/ 27 May 2005

Check in with Moby

CD OF THE WEEK

Moby: Hotel

What will Moby do next? Will he make dance music? Will he make rock music? Will he license it all to advertising agencies? These are questions that were doubtlessly posed by many a music watcher before Moby released his latest album, Hotel (Virgin).

Well, it seems he’s been in a rather eclectic frame of mind. His hotel is a many-roomed building with a range of guests, from the quiet-as-a-mouse businessman to the raucous newly weds in the honeymoon suite. Also, he’s come to rely on his own voice all the way through, instead of playing with vocal samples.

Hotel Intro eases one into the album with a gentle string melody, whereafter Moby jams in a series of lively tracks: the perky pop of Raining Again and Where You End, the deliciously wry Beautiful (“Look at us, we’re beautiful”), the dark but danceable politics of Lift Me Up.

He throws in a charming but overlong Cowboy Junkie-esque cover of New Order’s Temptation, performed breathlessly by guest vocalist Laura Dawn, ups the tempo for the easy-going melody of Spiders, whereafter Dawn again does her Dido impression along with Moby on the uneventful Dream about Me. Very has a disco beat (a nod to Moby’s fans from his raving days?) and I Like It has a touch of Nineties trip-hop.

The second half is much slower than the first: Love Should is all sparkling piano notes with a sad, sad melody; Forever is ambient anthem fodder; and Homeward is several minutes of soporific instrumental minimalism, followed by a hidden track of even more chilled nature.

These last tracks, especially, contribute to a somewhat forced feeling of melancholy: Moby says chill, so chill. It just doesn’t turn out to be all that exciting an album, despite its happier moments.

So, feel free to check into this hotel; at least a good night’s sleep is guaranteed.