Artist: Moby
Label: Mute Records
Release: 2008
Moby, the big name of American electro pop, has already racked up some incredible chart success over his long career. This is the guy who, for the hordes of female ravers and clubgoers into electronic music, is basically the stuff of their wettest dreams. This year the man weakened their knees even more with the release of his new album, called Last Night.
So what has the modern-day guru of kitsch and dance culture come up with? Exactly what you’d expect. Last Night is a record that I can say with near certainty will satisfy the less demanding clubgoers, while anyone who wants a bit more dramatic tension from their electronic music will be left cold by Moby. The songs mostly follow typical dance rhythms, and a couple of times Moby pulls out one more stereotypical joker – namely, the ballad. That trick has been used so many times it doesn’t even sound convincing anymore; by now it’s a mandatory part of the repertoire of every artist who wants to make it. Last Night is a veritable monument to the sterility of modern electronic music. It’s been a long time since I heard anything that sounds this artificial and synthetic. It’s as if the big star was trying hard to achieve exactly that effect. The most organic thing about it is his past, back when he was supposedly still a metal fan. So if you want to buy a good electro pop album, I’d recommend looking elsewhere. A good idea, for example, is the album by Hot Chip titled Made in The Dark. The ideas there are far more original and fresh than Moby’s, who has clearly settled for resting on his laurels.
On the new album Moby tried to do everything he could to hold on to that fleeting state we call fame. Almost every vocal track gets a new female singer, and on one tune rapper Grandmaster Caz comes to his aid, which Moby probably hoped would boost his standing among hip-hop fans. Even with so many different singers, it still feels like one and the same voice, since they all have a pretty clichéd r’n’b style. Nothing wrong with that per se, but if he’s trying to create an impression of variety, he could have picked singers who sound less alike. Moby himself is undoubtedly a very capable musician, and he shows it with his production skills. The album is squeaky clean, without a speck of unnecessary noise, but that’s exactly its other weakness. Electronic music is known for sterile production, but it seems like Moby goes a step further. Besides the disinfectant, he also used bleach, and then repeated the whole process several times so he wouldn’t accidentally miss anything. Effective, spotless, and soulless.
With every new release Moby sounds more forced and manufactured. Even though he’s the queen of the American club scene, there’s less and less soul in his music (even less than is usual for electronic music, which is traditionally pretty emotionally cold anyway). He’s throwing bigger and bigger budgets and more and more guest vocalists at his records, but nothing helps. Moby is on the decline, he just doesn’t know it yet, and as long as the money keeps rolling in, he’d rather live in denial.
Lineup
Moby – instruments
Erin Marszalek, Luci Butler, Chrisi Poland, Grandmasteer Caz, Aynzli Jones, S. O. Simple, Smokey, Amelia Rose Zirin Brown, Nabila Benladehem, Wendy Starland, Shayna Steele, Sylvia Gordon – vocals
Production
Moby
Track list
1. Ooh Yeah 5:18
2. I Love to Move in Here 4:45
3. 257.zero 3:38
4. Everyday It’s 1989 3:40
5. Live for Tomorrow 4:02
6. Alice 4:27
7. Hyenas 3:35
8. I’m in Love 3:43
9. Disco Lies 3:23
10. The Stars 4:21
11. Degenerates 3:58
12. Sweet Apocalypse 5:19
13. Mothers of the Night 3:19
14. Last Night 4:53
