''The Day Is My Enemy'' is the sixth studio album by English
electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
group
the Prodigy
The Prodigy are an English electronic dance music band formed in Braintree, Essex, in 1990 by producer, keyboard player and songwriter Liam Howlett. The original line-up also featured dancer and singer Keith Flint and dancer and occasional l ...
. It was released on 30 March 2015 by record labels Take Me to the Hospital/
Cooking Vinyl
Cooking Vinyl is a British independent record label, based in Acton, London, England, founded in 1986 by former manager and booking agent Martin Goldschmidt and business partner Pete Lawrence. Goldschmidt remains the current owner and chairman ...
in the UK and Three Six Zero Music/
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...
in the United States.
Recorded across a timespan of six years, the album marks the first time that band members
Maxim
Maxim or Maksim may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Maxim'' (magazine), an international men's magazine
** ''Maxim'' (Australia), the Australian edition
** ''Maxim'' (India), the Indian edition
*Maxim Radio, ''Maxim'' magazine's radio channel on Sir ...
and
Keith Flint
Keith Charles Flint (17 September 1969 – 4 March 2019) was an English singer and member as well as one of the vocalists of the electronic dance act The Prodigy. Starting out as a dancer, he became the vocalist of the group and performed on th ...
have been actively involved in the songwriting process. The album title is a reference to the
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway and in film.
Born to ...
song "
All Through the Night", in particular its lyrics "the day is my enemy, the night my friend", although it is the
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...
version that first inspired the title track.
Due to the band's general lack of interest in albums and the time spent in making them, ''The Day Is My Enemy'' was speculated to be their last full-length album, but then the band signed a worldwide record publishing deal with
BMG Rights Management
BMG Rights Management GmbH (also known simply as BMG) is an international music company based in Berlin, Germany. It combines the activities of a music publisher and a record label.
BMG was founded in October 2008 after Bertelsmann sold its ...
in September 2017, and released a follow-up album ''
No Tourists
''No Tourists'' is the seventh studio album by English electronic music band the Prodigy, released on 2 November 2018 on Take Me to the , their independent label managed by BMG. The album debuted at No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart, their seventh co ...
'', in 2018.
Recording
The first known existence of new material from the Prodigy came in 2011 when the band debuted new tracks at their live performances. The first two of these tracks were "A.W.O.L." and "Dogbite", with 2012 yielding a new track called "Jetfighter".
Liam Howlett
Liam Paul Paris Howlett (born 21 August 1971) is an English record producer, musician, songwriter, co-founder and leader of the British electronic band The Prodigy, and an occasional DJ.
Early years
Howlett was born in Braintree, Essex, En ...
had reaffirmed that the new album would be "darker" in contrast to their previous releases. On 3 May 2012, the tentative album title was revealed as ''How to Steal a Jetfighter''. On 2 July 2014, the Prodigy announced that the album was to be re-introduced with a brand new name.
The second working title of the album was ''Rebel Radio'' until it underwent another change. Howlett explained that this was because he had a hard time imagining it working as an album title, and instead settled on making that the title of one of the album tracks.
The album was written and recorded largely while on tour, in various hotel rooms around the world, on flights, at the Prodigy's private studio at Tileyard Studios as well as mixed at SARM.
[''Liner notes''] Howlett found that "violent is the word that keeps on coming up" when describing the album. The entire recording process took almost six years taking in a number of studios and a few restarts to establish that "angry, energetic sound". Unlike previous efforts ''The Day Is My Enemy'' became a band-album where Flint and Maxim worked in tandem with Howlett. This created a degree of friction although Flint noted that "four years ago we sat down and talked about where the next album was gonna go, and we knew we had to bust out the most ‘band’ album we could create".
Composition
The album's title track was the last track to be produced for the album. In an interview with
BBC Radio 6 Music
BBC Radio 6 Music is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC, specialising primarily in alternative music. BBC 6 Music was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years. It is available onl ...
, Howlett mentioned that the idea of the track came about when one of his friends, Olly Burden, had presented Howlett with a guitar riff he had made, which would eventually serve as the main basis for the track. Howlett got an idea for a track and asked for the riff's use during the production, with him finding the results good enough to serve as an album opener. The track also includes additional drumming performance provided by the Switzerland-based drum corps,
Top Secret Drum Corps
Top Secret Drum Corps is a drum corps based in Basel, Switzerland. With 25 drummers and colour guard section, the corps became famous for its demanding six-minute routine performed at the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo in 2003. With its invit ...
.
The song "Ibiza" (featuring
Sleaford Mods
Sleaford Mods are an English post-punk music duo, formed in 2007 in Nottingham. The band features vocalist Jason Williamson and, since 2012, musician Andrew Fearn. They are known for their abrasive, minimalist musical style and embittered explo ...
) is a critique of the superstar DJ culture. Howlett explained that "we did a gig in
Ibiza
Ibiza (natively and officially in ca, Eivissa, ) is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, in Spain. Its l ...
, and I’m not a great fan of the place, but it isn’t an attack on the island, it’s an attack on these mindless fucking jokers that arrive in their
Learjets, pull a
USB stick
A USB flash drive (also called a thumb drive) is a data storage device that includes flash memory with an integrated USB interface. It is typically removable, rewritable and much smaller than an optical disc. Most weigh less than . Since first ...
out of their pockets, plug it in and wave their hands in the air to a
pre-programmed mix".
Promotion and release
On 26 January 2015 the band released the official audio for the title track "
The Day Is My Enemy
''The Day Is My Enemy'' is the sixth studio album by English electronic music group the Prodigy. It was released on 30 March 2015 by record labels Take Me to the Hospital/Cooking Vinyl in the UK and Three Six Zero Music/Warner Bros. Records in th ...
" on their official YouTube channel and as a digital downloadable promotional single. The official music video for the third single, "
Wild Frontier
''Wild Frontier'' is the sixth solo studio album by Northern Irish guitarist Gary Moore, released on 2 March 1987. His first studio effort after a trip back to his native Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1985, the album contains several songs abo ...
", was released on 23 February 2015. The music video was directed by the Dutch filmmaker Mascha Halberstad and animator Elmer Kaan.
"Wall of Death" was released on 16 March 2015 as a promotional single, accompanied by a lyric video. UK retailer
HMV
Sunrise Records and Entertainment, trading as HMV (for His Master's Voice), is a British music and entertainment retailer, currently operating exclusively in the United Kingdom.
The first HMV-branded store was opened by the Gramophone Company ...
announced during the week leading up to the album's release that they would stock an exclusive
EP alongside the album which would mainly consist of remixes of "Nasty" and "Wild Frontier". "
Ibiza
Ibiza (natively and officially in ca, Eivissa, ) is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, in Spain. Its l ...
" was released as the album's third official and fifth overall single on 23 March 2015, with "
Rhythm Bomb" being released a promotional single on 25 March 2015. "
Get Your Fight On" was released as a promotional single on 26 March 2015. The music video for "Ibiza" was uploaded to the Prodigy's YouTube channel on 20 April 2015.
During the evening of 3 April 2015, the band projected images of the album cover across several landmarks in London as a form of
guerrilla marketing
Guerrilla marketing is an advertisement strategy in which a company uses surprise and/or unconventional interactions in order to promote a product or service. It is a type of publicity. The term was popularized by Jay Conrad Levinson's 198 ...
. The cover was projected onto the
Battersea Power Station
Battersea Power Station is a decommissioned Grade II* listed coal-fired power station, located on the south bank of the River Thames, in Nine Elms, Battersea, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It was built by the London Power Company (LPC) ...
, the
London Underground
The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent ceremonial counties of England, counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and He ...
station at Shoreditch High Street and on the
Houses of Parliament
The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parliament, the Palace lies on the north bank ...
, with the projections garnering a relative amount of authority attention. The band posted photos and videos of the event on their Facebook and Instagram pages, with a
hashtag
A hashtag is a metadata tag that is prefaced by the hash (also known as pound or octothorpe) sign, ''#''. On social media, hashtags are used on microblogging and photo-sharing services such as Twitter or Instagram as a form of user-generated ...
that referenced the band's track "Their Law" from ''
Music for the Jilted Generation
''Music for the Jilted Generation'' is the second studio album by English electronic music group the Prodigy. It was first released in July 1994 by XL Recordings in the United Kingdom and by Mute Records in the United States. Just as on the ...
''.
''The Day Is My Enemy'' was released on 30 March 2015 by record labels Take Me to the Hospital/Cooking Vinyl in the UK and Three Six Zero Music/
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...
in the United States.
Reception
In contrast to their two previous albums, critical response to ''The Day Is My Enemy'' was positive. It currently has an aggregate score of 67 out of 100 on
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, indicating generally favourable reviews.
''
Kerrang!
''Kerrang!'' is a British weekly magazine devoted to rock, punk and heavy metal music, currently published by Wasted Talent (the same company that owns electronic music publication ''Mixmag''). It was first published on 6 June 1981 as a one- ...
'' awarded the album their highest rating, describing it as "simultaneously galvanised by both a thrilling creative resurgence and the social unrest that comes when people are cocooned by a
culture of fear
Culture of fear (or climate of fear) is the concept that people may incite fear in the general public to achieve political or workplace goals through emotional bias; it was developed as a sociological framework by Frank Furedi and has been mor ...
", and called it the most exciting and angrily British album of the year.
''
NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
'' thought of the tracks as being written mainly for live performances, but nonetheless cited it as "the strongest and most confident Prodigy album since ''
The Fat of the Land
''The Fat of the Land'' is the third studio album by English electronic music group the Prodigy, released on 30 June 1997 through XL Recordings. The album received critical acclaim and topped the UK Albums Chart and the US ''Billboard'' 200. I ...
''".
''
Consequence of Sound
''Consequence'' (previously ''Consequence of Sound'') is an independently owned New York-based online magazine featuring news, editorials, and reviews of music, movies, and television. In addition, the website also features the Festival Outlook ...
'' cited "Beyond the Deathray" as the highlight of the album, stating that it "epitomizes this new band-focused approach, and it's probably the most beautiful track in The Prodigy's discography".
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
found that the band-focused approach benefited several tracks on the album, but overall criticised the general length of the album, finding that at 14 tracks it is "built for returning fan club members and not the EP-craving EDM crowd".
In a more scathing review,
Drowned in Sound
''Drowned in Sound'', sometimes abbreviated to ''DiS'', is a UK-based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway. Founded by editor Sean Adams, the site features reviews, news, interviews, and discussion forums.
History
''D ...
echoed similar criticisms, claiming that the band "embraces their psycho circus shtick to the point of suffocation".
Daryl Keating of ''
Exclaim!
''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly Exclaim! print magazine publishes 7 ...
'' was critical of the group's attempts at recapturing their old school breakbeat sound and "awful stylistic combinations", calling the record "an embarrassing display that inevitably ends badly".
''The Day Is My Enemy'' debuted at No. 1 on the
UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...
, making it the band's sixth consecutive record to have reached the top of the chart.
Track listing
Personnel
The Prodigy
*
Liam Howlett
Liam Paul Paris Howlett (born 21 August 1971) is an English record producer, musician, songwriter, co-founder and leader of the British electronic band The Prodigy, and an occasional DJ.
Early years
Howlett was born in Braintree, Essex, En ...
– production, writing, keyboards, synthesizers, sampling, programming, engineering, mixing; additional voices on "Wall of Death"
*
Keith Flint
Keith Charles Flint (17 September 1969 – 4 March 2019) was an English singer and member as well as one of the vocalists of the electronic dance act The Prodigy. Starting out as a dancer, he became the vocalist of the group and performed on th ...
– vocals on "Nasty", "Rebel Radio", "Ibiza", "Rok-Weiler", "Get Your Fight On", "Invisible Sun", "Wall of Death", writing on "Nasty", "Rok-Weiler", "Wall of Death"
*
Maxim
Maxim or Maksim may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Maxim'' (magazine), an international men's magazine
** ''Maxim'' (Australia), the Australian edition
** ''Maxim'' (India), the Indian edition
*Maxim Radio, ''Maxim'' magazine's radio channel on Sir ...
– vocals on "The Day Is My Enemy", "Nasty", "Rebel Radio", "Wild Frontier", "Roadblox", "Get Your Fight On", "Medicine", "Wall of Death", writing on "Roadblox" , "Get Your Fight On", "Medicine"
Additional personnel
*
Neil McLellan
Neil McLellan is an English record producer, composer and mix engineer.
McLellan has worked with XL Recordings, Sony BMG Music Ent., Epic, Sire, Arista, Columbia, Maverick, Virgin, and Island Records to produce a string of No. 1 hits, as we ...
– additional writing on "Beyond the Deathray", co-production (all), engineering (all), mixing (all)
*
Martina Topley-Bird
Martina Gillian Topley-Bird (''née'' Topley; born 7 May 1975) is an English singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who first gained fame as the featured female vocalist on trip hop pioneer Tricky's debut album, ''Maxinquaye'' (1995). Sh ...
– additional vocals on "The Day Is My Enemy"
* Paul "Dirtcandy" Jackson – additional vocals on "The Day Is My Enemy"
*
Top Secret Drum Corps
Top Secret Drum Corps is a drum corps based in Basel, Switzerland. With 25 drummers and colour guard section, the corps became famous for its demanding six-minute routine performed at the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo in 2003. With its invit ...
– live drums on "The Day Is My Enemy"
* Simon "Brother Culture" Fajemisin – additional vocals on "Nasty" and "Rebel Radio", additional writing on "Rebel Radio"
* Tim Hutton – background vocals on "Nasty", "Rebel Radio", "Wild Frontier" and "Invisible Sun", and additional writing on "Nasty", "Rebel Radio", "Wild Frontier" and "Get Your Fight On"
* Black Futures (Stuart Henshall, Vincent Welch, Paul Frazer) – additional writing on "Rebel Radio" and "Rok-Weiler", co-production on "Rok-Weiler"
*
Mark Summers
Mark Summers is the English CEO, sound engineer and music producer of Scorccio, a music production company founded in the UK in 1996. A London DJ since 1979, he is a guest lecturer and masterclass presenter on sample replay production, sound e ...
– sample replay producer (at SCORCCiO Sample Replays) on "Rebel Radio", "Roadblox", "Medicine" and "Wall Of Death"
* Jason Williamson of
Sleaford Mods
Sleaford Mods are an English post-punk music duo, formed in 2007 in Nottingham. The band features vocalist Jason Williamson and, since 2012, musician Andrew Fearn. They are known for their abrasive, minimalist musical style and embittered explo ...
– vocals and additional writing on "Ibiza"
* KillSonik (Joe Erskine & Luca Gulotta) – additional writing and production on "Wild Frontier" and "Get Your Fight On"
* Zak H Laycock – additional writing and production on "Destroy"
*
Rob Holliday
Rob Holliday (born 1979) is a professional English musician. He has been the live guitarist of rock band Marilyn Manson as well as for Gary Numan, The Prodigy, and Sulpher. He began performing as Marilyn Manson's live bassist in 2007 but sw ...
– guitar on "Rok-Weiler"
*
Joshua "Flux Pavilion" Steele – co-writing and co-production on "Rhythm Bomb"
* Mark "YT" Hull – vocals and additional writing on "Medicine"
*
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway and in film.
Born to ...
– writing on "The Day Is My Enemy" (incorporating elements of his original song "All Through The Night")
* Olly Burden – additional writing on "The Day Is My Enemy" and "Wall of Death"
*
Nick Halkes
Nick Halkes (born Nigel Halkes) is a UK based music industry executive best known for signing a breaking dance act the Prodigy and being one of the founders of the XL Recordings label. He is now an artist manager and music publisher managing L ...
– additional writing on "Nasty", "Wild Frontier" and "Get Your Fight On"
* Cheri Williams of
Jomanda
Johanna Wilhelmina Petronella Damman, known under her nickname Jomanda (born May 5, 1948), is a controversial Dutch healing medium who refers to herself as the ''Lady of the light.''
Background
Born Johanna Wilhelmina Petronella Damman in Dev ...
– original female vocals and additional writing on "Rhythm Bomb" (sample taken from "
Jomanda
Johanna Wilhelmina Petronella Damman, known under her nickname Jomanda (born May 5, 1948), is a controversial Dutch healing medium who refers to herself as the ''Lady of the light.''
Background
Born Johanna Wilhelmina Petronella Damman in Dev ...
– Make My Body Rock 1990")
* Dwayne Richardson – additional writing on "Rhythm Bomb" (sample taken from "
Jomanda
Johanna Wilhelmina Petronella Damman, known under her nickname Jomanda (born May 5, 1948), is a controversial Dutch healing medium who refers to herself as the ''Lady of the light.''
Background
Born Johanna Wilhelmina Petronella Damman in Dev ...
– Make My Body Rock 1990")
*
Jari Salo – additional writing on "Get Your Fight On" (sample taken from "
Pepe Deluxé
Pepe Deluxé is a Finnish electronic music oriented band, formed in 1996 by DJ Slow (Vellu Maurola) JA-Jazz (Tomi Castrén, formerly Paajanen) and James Spectrum (Jari Salo) in Helsinki, Finland. They started to experiment with sounds of hip ho ...
– Salami Fever")
*
Paul Malmström – additional writing on "Get Your Fight On" (sample taken from "
Pepe Deluxé
Pepe Deluxé is a Finnish electronic music oriented band, formed in 1996 by DJ Slow (Vellu Maurola) JA-Jazz (Tomi Castrén, formerly Paajanen) and James Spectrum (Jari Salo) in Helsinki, Finland. They started to experiment with sounds of hip ho ...
– Salami Fever")
* Babaka & His Ensemble – original sample performer on "Medicine" (sample taken from Babaka & His Ensemble – "Se Makri Sofra / At a Long Table" as featured on the album "Music of the Balkans, Vol. 2")
*
The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster
The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster (often referred to as Eighties Matchbox, 80s Matchbox, TEMBD, TEMBLD or shortened to just Eighties or 80s) were an English rock band from Brighton, formed in 1999. They released three albums, '' Hörse of t ...
– writing on "Rise Of The Eagles"
* John Davis – mastering (at Metropolis Mastering)
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Day Is My Enemy, The
2015 albums
The Prodigy albums
Cooking Vinyl albums
Albums produced by Liam Howlett