I listen to quite a wide variety of music, but my favourite genre is
definitely straight-up guitar-drums-bass rock. A well-crafted guitar solo
will get me grooving (and making a fool of myself if anyone's around to
watch me) every time. Bands like U2, Collective Soul, Delirious, and, um,
U2 get a lot of airtime on my stereo. If it involves a band that cranks
out melodic music, plays its own instruments and sounds at least a little
bit original, then I'll probably give it a listen. However, for some
reason I've long harboured an unconscious prejudice against artists whose
music relies heavily on loops, samples and other "artificial" sources. I
generally find such music acceptable in a live setting like a club, but I
don't generally choose to listen to it on my own time.
So it came as somewhat of a surprise to me to discover that I liked Moby.
I started really listening- and getting into- various tracks from his Play
album about 6 months ago, so when I saw 18 I decided to grab it.
How do I describe music that fits so perfectly into the background of just
about anything I happen to be doing? Stylistically, I think it's quite
similar to Play- I guess one way to test that would be to mix tracks from
both albums together into one playlist and see how well they play together.
I think I recall reading some criticism of 18 a little while back for just
that reason- it's too similar to Play. That's not a problem for me though.
This is good music to groove to, whatever the occasion. It's not a
particularly significant milestone in the history of music production, but
I predict that it will be a recurring theme in the soundtrack to my life
for quite a while. Oh, and the "artificial music" bit? Sure, those
elements do occasionally appear on this album, but I don't mind. My
musical taste must be devolving or something (the purist U2 snobs who can't
stand the noise of Zooropa- which I have grown quite fond of- would
probably argue that it was not very evolved to begin with, but there you
go).
So, to summarize: if you like your music to have hefty substance and
long-lasting cultural significance, 18 isn't likely to move you. On the
other hand, if you need something light and mellow to complement another
activity without being distracting, I think 18 is a good choice.
And one final reason to at least give Moby a look: he has a
(This review originally appeared at
Limey Brit.)
Article comments
1 - Pearse
Reading over Moby’s blog, I get the impression that he has the same sense for music that you, the Limey Brit, does. It makes me that much more likely to buy the album, having never purchased a Moby disc before, but having always enjoyed it in the background.
Great review, Limey.
2 - Sebastian
Please remove "best" from your website's description, as material like this shows that most college newspapers, let alone full blown music publications, wouldn't accept material like this. If giving Moby a chance is a huge expansion in your musical palette,
I don't even want to know what you'd think of a Miles Davis record.