Hotel

More one-way-street sloganeering and Up With Peopling from the guy who used to be America’s Great Electronic Hope.

Just who the hell is Moby? I mean, I know who he is– he’s the most ubiquitous little bald man this side of Verne Troyer. I meant, who is he, really? Because years of pop culture brainwashing have created a caricature of Moby as a posterboy for electronic music, Buddhist-vegan mysticism, and stiff-back political correctness– none of which is evident on Hotel.

For starters, Moby used to make electronic music, am I right? I distinctly remember the first time I came across his literary moniker; it was affixed to a single of his rave-house burner “Go”, which still lingers in my hippocampus. Nowadays, other than the couple of vanilla slices of new age, er, I mean, “ambient” that bookend Hotel (as well as, yikes, an entire bonus disc), Moby’s songs are less techno than the song in which Eminem gave his famous anti-techno bitch-slap. Sure, some drum loops and keyboard diddles are still in the background, but nothing that couldn’t turn up on an aging midlife crisis album by, say, John Mellencamp.

Mellencamp isn’t a bad point of reference, come to think of it. Hotel strikes the same mood of one-way-street sloganeering, although it’s aimed at a sort of coastal blue-state weekend mysticism rather than a Midwest red, farm, etc. And strangely, the author of Buddhism for Dummies anthem “We Are All Made of Stars” now apparently thinks we are all on about a first-grade level of comprehension. Songs tip off impending choruses like a bad poker player leaning back in his chair when he’s got a big hand. Imagery is simple, familiar, and recycled– rain is used twice, first on “Raining Again” and reprised on “Love Should”. And Moby spends a lot of time repeating trite phrases, such as “look at us, we’re beautiful.” (Twenty-two times in, duh, “Beautiful”– counting is less painful than listening.)

Most disturbing is a two-song block roughly halfway through Hotel where Moby abruptly decides to stop Up With Peopling and, gulp, gets his sex on with the help of chanteuse-on-payroll, Laura Dawn. Over a beat that sounds like what sci-fi movies pass off as futuristic pop (think the Diva scene in The Fifth Element), “Very” drops pillow talk like eight-year-olds imagining how babies are made: “Now we are naked/ Just you-oo-hoo/ You and meeeee.” And slow jam wannabe “I Like It” comes complete with soft-core moaning, wet keyboards, and spoken-word talk-singing of the title (43 times, to be exact)– all it needs is Bob Odenkirk occasionally adding “Yeahhhhh.”

Dawn is also a collaborator on the album’s most egregious sin, the track that drops Hotel from being mediocre dreck, easily quarantined and ignored, to something far worse. I’m talking, of course, about Melville’s cover of New Order’s “Temptation”, which takes the lovestruck dancefloor daze of the original and strips it down to nauseating Rhodes, preset, and canned strings slowcore. Suddenly, I find myself longing for the halcyon days of Frente!.

If Moby has accomplished anything with Hotel, it’s that he may have become the rare musical artist equally despised by both of modern music criticism’s warring camps. Rockists will retch at the blatant AAA radio-whoring of “Raining Again” and “Spiders”, while popists will abhor Moby’s indie-esque self-satisfaction– though thankfully there’s nothing here as condescending as Play‘s “South Side”. But being the man in the middle isn’t working for Moby; overdosing on moderatism, the guy who supposedly gave electronica a face is ironically now a blank manufacturer of rock-by-numbers. Whether seduced by chart flirtations or weary of constant mockery, Moby has filed away his distinguishing characteristics, and all that’s left is an artist too played out to even be one of Eminem’s punchlines.

(House, Techno, Ambient, Downtempo) Moby – Reprise [Limited Edition] – 2021, MP3, 320 kbps

Moby – Reprise
Исполнитель: Moby
Альбом: Reprise
Страна: USA
Дата выпуска: 2021
Жанр: Ambient
Формат: MP3
Битрейт: 320 kbps
Продолжительность: 01:10:40
Треклист:
01. Everloving (Reprise Version)
02. Natural Blues (Feat. Gregory Porter And Amythyst Kiah) (Reprise Version)
03. Go (Reprise Version)
04. Porcelain (Feat. Jim James) (Reprise Version)
05. Extreme Ways (Reprise Version)
06. Heroes (Feat. Mindy Jones) (Reprise Version)
07. God Moving Over The Face Of The Waters (Feat. Víkingur Ólafsson) (Reprise Version)
08. Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad (Feat. Apollo Jane And Deitrick Haddon) (Reprise Version)
09. The Lonely Night (Feat. Mark Lanegan And Kris Kristofferson) (Reprise Version)
10. We Are All Made Of Stars (Reprise Version)
11. Lift Me Up (Reprise Version)
12. The Great Escape (Feat. Nataly Dawn, Alice Skye And Luna Li) (Reprise Version)
13. Almost Home (Feat. Novo Amor, Mindy Jones And Darlingside) (Reprise Version)
14. The Last Day (Feat. Skylar Grey And Darlingside) (Reprise Version)
15. Porcelain (Acoustic Version)
16. New Dawn Fades (Acoustic Version)
https://www.moby-reprise.com/en/

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Стаж: 11 лет 1 месяц

Drexov · 28-Май-21 10:47 (спустя 19 часов)

Musical pioneer Moby announces his new album Reprise, out May 28 on Deutsche Grammophon. Reprise sees Moby revisiting and reimagining musical highlights from his 30-year career. Together with the Budapest Art Orchestra, he has re-envisioned some of his most recognizable rave classics and anthems with new arrangements for orchestra and acoustic instruments. He’s also joined by a stellar line-up of guest artists from across the musical spectrum, including Alice Skye, Amythyst Kiah, Apollo Jane, Darlingside, Deitrick Haddon, Gregory Porter, Jim James, Kris Kristofferson, Luna Li, Mark Lanegan, Mindy Jones, Nataly Dawn, Skylar Grey and Víkingur Ólafsson.

Стаж: 13 лет 2 месяца

Hrobby · 29-Май-21 16:18 (спустя 1 день 5 часов)

Стаж: 8 лет 9 месяцев

SadClown42 · 29-Май-21 20:39 (спустя 4 часа)

Отлично. И не только из-за моего уважения к Моби, а потому что действительно хорош. И звук отличный, при том, что я слушаю мп3 и через скромную аппаратуру.

Стаж: 15 лет 1 месяц

axxieck · 31-Май-21 20:36 (спустя 1 день 23 часа, ред. 31-Май-21 20:36)

Работа, что называется, “only for fans”. Хотя и им не всем зайдет, думаю – некоторым оркестровые аранжирвоки покажутся пошлыми. А кому-то вокал, как и мне, покажется ужасным. Причем не только в исполнении автора (“дедушка, только не пой больше”(с)), но и почти все приглашенных певцов ртом. 9 трек, например, – ну чистый же козлетон!
PS Пьяный хор с перегрузом в конце Lift me Up – это вообще голимый ппц. Он над слушателями издевается, что ли?

Стаж: 8 лет 2 месяца

Panda4508 · 01-Июн-21 20:18 (спустя 23 часа)