A Pleasant Surprise

I haven’t really cared for any of Moby’s albums since 1999’s Play. The energy on that disc came along at the perfect time, and I fondly recall having a blast at his show at the TLA in Philadelphia with all of my friends. He proved himself to be a truly talented performer, and an all-around cool guy as well, hanging out with us afterwards.

But by the end of the year, we had all had our fill of Moby, and of Fatboy Slim, and well, nobody listens to Techno anyway.

Over the years since, Moby released three more records, and while each had a few good songs, nothing blew our skirts up.

And so I didn’t expect much when I got my hands on a copy of his newest album, Wait For Me. I had seen a video, directed by David Lynch, but the visuals just dragged on over an instrumental track uncharacteristically devoid of hooks.

But Wait For Me is actually Moby’s best album since Play, with touches of his truly brilliant Animal Rights.

Apparently, the approach was inspired by a talk Lynch gave at BAFTA in the UK. Moby paraphrased a suggestion of Lynch’s thusly: “too often an artists or musicians or writers creative output is judged by how well it accommodates the marketplace, and how much market share it commands and how much money it generates.”

So Moby focused on making a record for himself, with no concern over how it might be received commercially. And if that’s something that he needed to make a conscious attempt to achieve, it’s really no wonder that his last few albums haven’t been very special from our standpoint.

Placed into context, the aforementioned instrumental track, Shot In The Back Of The Head, helps to complete a beautiful tapestry bookended by elegant vocals by a friend of Moby’s named Amelia on Pale Horses (video to follow), and a very trademark Moby song entitled Study War, featuring period samples of hymns, over a dance beat that weaves in and out of drawn out synth pads.

Amelia appears on several other tracks on Wait For Me; The title track, and Walk With Me- both among the album’s best- and also on the less outstanding Hope Is Gone.

JTLF is another noteworthy cut, though I’m not quite sure if the vocals are supplied by Amelia exploring the higher end of her range, or another vocalist entirely.

Moby provides the vocals himself on Mistake, which is unfortunately mediocre. However most of the disc is held together by elegant instrumental compositions, all of them mixed with the help of Ken Thomas of Sigur Rós, entirely on purely analog equipment in true stereo. Such snobbery alone does not a good album make, but in this particular case, the humble methods perfectly complement what is clearly one from the heart.

Wait For Me
June 30, 2009
Little Idiot

1. Division
2. Pale Horses
3. Shot In The Back Of The Head
4. Study War
5. Walk With Me
6. Stock Radio
7. Mistake
8. Scream Pilots
9. JTLF 1
10. JTLF
11. A Seated Night
12. Wait For Me
13. Hope Is Gone
14. Ghost Return
15. Slow Light
16. Isolate