Moby started as a punk musician in the 1980s, before turning to electronic dance music and DJ'ing.

tek's rating:

Play
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This is Moby's fifth studio album, released in 1999. I'm reviewing it in 2025. The album contains a lot of sampling. The liner notes contain a series of essays by Moby, which I haven't read in their entirety.

1. "Honey": This is the first single, released several months before the album. Before I re-listened to the album, I didn't expect to remember it. But as soon as it started, I did. It's just a couple lines from the blues song "Sometimes" by Bessie Jones, repeated over and over, and set to dance music. I like it, but its repetitive nature does get a bit old.

2. "Find My Baby": This is the eighth single. It's just lines from "Joe Lee's Rock" by Boy Blue, over and over, and set to dance music. I guess it's not bad, but I don't like it as much as "Honey".

3. "Porcelain": This is the sixth single. It's one of the songs I expected to remember, though before I listened to it I couldn't recall anything about it except the title. It's one of the most successful singles from "Play", which critics love but I just think is kinda good. It is rather lush, in a downtempo, melancholic way. I should probably like it more than I do. But I do like it.

4. "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?": This is the fourth single. I don't remember it at all. It's another song that's basically just samples of an old song set to techno music. It's okay, but not something I really care about.

5. "South Side": This is the seventh single, and the song I remember best from the album. It features vocals by Gwen Stefani, which Wikipedia says were left off the album's version of the song but restored on the single version. But her singing is on my copy of "Play", so I don't know if it's a re-release of the album, or what. Anyway, I like it a lot. Very cool, and probably the most mainstream rock track on the album.

6. "Rushing": This is pretty much instrumental. It's nice.

7. "Bodyrock": This is the third single. It features samples from "Love Rap" by Spoonie Gee and the Treacherous Three. It's one that I expected to remember, and I guess I do, but some parts of it more than others. It's kind of techno crossed with hip-hop. It's pretty cool, and I would say maybe the most danceable song on the album.

8. "Natural Blues": This is the fifth single. I didn't expect to remember it, but I do. It's vocal samples of "Trouble So Hard" by Vera Hall, set to dance music. It's pretty good.

9. "Machete": I don't remember this one, but I like it. It's more purely dance/techno than the other tracks.

10. "7": This is the shortest track, at 1:02. It's instrumental. It's okay.

11. "Run On": This is the second single, a remix of a traditional folk hymn called "God's Gonna Cut You Down". I wasn't expecting to remember it, but I do. And I like it.

12. "Down Slow": This is another really short instrumental track. It's pretty chill.

13. "If Things Were Perfect": This is fairly mellow and poetic. It's got record-scratching in the background, as well as a nice, simple beat.

14. "Everloving": This starts with what sounds to me like just an acoustic guitar, playing music I could imagine a cowboy playing somewhere camping out on the range at night. Eventually more instrumentation comes in, and it doesn't sound so cowboy-ish anymore. But it's all good.

15. "Inside": This is the longest track, at 4:49. It's another instrumental track, kind of laidback and sort of cosmic.

16. "Guitar Flute & String": This is instrumental, and very mellow. Not really electronic at all, as far as I can tell. It's good, kind of soothing.

17. "The Sky Is Broken": This is another mellow, poetic track. Not really what I would call techno at all. It's okay.

18. "My Weakness": This sounds to me like the vocals are being played backward, but it's hard for me to be sure because it also sounds like possibly some other language (but maybe not). It's got a sort of chuchlike sound to it, and what I would call some very grand, uplifting instrumentation. I wouldn't call it techno. I like it.

So... there are more tracks that I remembered than I expected. More sampling than I remembered. More instrumental tracks than I would have expected. I don't find all of it memorable, but it's all good, and some of it is very good. I definitely liked the album as a whole more than I expected to.