Donations to "The Rab Anderson Welfare Trust" are always very welcome. Simply email your c...
Donations to "The Rab Anderson Welfare Trust" are always very welcome. Simply email your credit card number to Rab. Thank you. ***Please not that my Ciao account is going into hibernation for a while, as frankly, I can't be arsed. Cya.***
Member since:15.01.2001
Reviews:15
Members who trust:6
Richard Hall, aka Moby, is a diminutive, bald, vegan Christian. A while ago he got very angry and so, quite understandably, decided to make some very angry heavy metal music. But now he’s settled down, and he’s made this extremely popular album which, according to Q, is owned by every combat-trouser-wearing Mac-owner in the UK. And apparently, they love it.
Well, I don’t. Which is possibly because I prefer jeans to combats, and own a PC. But a more likely reason is that, for the main part, Play is repetitive, boring, and thoroughly uninteresting.
All the tracks revolve around a grooving beat and the occasional piano, string or keyboard chord. Which is fine if you like that sort of thing, ie most dance music. But I find it a bit tedious. And very few tracks actually feature Moby singing. Now, I very much suspect that this is because Dicky-boy here can’t sing. Certainly, judging by his Glastonbury performance, he can’t. Which is probably why he usually has a few soul singers scattered around the stage, and ropes in the odd Elton John to sing on a few numbers.
I wonder how many people who own this album ever listen to the whole thing? I'm pretty sure that most people will just listen to the singles. And admittedly, there are some fine moments on those tracks: the gorgeous piano solo of “Porcelain”, some of “Natural Blues”, most of “Honey”, and pretty much all of “Why does my heart feel so bad?”. It’s certainly not all rubbish, it’s just that if you look at the album as a whole, the bad bits by far outnumber the good bits.
But to his credit, over the years Moby has tried to make up for the apparent lack of quality in his music by adding in a few interesting extras. For instance, “Moby’s Thousand”, a track off some other album, is officially the fastest piece of music in the world, clocking in at 1000 beats per minute. That’s fast. But it doesn’t sound good, which defeats the point in making music. Similarly on this album, while “Guitar, Flute and String” certainly delivers the promised instruments, it fails to deliver good music.
But maybe this is meant more as background music, which would certainly explain why every track on the album has been licensed for a TV ad. It was one of the biggest selling albums of 2000, almost certainly because people heard the songs on TV and thought “I like a bit of that”, and went out and bought the album. Indeed, this album sounds much better if you only have it on very quietly in the background, and aren’t really listening to it.
So this is music that sounds quite good, until you start listening to it. Music that you shouldn’t really listen to. What’s that all about?
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God thought-provoking op - I can take or leave Moby, which I guess it not how good music is supposed to affect you.
The short bursts on ads sound fine, but I agree that the entire album is on the tedious side.
jefferson 25.03.2001 16:08
Interesting paradox...
sister_ray 15.03.2001 23:14
I haven't yet met the tHain of which you speak, but I'm finding it difficult to forget what hanus-anus he seems to be. Unfortunately I think he's now gone into hiding due to his lengendary status
The great iconoclast of techno returns with a smooth, sacred and exhilarating ... more
record.Play's concoction of breakbeat rhythms, ambient mixology and inspired blues and gospel samples cry out across musical genres and histories, imparting a time-tested wis...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
The great iconoclast of techno returns with a smooth, sacred and exhilarating record. ... more
Play's concoction of breakbeat rhythms, ambient mixology and inspired blues and gospel samples cry out across musical genres and histories, imparting a time-tested wi...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Mar 3rd, 2001
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