Prodigy - Spitfire digipak

Spitfire

This is the single spitfire from The Prodigy; it is a four sided cardboard Digipak complete with the CD itself.

The bands artwork has always been out of the ordinary through the texts and images, photos or created shapes, and has accompanied the huge reputation they have today. With this particular piece they have created something that has a lot more colour than usual, this may be to extend their audiences, or because this is by far one of the most powerful songs in their collection to date. The front cover consists of a peculiar image; its many shapes that are put together include a crown, petals and what seems to be the front of a plane or skycraft. The band generally like to input a their British inheritance within their music and artwork, and the crown here is no exception, because it is placed on some kind of aircraft it gives the viewer the idea of how the band are taking over, that its a symbol of today’s royal family leaving their posts and the band taking them up. It’s also as if the crown is being placed upon madness and insanity, that the world is in time going to be chaos, all connotations of the bands music, lyrics and general appeal.

The colours of this image (mainly sky blue/yellow) have a certain light feeling, unlike the many reds, blacks, purples and browns  the band tend to use, this has a strange juxtaposition, mocking vibe. It puts the song in a different sense and has an immense energetic aura; this made to stand out furthermore with the black background. These colours and expelled onto the CD and back cover, keeping the general theme of the piece. In the back cover we see the tracks listed, a small amount of copyright credits and the bar code, as well as a faded grey background image similar to the petals upon the front cover. The style of text looks almost fairytale like, that they have tried to immerse their style of music into another kind of universe, where of course it wouldn’t be the normal expectancies. It also has a fiery feel to it, like the blue bottom of a flame, almost dragon styled, which in turn represents power and destruction.

As for the CD itself, apart from looking like a giant golf ball, it has to be the most interesting disc I’ve seen. The pattern images of a hexagon have a beehive like feel, and the way the shapes thin out from the centre creates a strange hallucinogenic output that sucks you in. The extremely off toned yellow has a warm and sun/ star vibe that expresses the energy and power of the sun, it also gives off the appeal of being whole in the sense that the single is a complete and pure creation by the band. Another way of looking at it is that you will never forget the bright yellow Prodigy CD, pushing you to use the product.