Moby - Destroyed

As most of you guys probably know, I love Moby. And it's not even because I celebrate his entire catalog, and could recite every lyric to every track by him. I own two albums, 'Play' and '18'. That's it. I love both of them. Honestly, I'm not sure I've heard anything else by him - and he was an array of studio recordings. Now is as good a time as any to start with other works, so let's get to today's drop, 'Destroyed'. In January of 2010, Moby announced he was working on a new album. He stated this one would be more acoustic and less electronic than previous records. Although he gets that reputation, nothing I've ever heard was too electronic. Moby described this album as, "broken down melodic electronic music for empty cities at 2 a.m." Not entirely sure where he's going with that, but I'll run with it. This is in fact his tenth studio album, which seems kind of crazy. The album cover came from NYC's LaGuardia airport, and is the sign that you see if the baggage ends up being destroyed because it went unclaimed. He took that photo while his plane was delayed. If you buy the album, it comes with a photobook of all the pictures he took that day. Which is actually really neat. He says he recorded this while on tour, and he barely slept at any points while making it. And you know what? It honestly has that feel to it. It's very much a moody/atmospheric record. You could put it on at a classy dinner party, in a rec room or basically anywhere. Lots of instrumentals again here, but that's more than okay with me. I can very much picture myself listening to this in the car or while at work and jamming away. The arrangements and sounds are simply entrancing - and make you want to contemplate life. Critics have been tough on this album, but I won't be. It's solid and worth a listen.

TRACK LISTING:
1. Broken Places, The
2. Be the One
3. Sevastopol
4. Low Hum, The
5. Rockets
6. Day, The
7. Right Thing, The
8. After
9. Victoria Lucas
10. Blue Moon
11. Lie Down in Darkness
12. Stella Maris
13. Violent Bear It Away, The
14. Lacrimae
15. When You Are Old

Listen To Samples

Top 3 Tracks:
1. The Broken Places
2. Lie Down In Darkness
3. Rockets

FINAL RATING:
4.5 out of 5 stars

Moby - Play

This one brings back some great memories for me. This might be the first album (with the exception of Dark Side of the Moon) that really taught me what musical arrangements and the entire concept of an album were. This record is masterful start to finish and the order in which Moby put songs track to track. A lot of this is slow, entrancing type music, but it's very well done. There are some peppier tracks on here - but those typically are not my favorites. Sometimes you just get in that mood where you want to listen to this type of music (or at least I do). This came out over 10 years ago, and I think there are just a handful of records that compare to how well Play is put together. You may not enjoy the style of Moby, but listen to it start to finish and don't let it shuffle. You'll feel like you've just drifted away and about an hour later, feel like you've been taken for a ride to music heaven. Give artists like Moby a chance, you seriously might turn yourself on to another genre.

TRACK LISTING:
1. Honey
2. Find My Baby
3. Porcelain
4. Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?
5. South Side
6. Rushing
7. Bodyrock
8. Natural Blues
9. Machete
10. 7
11. Run On
12. Down Slow
13. If Things Were Perfect
14. Everloving
15. Inside
16. Guitar, Flute & String
17. Sky Is Broken
18. My Weakness

Listen To Samples

Top 3 Tracks:
1. Porcelain
2. My Weakness
3. Natural Blues

FINAL RATING:
5 out of 5 stars