Moby - '18' (Mute)
4/5
By: Toby L
Mmm, Lord, he's travelled so hard, but Moby is back with his first new album since his most quintessential work to date, 1999's highly-exposed and huge-selling, 'Play'. Initial reactions to this work, '18', also the bearer, funnily enough, of eighteen tracks like the last endeavour, have been mixed - for, this time, things are far more introverted and reflective than ever before...
So, yes, if you're expecting the glorious up-tempo, pop-dance crossovers such as 'Run On' and 'Honey' as featured once before, then you may be disappointed. Instead, the return of the inimitably intelligent, though peculiar, bald New Yorker delivers more the chance of absorbing and enjoying a collection of songs designed to move you, rather than groove you. If such a description is found to be appealing, then there's a high likelihood that the keyboard and strings-enriched, blues-sampled melodic offerings on show here will dazzle and compel you no matter what time of day you provide the record an airing.
Incidentally, a request made by the man behind it all, who has - typically - written, produced, engineered and mixed the whole shebang (well, apart from those depressing bits sang by soulful, old women from the past), is that the listener plays the album in its entirety on at least one occasion. You can see what the guy's getting at; to pick and choose an individual track randomly provides an ample sound-bite, though - without it ever sounding like a pretentious concept LP - '18' is better received and understood in its full format, i.e. from track one, the scintillating, recent space-rock single, 'We Are All Made Of Stars', right until the closing, feel-good and gospel-tinged 'I'm Not Worried At All', which effectively alleviates your spirits and presents the proposition of hitting 'play' again to repeat the experience.
Whilst the overall tone doesn't tend to drift too far from the 'downbeat' league, when unexpected twists and turns perk up on the journey - such as Moby's potential, early-morning club-anthem in waiting, 'Jam For The Ladies', featuring guest-spots from MC Lite, Angie Stone and NY hip-hopper, Mike Geronimo - they present themselves in a far more enticing, exciting light. In fact, the only downfall of the voyage is the repetitive song-structure as experienced so many times before - i.e. the plinky-plonky piano that accompanies many of the emotional numbers - take 'In This World', as an example, where at times the instrument often just seems too early-90s.
In all, however, Moby has triumphed again; with '18', he hasn't so much as pulled a last minute handbrake turn to steer away from the horizon he was heading towards, so much as stick to the original formula - that is to say, work along the concepts provided from something old, something new, something borrowed - and using a hell of a lot of blues. Exquisite.
Artists in this article: Moby
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