Moby
Hotel: Ambient

THE REVIEW

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!