Moby - Play

MINE

While this album was, like, bigger than the biggest thing ever for a while (more than 10 million copies sold and how many ads did that music feature on?) I never bought it.  Why would I need to - the songs were everywhere, plus everybody else had it, so no biggie.  I'm not sure if YourZ bought this then or later, as a "we should have this" buy, but I'm glad he did.

It's worth the hype.  11 years on the tunes are still fresh(ish) and the sound is lovely.  A mix of up- and down-beat, the thing I noticed the most today is how playing this album encouraged some introspection.  I found myself thinking of all the things that have happened to me since this CD came out.  A whole new life, a whole new me.  Missing my dad.  Stuff.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP even though it's good whatever volume you play it at

YOURZ

Ah Moby, what a funny little man he is.  But boy, he sure writes some great tunes.  There was a time when I thought he was the shit, as far as this sort of music goes.  I'm not sorry to say I don't think this so much anymore, but it was this record that developed my liking for some electronica, so its not all bad.  I also think the saturation levels achieved by Play were a contributing factor to my general anti-Moby stance.  Those frickin' songs were everywhere, man.

But thankfully, it had been some time since I last heard Play.  It really is a great record and definitely deserved the accolades it got when it was first released over a decade ago (doesn't this little factoid make you feel old?  It makes me feel fuckin' ancient...)  I remember reading all sorts of crap about how he put the album together, most of which wasn't true.  What is true, however, is that he pretty much did the whole album himself, apart from the samples.  This alone demands a certain amount of respect, however begrudging. 

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

For more information: http://www.moby.com/