Day 0889 - Play

Moby "Play" (1999) - got it

Fun fact that I did not previously know: Moby chose his stage name because he's a descendant of Herman Melville, the author of Moby Dick (at least according to Moby himself).

Moby did some DJing, played in alt-rock and hardcore bands and started to build up a reputation via his electronic music and remixes for other artists.   Then he put his musical foot in it by releasing a guitar-heavy, hard-core-style record called "Animal Rights".  the creative left-turn was not well received which left Moby mopey.  Following this setback, Moby convinced himself to carry on making music and produced Play. 

Initially not that successful, Moby and his team, as a last resort, licensed out all of the tracks for use in advertising and television which helped familiarise the public with the album.

Moby's approach is generally similar to that of Fatboy Slim, to take samples of older music (generally soul/blues/rock) and combine that with some beats and interesting arrangements to take the samples to new places.  Opener "Honey" more or less builds an entire song around one line from a Bessie Jones track.  Single "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad" likewise uses a couple of lines of lyrics combined with piano, strings and a gospel choir to create something different from its constituent pieces.

The album was eventually huge, spawning 8 singles.   Probably one problem with it (even for those of us who like a bit of Moby) is that it is huge track-wise too.   There are 18 tracks, over an hour of music and it's a bit much for a single listen.   There are a couple of more straight-ahead electro tracks and I almost feel like he should have made it two albums or a double album, split into more sample-based pop tracks, and some more electronic/dancey tracks.

Day 0654 - Moss Side Story

Barry Adamson "Moss Side Story" (1989)

Barry had amassed a pretty impressive portfolio prior to this album.  He'd played in Magazine, the Buzzcocks, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and a couple of other acts.   Adamson cast this, his first solo album as the soundtrack to a non-existent film noir.   In part it was a reflection of Adamson's love of film soundtrack music (the influences of composers such as Bernard Hermann, Ennio Morricone and even Angelo Badalamenti are never far away), and in part he set it as a sort of musical CV with which to try and rope in some actual film scoring work.   That did eventually bear fruit and Adamson would go on to contribute scores for films including "Natural Born Killers"  "The Beach" and "Lost Highway".

The album is a masterpiece, mixing noirish jazz, frantic rock interludes, smouldering piano, nightmarish ambience, and even a cheeky wee cover of the theme to "Alfred Hitchcock Presents"  Adamson throws everything he has at the album.  Judging from the album cover (never judge by the cover!) and his connection with the Bad Seeds, I had thought this might be a bit of a crooning record with a touch of murder-blues, but it ended up being so much more.

Day 0584 - The Queen is Dead

The Smiths "The Queen is Dead" (1986)

Seems I kind of have this thing with the Smiths, whereby I like their music, but I can't really tell their albums apart.  It all just sounds kind of... Smithy.

This is an enjoyable album though.  Johnny Marr paints the songs with a range of guitar tones from swirling and dreamy to vigorous folk, to country twang and everything in between.  Morrissey's lyrics continue to be intelligent and with a touch of humour.

This was the band's 3rd album in 4 years, and after one more album the band broke up.  Unlike most bands that go through the whole break up thing, they seem to have resisted the urge to reunite, even to revisit their back-catalog for a quick buck.