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.
