Play

(listening to the blues) pretty good. but i wish 5 seconds of this got looped and put over a shitty drum track and stock keyboards for 2 hours

I listened to this multiple times to just to make sure I hadn't lost my sense of smell and still enjoyed it as much as I initially thought I did. It seems that those who have any issues with this album are simply bent out of shape due to the fact that Moby licensed EVERY song from this album for commercials or television shows or any other medium that would turn a profit for him. The story goes Moby did so because this album was met with such a thud upon initial release, and he needed some way to promote the album and you know, make a living. There are at least six songs here that are absolute bangers. But Moby's naysayers nitpick and suggest he was nothing but a curator, collecting samples from his favorite sources. If I'm interested in hearing how the sausage was made, it's usually because it tastes so good and I can't get enough of it. Go ahead and enjoy the shit out of this gem. My most pleasantly surprising 5 so far.

Do.... do I like Moby?

Moby, Moby, Moby. You sexy little cunt. This record soundtracked the greatest period of my life. I wasn't used to having periods, being male, but one day Play by Moby came on thr wireless and my minge just would not stop gushing with blood. Since then, I've had 7 different incidents, each involving the music of Moby and a lot of vaginal bleeding. Buckets of the stuff.

How to Be a Hitmaker in 5 Easy Steps, by Moby: 1: Sample black vocalist. The older, the better. 2: Add rave piano. Guitars if feeling adventurous. 3: Add sweeping synths. 4: Repeat. 5: Patent technique before Fatboy Slim can. Don't get me wrong, the process produces some good music on occasion, but Moby spends practically half the album doing so, to the point that it ends up sounding like a cynical, AI-synthesized version of Endtroducing... that was created by a car company's ad department. And the less said about the album's other half, the better. Key Tracks: Bodyrock, Natural Blues

3.5 + To me Moby comes across less as a musician, and more as a reupholsterer. He chooses old African-American spirituals, as one might find a beautiful old sofa. He hammers the old melodies into shape, puttying over any small imperfections. He then applies some new material, slick beats crisp and bright (like new fabric on an old sofa), to make the original content marketable to a contemporary consumer. It's a professional and precise product but it feels cold and inauthentic.

Nobody obsessed over this album the way Moby obsessed over Natalie Portman.

just elevator music - it's the sort of thing people who "don't really do music" would have playing at a party. 2/10

i mean i don't feel as negatively toward Moby as Eminem, but yeah... not a fan

So many songs, so many car commercials! Moby certainly wasn’t the first (or last) to sample old blues & gospel artists but he did it better than anyone else. Probably due to the fact that in addition to being a "sampler” he was (and still is) a composer and multi-instrumentalist. The non-blues numbers aren’t as strong but still have a nice texture and are easy to listen to. With all the mileage I got out of some of these tracks in my spin classes I have no choice but to give it a 5.

“Play” by Moby (1999) Desperately disparate, this commercialized collection of tracks is like spike proteins racing through the cultural bloodstream, looking for a capillary to clot. As it was peddled to movie makers and product marketing teams, the listener hears something oddly familiar and asks, “Didn’t I hear that on a TV ad?” And the answer is probably “Yes”. “Play” is not so much an album, but a project. The only unifying theme here is the serendipitous whim of the artist. His general method is to take sampled snippets of old recordings, repeat them over and over, and then add electronic beats and textures. It suffers from the same malady as most techno productions. Once the innovations have been picked up by others, it is no longer interesting as music. Compositionally, it is too repetitive. The only movement in each track is in the adding of layers of electronic mood sounds. And without lyrical or melodic support, these progressions are merely random. What he does on “Natural Blues” is a sacrilege. He takes a classic sample of blues and renders it in a perfectly unnatural way. The vocal sample (the a capella spiritual “Trouble So Hard” by Vera Hall) is not in perfect pitch, which is fine if it doesn’t clash with other tones. But then Moby adds perfectly tuned chords and fills that only serve to accentuate the flaws of the original sample. This should be illegal. Anyway, fall in love with this ‘music’ at your aesthetic peril. 1/5

While Moby is not as bad as Fatboy Slim or others like that, this just isn't my kind of music. Just feels repetitious and stale.

Here's a test of your pre-millennial tolerance, Mark! I played the whole thing through on a plane ride, B-sides included, and conclude that a) Moby understands his quality control pretty well and b) the Lomax/archive samples are doing a lot of the heavy lifting here. Packed with catchy bangers, of course, some of which I love to this day (Natural Blues and Run On, especially). Bit of an unsavory character in this period, by all accounts, and the album itself goes on longer than it should, but gotta give credit where it's due. Now excuse me, I've got the sudden urge to purchase an ugly French van..

I love everything about the story of this record, from Moby thinking it was going to be his last work before he had to get a real job to the fact that it took months to catch on. It's just bangers front to back. Best track: Porcelain.

This album was like readymade songs for ads.

This is my first time listening to a Moby album. It's interesting, I usually prefer my electronic music to be a little more ambient. It's difficult to make a record that is as equally interesting to pay attention to or have on as background sound. I think this album walks that line pretty well. I enjoyed the blues music samples. The blues is where it's at.

Absolute banger. SO many good tracks.

my walking companion throughout uni.

Well THIS is an album I'm happy I heard before dying. It is so influential and holds to this day as a good album. It looses a bit in the second half but is able to catch the goodbye-feeling in the last song.

Incredibly repetitive, though clearly purposely so. Also it's like 2 hours long, I didn't listen to most of it. It wasn't particularly interesting to me, but wasn't particularly bad either.

The songs sound one-paced and samey.

Gross creepy weirdo whose music sucks.

I love this album (at the risk of my husband’s sneering and judging). First intro to electronic music. South Side still makes me wanna jump in Jen’s car for a roadtrip.

01) Honey - 10,0 02) Find My Baby - 9,5 03) Porcelain - 10,0 04) Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad? - 10,0 05) South Side - 10,0 06) Rushing - 9,5 07) Bodyrock - 10,0 08) Natural Blues - 10,0 09) Machete - 10,0 10) 7 - 9,0 11) Run On - 10,0 12) Down Slow - 9,0 13) If Things Were Perfect - 9,5 14) Everloving - 10,0 15) Inside - 9,5 16) Guitar Flute & String - 9,5 17) The Sky Is Broken - 9,5 18) My Weakness - 9,5 TOTAL: 9,69 (97/100) Current ranking: 11/364 This album takes me back to my college days, God how much I used to play "Play". Now, 25 years later, with the first bars of "Honey", nostalgia hits me hard. I will listen to it in its entirety again after such a long time, but I can already promise it a perfect five. For the good old days!

Super chill album that anyone can dig with an open mind. Solid 5 in my book.

CLASSIC

One of the best EDM albums of all the time

Beautiful, interesting, vibrant. Good creative work music, can be ambient or the main event. Techno and soul influences side by side. A new favorite.

Quintessential Moby

Robocop is a zombie hero movie disguised as a cyborg Jesus parable, and so on Play the dead rescue Moby and help him master giant wow crescendoes. Could do with a quarter hour amputated, but still bangs. I don't think anyone has ever done this trick quite as well as Moby.

mad how something that was so inescapable and the biggest thing in existence when it came out can end up so forgotten when its no longer the zeitgeist.

In 1999, you were never more than 50 metres from someone listening to a track off this album via a film, TV show or advert. I don't think it's aged very well though and it's still definitely 6 tracks and 20 minutes too long. It's almost like he tried to make something to cater to every commercial opportunity that might come up... and forgot it was also supposed to be a coherent album. At it's best, it's really good though.

One of the first electronic records I ever listened to, so there is some nostalgia here, but it really is just easy listening music for 1999

Somewhat enjoyed but disjointed and there's so much better elsewhere.

God this has not aged well at all. I remember loving it at the time, but it’s actually just aural wallpaper and not in a good way

I remember liking this when it came out. I think maybe this album introduced "electronic" music to a lot of people at the time. Just doesn't hold up.

Starts with a bang. Aside from one or two more bangs, this is ass.

When a weird guy makes a great music

Most tracks are familiar of course, but never actually listened to it before. To my surprise, I like it. I mean, I already knew Moby was capable of producing some good stuff - The Lonely Night is an amazing song (largely due to Mark Lanegan’s contribution, but still) - but I never paid attention to Play. I’m giving this five stars and feel like hunting down that Lomax collection he gathered so many of the samples from. 5/5

5/5. Back to back bangers, all danceable and great use of R&B and Rock mixed with clean and steady electronic beats. Even his vocals are good enough to keep the song enjoyable on some of them. The highlights are very much the ones with excellent sample choice. I feel like this very much inspired a lot of electronic artists today as well as Rap artists, especially Kanye. Hard pressed to find a bad song on here and even a great album to listen to front to back, which also having great singles. Best Song: Find My Baby, Bodyrock, Honey

Love Porcelain, almost made me cry Very moody and atmospheric Felt like being transported to another world in the last couple songs Didn't think this genre would affect me as much as it did

Gran Disco

I liked it. I didn't expect to...but it was fun.

Incredibly nostalgic album. I remember Dad playing this as a kid. It’s dynamic and varied, with tunes for every emotion. Not a lot of thematic through-lines here, as far as I can tell.

Go on, Moby lad.

This shit was mid

Such a strong start that made a quick descent into utter self indulgence

Ehh I remember when this guy was huge for a minute. I liked Southside back then and I still do. Gwen's vocals really make that song. Porcelain is okay I guess. The rest is mostly annoying. A lot of lackluster blues samples on repeat. Moby can't sing. The music is generally forgettable. I always kinda wanted to like Moby. Apparently he has some punk roots. I know he covered Mission of Burma and that wasn't terrible. Anyway this is pretty much a dud. Could and will listen to Southside many more times in my life though.

The soundtrack to a thousand tedious dinner parties. "More flan Miriam?"

Every song is a loop of the first seconds

Rubbish

Not really something I'm going to listen to on purpose ever. There are some snippets of soul/blues with decent beats/samples, but all and all there isn't a lot of substance. I'll never understand people's fascination with Moby.

Toda una sorpresa. Pedazo de disco. Ritmos elegantes y muy bien construídos

First time I heard of Moby, probably 1995, it was not my thing. By the time Play came out, I guess my musical taste had evolved to one accepting more modern music. I bought the CD, I played the CD, I loved the CD. Giving this 4**** as I was unable to fully enjoy the album--there are a couple of tunes skip-worthy for sure.

This album rocks

Moby was good. So many of these songs were in our subconscious and we didn't even know it. I guess that's what happens when you're good at writing music with long cultural teeth and licensing it

#108/1001 🇺🇸 ▶️ Another record that i played endlessly at the time it came out. Listening back today it doesn't hold the same appeal, maybe its been overplayed. The vocal samples do get a bit repetative, but still it holds more appeal than say the Fat Boy Slim record that i got a couple of weeks ago. Best tracks: Porcelain, If Things Were Perfect, Down Slow

Music made to sell cars and soundtrack exhibits at the Science Museum.

Didn’t expect to like this but strangely enjoyed it

I recognized more than I thought.

Nearly 600 albums in, this might be the least surprising inclusion on this list, based on the author’s other choices. That said, the last few tracks on this record, where it gets more ambient, are pretty good and completely out of character with the rest of the record.

Moby a connu une ascension assez singulière dans l'industrie musicale. Il a pendant très longtemps fait de l'électro dans sa chambre sans jamais réussir à percer jusqu'au jour où, dégustant une planche mixte charcuterie-fromage en terrasse d'un café, il vit débouler Eminem qui lui passa une soufflante d'une violence inouïe et totalement imméritée puisque les deux hommes ne se connaissaient pas. Très marqué par cet épisode, Moby s'en servit cependant pour lancer sa carrière avec l'album Play. La pochette de ce dernier témoigne d'ailleurs du phénomène pavlovien suivant : lorsque Moby entend le nom d'Eminem (ici diffusé par le talkie-walkie sur la gauche), il sursaute de manière ultra-spectaculaire, ce qui a tendance à amuser ses amis.

As I was traveling, I didn't have much time to listen to Play. Of course, I was sentient in 1999, so I've heard every track thousands of times. I did hope that it would prove to be more than the sum of its hacked off and traded parts, but being altogether does the tracks a disservice. Similarly, looping and mechanising the samples does them a disservice too, neutering the humanity that would be apparent in variation. It doesn't help that Moby composes such bog-standard progressions underneath - far too reliant on swelling pads, awful slides, rumdimentary drumming, and, on Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?, a terrible, dead piano sound. 18 years after My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts, there is nothing innovative in this approach. Even the cynicism is uninventive: Paul Simon had already done it beautifully with Graceland. Moby's real genius was in going all in on selling out - marking the end of the 90s. I can't be too harsh on the record though. It worked in every placement, because there are hooks, perhaps only hooks and few of them Moby's own. There is a dark rush of nostalgia that carries the record through to South Side, the chorus of which illustrates why Moby had to harvest hooks from elsewhere. I don't mean to suggest that there is anything wrong with sampling. There's not, even when it may be culturally exploitative. But when it highlights the musical paucity of the supposed headline artist, it doesn't do them any favours. Apart from raking in millions of dollars. 2.5 This was a miserable listen. An hour of dull drum loops, one-bar-two-finger piano loops that would annoy if a child was playing them at a school concert, and worst of all Moby himself occasionally popping up to mutter some excruciating lyric. I can’t believe I bought 17 copies of this album in 1999. 1/5

I think we used to have this cd but I have no idea why. It's dreadful. Really boring. And ambient music was around before Moby so I'm not sure why it would be considered influential.

Each song is a microcosm for my feelings on the entire album. I start out thinking, wow that's a cool musical idea, I wonder where he is going to take this? The answer every time - nowhere - he's just going to play it on loop and run it into the ground. This one was tedious to get through.

Music for adverts. There's something really uncanny-valley and inauthentic about Moby. Can't quite put my finger on why I feel like that. In fairness he did stumble on a popular formula but it is exactly that: formulaic.

can't make music? sample those who can

Transformative sampling essentially started here and in this time. But it's difficult to go back and listen to, even through rose colored glasses.

This really brought back the beginning of the lights for me. But I would like to leave it there, if only for what I know about Moby today. My guess is that it sounded new when it came out, but how seems like tidied up elevator music.

A disappointing start to my 1001 albums daily listening. Nostalgic middle of the road easy listening.

This is already a whole experience. I don't think I'm going to be able to listen to this whole thing...

Uninspiring. Sounds like a bad Bourne Movie soundtrack.

Repetive

🥰

Siis vitun hyvä, bängeriä bängerin perään. Ei mulla muuta, moii.

When the movie “The Beach” came out, I was obsessed with it. Sure, I’ll admit that the film has flaws. I mean, there’s that whole “video game” section, where Leo is running around pixelated, set to Blur’s “On Your Own”. What the hell was that?? But, I still maintain that the movie is good enough to allow us to ignore the bad parts. I loved the ideology it had around travelling. The concept of seeing the real side of the places you visit and avoiding “The Big Chunky Charlie”. I read and loved the book too, but it was the movie that I came to first. My friends used to tell me that Leo’s character reminded them a lot of me. I definitely don’t think they were complimenting me on my looks 😅, more that my general cranky and opinionated attitude towards things like travel, video games and music reminded them of Richard. They used to say that some day I’d just be gone, with no goodbye, the only clue left behind of my whereabouts would be a hand-drawn map they’d find under their door. I did end up backpacking around the world for a year, and getting to Thailand was something I was eagerly looking forward to, 100% because of this movie. I couldn't wait to experience the hustle of urban Bangkok, checking for bugs under my bed in a grimy hostel. I wanted to stay in wooden huts right on the beach, with big covered porches to shelter from the monsoon rain. And of course, pay my homage to the movie by finding that perfect beach - real perfection, not just “oh that's nice”. We made our way to Phuket, and from there we hopped on a crowded boat to the island of Ko Phi Phi Don. Once there, we paid a local to bring us out in his longboat to the uninhabited national park island of Ko Phi Phi Leh, the home of Maya Bay Beach. We’d made it to “The Beach”, and managed to do it without getting in trouble with weed farmers, or swimming massive distances with the ever-present threat of sharks. In real life it’s just as spectacular as in the movie. And as I sat on the sand taking it all in, it was impossible to not have Moby’s “Porcelain” playing in my head. “Porcelain” is an incredible song. The absolute insanity of the brilliant vision Moby had to create this gorgeous song by reversing a section of a random orchestral score from a 60s movie (“Fight for Survival” by Ernest Young, from the movie “Exodus”). It blows my mind. Moby’s soft spoken vocals work perfectly coupled with samples of traditional South African singing. And then that gorgeous, delicate piano piece hovering above it all. I remember, back in January 2000, an Irish radio presenter, Dave Fanning, said that it sounded like Moby had gotten a box set of gospel and blues songs for Christmas. That piqued my interest. Turns out he was right. Apparently Moby was loaned a CD box set of field recordings made by Alan Lomax and that's what gave him the idea to blend these old blues songs with electronica. And it's exactly that mixture of worlds that makes this album so great. I've been consuming and playing music for as long as I can remember. As a very young kid, I started playing on a tiny David O’Doherty-esque electronic keyboard I got for Christmas one year. I'd listen to whatever was on the radio back then, but electronica used to always particularly get my attention. I mean, I was listening to The Prodigy when I was just ten or eleven. As a teenager I started listening to Oasis and Britpop, which led me to sixties and seventies rock ‘n’ roll. I inevitably started playing the guitar, something I continued right into adulthood. As I began to discover some of the guitar greats like Page and Hendrix, I followed the trail back to the old blues masters like Robert Johnson, Leadbelly and the likes. I couldn't get enough of those amazing crackly blues recordings of artists from the 40s and 50s, playing their acoustic guitars with broken beer bottles, and somehow sounding like a full band. My long-winded biographical point is that I was very, very eager to consume music that blended those worlds: old Delta blues, gospel and electronica. And that's pretty much the description that Dave Fanning gave of this album. It was right up my street. “Play” doesn't disappoint. Fantastic old samples from Bessie Jones, Boy Blue, The Banks Brothers, Bill Landford and so many more make up the bones of these great tunes. Moby surrounds these raw Lomax recordings with slide guitar, piano and big beats to fantastic effect. Songs like “Honey”, “Find My Baby”, “Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?” and “Natural Blues” are what make this album so special. And “Run On” with its gospel harmonies, is my favourite song on the album, quite simply because it's just so much damn fun. It's not just blues and roots samples though. The album is made up of a mix of genres. “Bodyrock” and “South Side” show the more guitar-heavy side of Moby, while “Rushing”, “Down Slow” and “If Things Were Perfect” are more from the world of trip-hop. The last third of the album verges on ambient minimalism, with some pretty great instrumental tracks. While it’s absolutely the gospel and blues infused tracks that make this album stand out so much, maybe it was a good idea to diversify the sound across the track list to keep things fresh for the hour-long runtime. It just so happened that my first ever (proper) concert was Moby. He played Castlegar Sports Grounds in Galway on June 5 2000, right when this album was at the peak of its fame. It was amazing to see the little dude perform in such a small venue in my hometown right at the time that I was listening to “Play” on repeat. And I really was listening to this album over and over back then. Almost as much as I was watching “The Beach” on a loop at the time. “The Beach” and “Play” are fully interlinked in my mind. That’s why the first half of this reads like I forgot my assignment and instead accidentally spun up a review of the Danny Boyle movie. When I listen to this album, I’m viscerally brought back to that period of my life, where I was first starting to go to concerts, during the “Richard” period of my life (a stage I don’t think I’ve ever fully outgrown). But, for obvious reasons, it also brings me back to my travels around Thailand. Sitting on The Beach in gorgeous Ko Phi Phi Leh, Moby's “Porcelain” playing in my head, the only song that can do this place justice.

that's brilliant

very interesting, this is a unique album for me, it conveys a lot of emotion and had great production, for me, however, it kind of lost its legs near the end. solid album.

So goated. 5/5

Owned Bangers

Masterpiece!

It's perfect 5/5

The record feels like a sunrise caught on tape. A pulse that never quits. It’s the kind of soundtrack that makes early‑adult nights feel limitless. Spins: 3 Playlist Additions - Honey - Porcelain - Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad? - South Side - Bodyrock - Machete - Run On - Everloving - Inside - Guitar Flute & String

Love it and have tickets to see him in a few weeks time so perfect timing.

9/10… electronica / trip hop / *1999

Well... this was right up my alley. I feel like I'm a sexy 90s woman, clad in blood-red lipstick, grey-eyed, pixie cut, slinking around a night club, on a secret mission, because I'm also a Vampire Slayer, and the club is actually a secret vampire nest, and I need to scope out the leader.

Gran álbum, el mejor en semanas. Placentero.

90

A classic album that brings back a lot of memories. I bought and listened a lot to this in the early 2000’s. It varies from cool party hits to relaxing background music. It still is a very strong album. Favourites: Everloving, Natural Blues, Find My Baby, Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad, Porcelain, Bodyrock, Honey.

Okay, Im in love. Moby, damn, finally listening to Moby properly, amazing music!

new for me. i love somes songs so bad!

excelente y vuelvo a escucharlo

Electronic legend.

fun, jazzy, rythmé, whammy, house, short voice loops over beautiful instrumental arrangements, gets more and more melancholic

Sooooo fun to listen!! Love how it started and ended!! Really, my weakness, a beautiful way to end a movie about life, or an album ahah

Honorary five but still great album

I'm sort of biased on this one.. I knew and enjoyed Moby before I wandered over to his set at ultra music festival 2008. What I saw was an artist who knew the crowd he was playing to and threw down so hard in that sweaty tent. It solidified my love for this artist and his versatility. This album isn't much like what that was, but it has its place.

love porcelain, really housey vibe that i love in a track

pretty sick dude

Awesome album!