30 Day Song Challenge - Day 22: A Song That You Listen To When You're Sad

Drink in the sadness listening to Moby's "Natural Blues".

Catching Up With Moby

After a few quiet years Moby released his not terribly commercial ode to New York City nightlife Last Night and a remix album in 2008. Inspired by speech given by David Lynch he then announced he was no longer working with celebrity vocalists, not that there were any on Last Night, producing an album to be released on his own label without any conventional commercial inroads in the form of 2009's Wait For Me. Within six months Moby was promoting the re-release of the album with a hot new wave single and a facebook pyramid scheme that gains you sampler EP.



Without skipping a beat Moby just wrapped up a couple of recording sessions that go in yet another direction so he is now mulling over the album's worth of material contemplating "if putting out an acoustic/orchestral album will alienate the few remaining people who are willing to listen to my records". My advice, which Moby would know if he read my still-in-draft reviews of his recent work, is that he needs a producer or at least someone with an objective ear to whittle down his material so he releases focused material that is compelling to an audience outside of his hardcore fans. I am not saying that he needs to act like a chart obsessed pop princess but he should be aware that his muse needs to be sharper. Why should he listen to a guy who can't finish a review in the time it takes him to record two albums? Because I'm right. I followed him during his 180° turn with Animal Rights, the original UK rock version, and was one of the 6,000 worldwide who picked up Play the first week it was released. Stop flooding the market with singles full of mediocre remixes and get back to releasing music with real passion and purpose. The audience will find it.

Video: Moby "Pale Horses"

Moby has been talking up the uncommercial nature of his upcoming album as he has been doing the press rounds. So far his singles choices bear that out. The vocals for "Pale Horses" were recorded in a completely unconventional way pointing to the words, which include the line "all my family died", to a friend singing the song for the first time. The effect is not unlike one of the quieter tracks on Play. The video is an sad little animated treatment of the song that brings Moby's alien sketches to life:



: The single release of "Pale Horses", due June 22nd, features remixes from Gui Boratto, Apparat and Jason Bentley. Wait For Me is out June 29th.

Video: Moby "Shot In The Back Of The Head"

After a couple of months of hinting Moby made the official announcement about his next album Wait For Me today. Inspired by a David Lynch speech about creativity without concern of a commercial audience being a good thing Moby recorded the album in his home studio with a few friends as guest vocalists. I'm not expecting a pop record. The first single has a faintly disturbing video directed by David Lynch:



: Wait For Me is out June 30th.

UPDATE: "Shot In The Back Of The Head" is available as a free download at Moby.com.

Disappointed Once More

While I don't blog with enough frequency to complain about the albums that leave me disillusioned that's not going to stop me:

Shiny Toy Guns Season Of Poison
Endless live support of their debut album, which first came to my attention back in 2005, had reached Cher farewell tour proportions which makes one wonder just how long they spent in the studio recording this lackluster followup. While changing up styles can be a good thing the release suffers from the band purging the synthpop vibe that made them unique making the so-so songs just sink. Of course any album that suggests a whole season of poison isn't going to be much fun so at least band put a warning right out on the front cover.

Moby Last Night Remixed
While I have yet to get my thoughts on the source album out of draft this disjointed remix album is a mess. I rate Moby's two-disc Everything Is Wrong: Mixed & Remixed as one of my favorite remix albums ever but this is clearly on the other side of the spectrum with not enough interesting material to justify the release. While available to download as individual tracks the star here should be Moby's own dj mix of the tracks but it suffers as most tracks are played in their entirety making the whole thing drag on and on for 74 minutes.

Keane Perfect Symmetry
While far from the most fervent Keane supporter I had high hopes for the album after Tim Rice-Oxley's recent work with Gwen Stefani resulted in a highlight and Stuart Price's (peripheral) involvement raised the stakes. Lead single "Spiraling" has grown on me but the album as a whole feels like a chore to listen to with poor pacing and pandering lyrics, listen to "Better Than This" if you want an ego boost, that make the first quarter of the album feel like the whole thing should be over already. The album's real crime is failing the "Early Winter" test. Not a thing here even touches that song.

Sam Sparro Sam Sparro
While Sam has gotten the blog love from the blogs I love the album is actually two tracks deep. The US exclusive "S.A.M.S.P.A.R.R.O." and the undeniable "Black And Gold". I must be missing something because the rest of the album does nothing for me.

Hercules And Love Affair Hercules And Love Affair
I get that their ability to create interesting old school disco vibes and the DFA connection helped win them plenty of buzz but their crushing inability to write songs sinks the album quickly. Now a few short months after the hype has died down I imagine few of the album's most ardent supporter can recall a single track that has stuck with them.

Lady Gaga The Fame
Possibly the worst album on this list it's hard to believe this is in the US top 10. Fans seem to think she is offering something but album is full of bland filler that is only occasionally saved the rare clever line. Among the offenses the brag about a sick beat on "Just Dance" that just isn't delivered in the song.

Video: Moby "Alice"

Moby has "tried to take a long 8 hour night out in new york city and condense it into a 65 minute long album" for the forthcoming Last Night. The first single "Alice" reflects that heavily featuring Nigerian rappers 419 Crew in an odd mix of genres that combine a hip hop foundation with Moby singing an ethereal new wave chorus(or at least a repeated verse) with a breakdown that includes a metal guitar solo. Odd but it works.

Working from Moby's suggestion "to see a lot of things exploding" director Andreas Nillson has created a video that brings elderly stock footage and floating heads together with some sort of "National Treasure"-esque conspiracy lite symbols. I'm not sure that I smell a conspiracy but the most puzzling thing about the video is that something this uncommercial got green light because I can't imagine it being shown on vh1 which along with the song's ambiguous sense of genre almost guarantees that no one will hear the it. At least there are blogs and youtube:



: Download the Last Night megamix sampler by clicking here and stop by Moby's myspace for more info on his "love letter to dance music" which is out April 1 in the US.

Music From A Wider Angle

Cinematic electronica superstar's Hybrid have a new album out this week and I Choose Noise finds them balancing the dancefloor filling ways of their sophomore effort with the orchestral vision they prominently displayed on their debut. Well, I've never actually listened to all of either of Hybrid's two previous albums but I gather that is the story. It's just that despite the presence of New Order's Peter Hook on a few tracks of their second album and all the hype surrounding their first record which helped them land an opening spot for Moby when he first toured to support Play I've never felt any real passion for Hybrid's music. They seem to be the sort of folks I would like because they do things that interest me like record trance songs with orchestral accompaniment and drop Pet Shop Boys samples in their remixes (or at least in their remix of BT's "Never Gonna Come Back Down"), but their tracks consistently clock in around the eight minute mark and they never have kept my interest that long. Of course their crowning achievement to date has been getting "Finished Symphony" used as the music for the final segment of SSX, the game that "is still one of the prime reasons for owning a PS2". SSX is something I can get passionate about. Hybrid not so much.

Regardless I Choose Noise is a solid effort that overcomes the presence of Perry Farrell, who may or may not be attempting to channel Madonna at one point in his vocal appearance, so feel free to stream the album for the remainder of the week here and see if it sparks a more passionate response in you.


Sidenote: Two years later when Moby was still touring Play he had New Order and Outkast opening for him. What a difference bringing Gwen Stefani on for a guest vocal and a video appearance can make.

New York New York

A couple of videos promoting Moby's upcoming Go: The Very Best Of Moby leaked this week and here they are with my thoughts above them and quotes about the songs from Moby below.

Deborah Harry handles vocal duties for this Moroder-style track and if she seems comfortable it because Harry has done that sort of thing before. This video featuring a hard partying chihuahua was apparently rejected by Moby but leaked by someone involved with the project who still thinks it's worth watching. It's horrible to be sure, but Moby's released worse videos and there's no other way to hear the song at the moment.

'new york, new york' is a fun and frivolous disco song that i recorded with debbie harry. it's a song about degeneracy and debauchery in new york city, and i'm incredibly honored and happy to have debbie harry doing the vocals. in recording it i kind of wanted it to sound like abba meets the pet shop boys...like i said, it's a fun disco song.

As a bonus track on Go in some European countries Moby re-recorded Hotel's "Slipping Away" with French pop star Mylene Farmer who adds the occasional French verse. Interesting stuff.

'slipping away' with mylene farmer... i first met mylene at teany and we became friends and, simply, thought that this would be a really nice song to do together. it was my favorite song from 'hotel', and i'm glad that it's going to get a new life with mylene's beautiful vocals.

Everything Is Alright

Moby is set to release a new greatest hits album with a new song "New York, New York" that was "written and recorded over the summer in Manhattan" and has Deborah Harry on vocals. He has been haunted by crap collections of his previous work, but this looks like the most consistent collection of Moby's previously released material since "Early Underground" rounded up all his initial 12" rave singles. Here's the tracklisting:

1. Go
2. Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?
3. In This World
4. Porcelain
5. In My Heart
6. New York, New York (featuring Debbie Harry on vocals)
7. Natural Blues
8. Lift Me Up
9. Bodyrock
10. We Are All Made Of Stars
11. Slipping Away
12. Honey
13. Move
14. James Bond Theme
15. Feeling So Real

: It's rather cheeky move to not include his biggest hit, "South Side", but it's a really solid disc. The only track I would drop is "In My Heart", one of the tracks Moby premiered at the SLC Olympics, which just isn't nearly as good as Moby thinks and I would love to have seen another pre-"EIW" rave track like "Next Is The E" or "Ah Ah" included. It's a good thing that the comp sticks to his strengths by including nothing from "Animal Rights" or the punk rock tracks that Moby recorded last year. No word on a US release but if it does come out here expect "South Side" to be on it.

On a related note I just heard Johnny Cash's version of "God's Gonna Cut You Down" which appears on his posthumous "American V: A Hundred Highways" that was released last month. Moby sampled that song to create "Run On" and given the timing and Rick Rubin's involvement in the American Recordings sessions it's likely that Cash never would have covered the song if it wasn't for Moby. It certainly brings more credibility to "Play"'s inclusion on Nation Public Radio's list of the "300 most important American musical works of the 20th century" from a few years ago.

Is Moby Funny?

He has had amusing moments in interviews, but this video directed by fellow political activist and "Hotel" siren Laura Dawn... Well, just watch for yourself:



: Eliminating net neutrality = bad. This video = not good. So long as the message gets out I suppose...

Vegans In Space

Now that commercial space flight is almost a reality sci-fi fan Moby is taking an interest:

The star looks set to make history after booking a seat on via Richard Branson's 'Virgin Galactic' space flight.

After paying out $207,000 for the privilege, Moby has set the date of his outer space flight for sometime in 2010.

: Maybe he'll take the space suit from the "We Are All Made Of Stars" video.

Other People's Songs

Moby is doing a bit of promotion in my area today with a book signing at a Barnes & Noble a couple of miles away from where I live. I won't be going because I'll be at work (the joys of a strange rotating work schedule), but I did catch him on the radio where he chatted and picked out songs. Nothing too surprising was revealed, his partner does most of the work at Teany, his home studio looks like the bridge on Star Trek and "Spiders" was inspired by Bowie, but it was nice to hear him. One of the songs he chose to play on the program was Massive Attack's "Teardrop" which I remember Garbage picking to play during a radio interview back when the song was new. Great song then and it sounds even better today.

Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine

Much to my surprise, the new Moby single turned up on itunes this morning. On the first few listens, "Beautiful" isn't the single I was wishing for. I do like Moby's rock stuff when it's got a new wave taste to it, "We Are All Made Of Stars" or "South Side" are about as good as rock gets to my taste, but this is a bit more straight rock and lacking any immediate spark. It could be that I'm missing it, so we'll see what I think in a couple of weeks.
I also noticed the Kylie Minogue song that the Scissor Sister's wrote for her turned up on itunes recently as well. I had heard the song a couple of months ago, and it turns out to sound even better when it's not being streamed. It's not quite as interesting as SS's on their own, but it's still the best song I've heard from the "disco with a string section" school in months.
Aren't videos where the music doesn't start until a third of the way in the best? Take the new J Lo video takes nearly a minute and half to get into the song. Maybe this says something about the music, which isn't bad, but I suspect it's so Jennifer can show off her acting chops (she was taken seriously as an actress not that long ago, believe it or not). The video is fantastic because J Lo gets to play her pop-star-using-the-least-functional-fur-coat-in-years self in the video within the video, a club dj single mom, a dancer, someone else, and a dorky girl getting into the groove (by far the most sexy persona) where all of these women's lives meet in this happening club where the crowd goes nuts for her song. Tell me this isn't acting taken to the next level. Just try it.