, stays at 100 mph, and refuses to drop below 100 mph for the entire runtime, common sense or quality control be damned. It’s a blur, a mash of sounds and ideas that run together until they’re impossible to tell apart. By the end, you might be exhausted and nursing a massive headache, but you’re still pretty sure you had a good time.

The latest album by The Prodigy, No Tourists has little ambition beyond delivering you ten new tracks from the storied Big Beat group. While other albums this year from the likes of Yotto, RUFUS DU SOL, and even fellow Big Beaters The Crystal Method experimented with what it means to be “EDM,” offering rich and impressive records that pointed towards the genre’s future, No Tourists is firmly rooted in the past.

Its sound — abrasive and action-packed — is old; its style — full of pitched-up vocal samples of varying degrees of cringiness — is old; even its structure — ten songs with no thematic connective tissue — is old. It doesn’t do anything to take advantage of the format, beyond collecting new songs in a new place.

Stream The Prodigy – No Tourists on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/album/6DAq2tDWMqPP7MTdb3aIDi?si=lp_CBbwBSHCzH1B1SJmueQ

If that’s what you’re looking for, then it’s fine, with a good number of head-bangers. But with a glut of terrific albums this year that felt like they pushed the genre forward, No Tourists is a throwback that left me wanting more.

In isolation, I like a lot of the songs on this album. Pluck them out by themselves, without being sandwiched between two other similar-sounding tracks, and they offer a thumping good time. “Need Some1” is a strong start, setting the tone and the tempo in a tight two-minute package. “Fight Fire With Fire” is a cacophony of distorted vocals and scratchy synths that is just over-the-top enough to work. And “Give Me A Signal” embraces Acid House influences to deliver a late-album highlight.

These tracks feel kinetic, like every chase scene from every action movie melted down and put to song.

“We Live Forever,” the album’s best track, is a perfect example of that go-for-broke spirit. It has an intense momentum that hooked me more than previous tracks, and the abrasive, shouted vocals merged wonderfully with the acid synths and manic keys. It begs for a visual companion, something to harness some of that excess energy. In fact, every song on the album could use a visual element. It would help define each song a little more, and it would help them overcome the record’s biggest problem.

Taken together, the songs all bleed into one another, offering a relentless sound that never really deviates from the basics. 

The album’s unshakable weakness is that all these songs sound exactly the same. On their own, the tracks are fine, but when you put them next to each other, their lack of unique features begins to erode their identity. Was that cool synth part from “Timebomb Zone,” or “Champions of London“? Or, wait, was it from both?

This isn’t helped by the fact that numerous songs overstay their welcome. “No Tourists” and “Boom Boom Tap” truly feels like an eternity, with the latter fading out and coming back in for a minute-long encore. By the halfway mark, both songs have effectively run out of ideas, a problem that affects even some of the stronger cuts on the album.

This sound-alike problem is, of course, relative.

In the age of digital music, you can get around this problem rather easily. Save the songs you like, discard the ones you don’t, and you’ve probably got a good haul of new Prodigy tracks. That might be exactly what you want. If it is, that’s great! There are some fun songs on the album, but if you’re looking for something a little more contemporary or memorable, you won’t find it here.

All in all, No Tourists is a collection of songs that don’t work well as an album.

Perhaps the most damning thing I can say about No Tourists it took only five songs to exhaust me. By the time “Fight Fire With Fire” finished, I was glancing at the tracklist, wondering how many more I had to endure. Up to this point, I liked what I’d heard, but it was just too much, man. I wanted a break. I wanted an interlude. I wanted any song that acknowledged the relentless energy of the previous tracks and calmed down for a moment before bringing it back to a fever pitch. I wanted something modern, like pacing, damn it.

But No Tourists — and by extension, The Prodigy — doesn’t give a shit about being modern, or having pacing. It only gives a shit about doing what it’s always done and doing it well. And doing it well again, again and again and again. And again. And again and again.

And then it ends.

No Tourists Tracklist:

1. Need Some1
2. Light Up The Sky
3. We Live Forever
4. No Tourists
5. Fight Fire with Fire feat. Ho99o9
6. Timebomb Zone
7. Champions of London
8. Boom Boom Tap
9. Resonate
10. Give Me a Signal feat. Barns Courtney

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