Hotel is Moby's 6th official studio album and was released at the end of 2005. It had passed me by until I bought the album in France back in April mainly as it was cheap at 8 Euros (about £5) and I hadn't seen it in the shops back home. Another reason for buying this album was that I had been a passenger in an MPV for two days with nothing to listen to but old 1980's tracks, obscure French pop groups or French men discussing the production of wine. So when it was my turn to drive I put this CD into the car audio system.
So who is the man behind the music? Well to my knowledge Moby is a 30 something, balding, vegan living in New York. He has been on the ambient music scene for many years, but before that had stints in a punk band and produced some underground ambient/techno tunes. He came to my attention in late 1997 when he re-mixed the 'James Bond' theme for the movie 'Tomorrow Never Dies' on his 4th studio album 'I Like to Score'. Although this bought him a wider audience the album was not a commercial success and he parted ways with the record company. The next album Moby made was 'Play' released in 1999 and to his credit was a commercial success with every track on the album being hawked by advertising executives the world over. Next was '18' in 2002, which was much of the same music as 'Play', but with a more techno flavouring. Following this recent trend Moby has adopted another one word album with this his latest release 'Hotel'.
~The Album~ The CD comes in a standard size case with a cover picture of the camera shy Moby looking out of a glazed window admiring a view over a city. As Moby
is a 'Big Apple' resident I will assume that the photo call was in New York. Inside are more pictures of the ambient master in various poses around the room with the panoramic view. Also there are some words written by Moby about this album and what it means to him. Having got his previous albums I know that his ramblings bore me I read them all the same, but only after I've listened to the album.
The album starts with the track 'Hotel Intro' it is a slow and gentle start with synthesisers, violins and a light drum beat. It lasts less than two minutes but Moby is still on good form producing a nice little music only track that brings you into the album without rattling your senses. 'Raining Again' ups the beat and tempo with a good sounding rock style track that starts with piano and drums before moving onto the guitars. Lyrics are sung by Moby with some female backing vocals in a warbling style. I like the lyrics in this track particularly the line, '..loud on your car like bullets on tin.' The song is probably one of the strongest on the album and is definitely one of my favourites. The album continues with another guitar based track called 'Beautiful'. It is slower than the previous track, but I still like this one. The lyrics are sung by Moby in a crisp and clear voice with little distortion. Track four has a gentle start with a soft drum beat and soft lyrics, then it slowly winds up the volume and tempo. It leaves the listener in no doubt that this track is called 'Lift Me Up'. This a synthesiser based track and is in a similar vein to the tracks from the 'Play' album. In saying this the track is still a good one and I like it. 'Where You End' is another slow starter with a light gentle guitar and drum beat. On the whole it is much quieter than the previous four tracks, the lyrics are good, but they seem to be more reflecting a period of disquiet.
The album is now slowing down generally with another gentle quiet track called 'Temptation'. The vocals are sung by a female singer and the music is in a more classical vein with violins and a light ticking beat. I feel that this track is much more relaxed, as it definitely lets you unwind and think of a bright summers day. Moby is back on singing duties with 'Spiders', which continues with the lower tempo and beat of the album. It is a drum and guitar based track with good lyrics and a nice chorus. This another one of the tracks that I like, but for different reasons to say 'Raining Again'. The track is set about right for a good sit down and listen to after a long hard day. 'Dream About Me' starts with soft female vocals and brings in Moby's lyrics as they sing a duet. A nice sweet loveable song, all together now, ahhhh. Musically the track has a drum back beat with a guitar sound that is pitched about right so it doesn't drown out the lyrics. One for the bedroom maybe?
Next up is track 9 it is called 'Very' and is sung by a female singer, it picks up the tempo with a synthesiser driven beat. The lyrics are a bit of a standard fare with lines such as '..it's cold outside, so come inside'. If you gloss over that and forget about it you will enjoy this track as I did. 'I Like it' is a slower track with lyrics from both Moby and a female singer. Musically it is very soft on the ears with a slow tempo and wispy haunting vocals. This is a track to fall asleep to or relax after busy day. We are now onto one of the standard tracks of the album called 'Love Should', a piano based track with light vocals and guitar sounds drifting around in the background. It is the vocals from Moby that come to the fore with soft lyrics that drift around lightly in the head. A light drum beat and guitar sound introduces 'Slipping Away' which has more lyrics sung by Moby. The lyrics on this track are good with a nice upbeat feeling to them. For instance the line 'Seeing the good when it's all going bad' reminds me that I should not be so pessimistic. We slip into a slower gear with track 13 called 'Forever'. The track starts with a drum beat and then adds haunting violins. In the background there is the gentle sound of a guitar, but once more it is Moby's lyrics that are the loudest part of the track. The lyrics aren't really that profound, talk of love and things, but they are okay. A light synthesised drum beat starts the next slow and gentle track. Called 'Homeward Angel' it is a musical based track with no lyrics at all. This is another one of Moby's trademark slow mellow tracks that will send you to the land of nod. All good in my book. The album finishes where it begun with a slow music only track called 'Untitled'. It is in similar vein to the previous track with light synthesisers introducing gentle violin sounds into the ears and brain. Excuse me for a moment whilst I have a little snooze, zzzZZZZZzzzz.
Overall 'Hotel' is an excellent album from Moby, I personally like his recent albums and have yet to find anyone who really hates his music. The proof of this statement comes from the reality of having this CD in an MPV with 6 people for about four hours worth of driving. Not one person said 'This is rubbish, put something else on' and there were no grumbles about any of the fifteen tracks. Another plus point for my passengers was the epic sounding nature of some of the musical tracks, as it gave a good audio background when driving through the countryside. On the downside the tracks on the album have a strong similarity to the tracks from the previous two albums, but if you like them you will like this one. This 'Hotel' is definitely a place you'll like staying in.
~MP3 Playlist~ This is a difficult one as I like all the tracks on this album and I would be hard pushed delete any from my MP3 player. After some hard thinking I have come up with this list of 9 recommended tracks, as I said it was difficult to delete even those six that didn't make this list!
Track 1 - Hotel Intro Track 2 - Raining Again Track 3 - Beautiful Track 4 - Lift Me Up Track 5 - Where You End Track 7 - Spiders Track 9 - Very Track 12 - Slipping Away Track 14 - Homeward Angel
Thanks for reading, rating and commenting.
Martin
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
I don't really know much about him, but that was very enlightening, and it sounds like the kind of thing we'd enjoy while driving in the US later this year.
alan74 12.05.2006 11:20
Superb review, not really a huge Moby fan, but it sounds like its worth a listen from what you say
Alan
May 11th, 2006
very helpful by (97%):
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