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Rating: The album "Hotel" from 2005 was also released in a special edition of two discs. The first, which we all know, is indeed that trash of Hotel: a useless, sparse, and polished exercise in style, with few ideas but plenty of simplicity. Due to professional deviation, I liked it too but don't listen to it anymore because the doctor advised me against consuming plastic. The second disc, however, is the one I will talk about here, named "Hotel: Ambient". In my opinion, good old Richard would have been better off releasing this instead of Hotel. It would have sold less than half, but at least it wouldn't have been scorned by critics worldwide for the evident drop in style, or better yet, it wouldn't have pestered us for weeks with that kitsch disaster known as "Lift Me Up". Marketing details aside, let's get to the music at hand. God. The truth is that I am reviewing this album not because I particularly wanted to write, but more so to publicly thank this little great man who perhaps more than anyone else made me fall in love with music when I was still a youngster. So, I will give two descriptions, one objective and one not. You decide which to skip and which to read:
Objectivity (this stranger): It is a good ambient music album, without too many pretensions. The structure of the tracks is mostly circular, created (probably) using a computer, keyboard, and piano. Sometimes, distant and soothing beats are added to the tracks (see "Homeward Angel" or "Blue Paper"). In truth, there aren't many effects or instruments. As per Moby's classic tradition, there's much space given to melodies (à la Vangelis, but much simpler, examples are the two aforementioned tracks, or even "Chord Sound") but also to structural elements in the strict sense, as it should be for an ambient Enya-like album ("The Come Down" above all). There are a couple of exceptions in the middle section (in my opinion, the worst) where Moby wanders without a precise direction (see "Not Sensitive" and "Lily") instead of following a circular pattern. All the other tracks have a well-defined progression, aimed at progressively creating an atmosphere of calm and serenity, highlighted by the particularly touching sound chosen for the keyboards. A separate chapter is the straight-techno ambient of the opening "Swear", reminiscent of Moby's club era. Shall we wrap it up here? Let's wrap it up here.
Subjectivity: Do you love simple, sweet, touching melodies? Are you depressed? Pensive? In love? Sensitive? Do tears come to your eyes during a dramatic movie when that inevitably sad soundtrack kicks in? In short, do you possess a minimum of humanity? Then do yourself a favor and get the album. Period. For me, it is something sublime. Sure, it's definitely not a masterpiece, no use fooling ourselves. There are albums more ambient than this, more varied than this, more seminal than this, etc., etc. And yet, in all its simplicity (or perhaps because of it), in this album Moby manages, in its best moments, to touch the deepest chords of my soul with an intensity that is unparalleled. He goes straight to the point and hits hard. Then I don't know about you, but as far as I'm concerned, upon first hearing the short version of "Homeward Angel", I cried without any apparent reason to do so. You'll understand, then, why I prefer to abandon objectivity in evaluation. After all, aren't we all human in the end?
Thank you again Mr. Richard Melville Hall!
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
03 Beautiful (03:11)
Come on baby,
Come on girl,
Come on baby,
Come on girl,
I love you baby,
I love you now,
I love you baby,
I love you now,
Look at us we’re beautiful,
All the people push and pull but,
Let’s just go out and ride,
Talk about the things we’ve tried
Look at us we’re beautiful,
All the people push and pull but,
They’ll never get inside,
We got too much to hide
Come on baby,
Come on girl,
Come on baby,
Come on girl,
I love you baby,
I love you now,
I love you baby,
I love you now,
Look at us we’re beautiful,
All the people push and pull but,
Let’s just go out and ride,
Talk about the things we’ve tried
Look at us we’re beautiful
All the people push and pull but,
They’ll never get inside,
We got too much to hide
Look at us we’re beautiful,
All the people push and pull but,
Let’s just go out and ride,
Talk about the things we’ve tried
Look at us we’re beautiful
All the people push and pull but,
They’ll never get inside,
We got too much to hide
Look at us we’re beautiful [x7]
Look at us we’re beautiful (yeah!)
Look at us (yeah!) we’re beautiful (yeah!) [x 3]
Look at us (yeah!) we’re beautiful
Look at us we’re beautiful [x4]
04 Lift Me Up (03:19)
Plain talking (Plain talking)
Take us so far (take us so far)
Broken down cars (broken down cars)
Like strung-out old stars (like strung-out old stars)
Plain talking (Plain talking)
Served us so well (served us so well)
We travelled through hell (travelled through hell)
We know how we felt ( We know how we felt )
Lift me up, lift me up
Higher now ama
Lift me up, lift me up
Higher now ama
Plain talking (Plain talking)
Making us bold (making us bold)
So strung out and cold (so strung out and cold)
I'm feeling so old (feeling so old)
Plain talking (Plain talking)
Has ruined us now (has ruined us now)
You never know how (you never know how)
Sweeter than thou (sweeter than thou)
Lift me up, lift me up
Higher now ama
Lift me up, lift me up
Higher now ama
[4x]
Oooooooohhhhhhhhhhh
Higher
Lift me up, lift me up
oh la la la la
Lift me up, lift me up
oh la la la la
[4x]
(Feeling so old)
05 Where You End (03:22)
Some things fall apart
Some things makes you whole
Some things that you find
Are beyond your control
I love you and you're beautiful
You write your own songs
What if the right part of leaving
Turned out to be wrong
If I could kiss you now
Oh I'd kiss you now again and again
'Til I don't know where I begin
And where you end
Thought I fell in love the other day
With an old friend of mine
I was running kisses
Down every inch of her spine
We had the roof down
The sun came shining in
The black fact is
That I was thinking of you
If I could kiss you now
Oh I'd kiss you now again and again
'Til I don't know where I begin
And where you end
I slept in the sun the other day
I thought I was fine
Everything seemed perfect
'Til I had you on my mind
I tried to love you
I did all that I could
I wish that the bad now
Had finally turned into good
If I could kiss you now
Oh I'd kiss you now again and again
'Til I don't know where I begin
And where you end
If I could kiss you now
If I could kiss you now
If I could kiss you now
Oh where you end
Is where I begin
Oh where you end
Oh where you end
Oh where you end
06 Temptation (04:55)
Heaven
A gateway to hope
Just like a feeling
I need, it's no joke
And though it hurts me
To see you this way
Betrayed by words
I'd never heard
Too hard to say them
Up, down, turn around; please don't let me hit the ground
Tonight I think I'll walk alone; find my soul as I go home
[2x]
Oh it's the last time, it's the last time
Oh it's the last time, it's the last time
Each way I turn
I know I'll always try
To break the circle
That has been placed round me
From time to time
I find I lost
Some meaning
That was urgent
To myself
I do believe
Oh, up, down, turn around; please don't let me hit the ground
Tonight I think I'll walk alone; find my soul as I go home
[2x]
Oh it's the last time, it's the last time
Oh it's the last time, it's the last time
And I have never met anyone quite like you before
And I've never met anyone quite like you before
[2x]
And I've never met anyone quite like you before
Oh, up, down, turn around; please don't let me hit the ground
Tonight I think I'll walk alone; find my soul as I go home
And I never met anyone quite like you before
Up, down, turn around; please don't let me hit the ground
Tonight I think I'll walk alone; find my soul as I go home
Up, down, turn around; please don't let me hit the ground
Tonight I think I'll walk alone; find my soul as I go home
[2x]
07 Spiders (03:45)
We just had to ask
Maybe some one out of heaven
Would hear us down here
We couldn't bear to stand
How the people leave us waiting
For something up there
Oh, why did you leave?
Why won't you come?
And save us again?
Come back to us spiders
Come uncrush my hand
Let peace and beauty reign
And bring us love again, like you can
We just didn't know
Someone there outside of heaven
Heard us down here
We couldn't stand it here
How the people leave us longing
For something up there
Oh, why did you leave?
And why won't you come?
And save us again?
Come back to us spiders
Come uncrush my hands
Let peace and beauty reign
And bring us love again, like you can
[2x]
So much time, we need to ask everything
How did it go, you need it I got it
Come back to us spiders
Come uncrush my hands
Let peace and beauty reign
And bring us love again, like you can
[2x]
Like you can
08 Dream About Me (03:21)
Babe, oh dream about me
Lie on the phone to me
Tell me no truth if it is bad
There's enough in my life to make me so sad
Just dream about colour fills our lives
Just dream about someone else tonight
And babe, oh dream about me
On the phone talking quietly
I want to be yours, oh won't you be mine
Against red skies for all time
So dream about us when you're alone
Just dream about how I will let go
And
And
Babe, oh dream about me
Lie on the phone to me
Tell me no truth if it is bad
There's enough in my life to make me so sad
Just dream about colour fills our lives
Just dream about someone else tonight
Just dream about colour fills our song
Just dream about how I will let go
12 Slipping Away (03:39)
All that we needed was right
The threshhold is breaking tonight
Open to everything happy and sad
Seeing the good when it's all going bad
Seeing the sun when I can't really see
Hoping the sun will at least look at me
Focus on everything better today
All that I need and I never could say
Hold on to people they're slipping away
Hold on to this while it's slipping away
All that we needed tonight
Are people who love us and like
I know how it feels to mean it
Oh and we leave here, you'll see
Open to everything happy and sad
Seeing the good when it's all going bad
Seeing the sun when I can't really see
Hoping the sun will at least look at me
Focus on everything better today
All that I need and I never could say
Hold on to people they're slipping away
Hold on to this while it's slipping away
So long
So long
Open to everything happy and sad
Seeing the good when it's all going bad
Seeing the sun when I can't really see
Hoping the sun will at least look at me
Focus on everything better today
All that I need and I never could say
Hold on to people they're slipping away
Hold on to this while it's slipping away
Hold on to people they're slipping away
[14x]
13 Forever (03:39)
Two simple places
We wanted to go
Two simple things
You wanted to know
Everything around
I could not see
I wish I'd known
How much you loved me
Oh
We could feel this way forever
[2X]
I watched the sun
Cause it touches you while you sleep
You gave me something
That I wanted to keep
I see you smile you smile like a little child
And hold you crying when it all goes wild
Oh
We could feel this way forever
[6X]
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