5 CDs to Get Mobyized
This is the place to start. It’s Moby’s influential album from 1999 where he lifted old blues and gospel recordings and sampled them into his own seductive dance pieces. You’ve heard them all because they’ve all been licensed to films, commercials and TV. Highlights include the haunting “Porcelain,” the forlorn “Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad” and the rollicking “Natural Blues.” Be sure to get Play with the bonus disc, Play the B Sides. It has more ambient works and one of Moby’s most poignant tracks, “Whispering Wind.”
I usually avoid collections in these lists, but this is a really good one that gives you a lot of Moby’s earlier more techno-driven tracks including his first hit, “Go” and the hand-waving rave tune, “Feeling So Real. ” There’s also great tracks from Play and one of his most cinematic works, “God Moving Over the Face of the Waters”, used so effectively in the movie Heat.
This is my favorite Moby, but also the most anomalous. In the Echoes CD of the Month review I wrote: Wait for Me speaks to universal yearning, in a song cycle that reveals its secrets over repeated listening. It will bring you to tears in its forlorn poignancy, but will lift you up in the end.” The deluxe edition has some of the most purely ambient music Moby has ever recorded.
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8 Suffered a bit as the follow-up to Play, but it has some heart-rending tunes and one of Moby’s best pure pop songs, the spiritual,”We Are All Made of Stars. ” There’s also some moody songs that foreshadow Wait for Me including “Sleep Alone,” an ambient ballad. The B Sides album for this is good, but not as a essential as Play the B Sides.
Hotel is an underrated Moby album, especially the double disc version. It’s a more of a rock rock album, mostly with Moby singing, but his voice is earnest enough to pull off these tunes including the anthemic “Beautiful.” “Homeward Angel,” which ends the first disc is another gorgeous ambient ballad. The Hotel: Ambient CD seems to be out of print, but it’s worth seeking the deluxe edition that includes it.
Moby was voted #9 of 20 Icons of Echoes by Echoes listeners. You can hear several of our interviews with Moby on the Echoes Podcasts at iTunes.
John Diliberto ((( echoes )))