Moby
Play

THE REVIEW

The first aspect to consider when reviewing "Play" is that, in a moment made difficult for the recording industry by the easy transfer of "data", this work sold 23 million copies, 20 of which were albums and 3 were singles extracted from it. This alone could be a good reason to feel the need to own a copy. Then we could take the route of analyzing the personality of this shy New York boy, registered as Richard Melville Hall, who might be marked by the legend that he descends from that Herman Melville, author of the famous novel "Moby Dick" (from which he took his stage name), and who started expressing himself at just 14, playing in a band. In particular, Moby perhaps constitutes the true prototype of the "global" musician, not a more or less established musician who, in the era of globalization (or new colonization, but here we'll spend months writing and you days reading...), rushes to make his work global, but rather a polymorphic artist, in development, who emerges from the cocoon only thanks to globalization, and who, we could imagine, would have continued to make ordinary records without it, possibly appreciated by specialized critics like "Everything is Wrong" (but how do you name it like that?!?, not even Joy Division!) of '95; or the less appreciated "Animal Rights" of '96. In my opinion, this could also be a sufficient reason to feel the need to own this album, which is Moby's masterpiece. Moby makes electronic music, enriched with samples that inevitably highlight a musical culture of "I've been listening to music 8 hours a day-every-day-since-I-was-10" and true sounds that assure us that the rest of his days were spent playing (have you seen how pale he is, poor thing, never a sunny day). An important, predominant feature of his sound message is that ambience, that sense of roundness, that ability to work with low frequencies, tempering and rendering them "fluid", typical of the New York club scene he assimilated during his DJ experience. In this regard, let me indulge in a small digression: The only works born in the club scene deserving to be published and distributed worldwide (and therefore deserve to be listened to by us) are the New York ones. There's a few exceptions from the London scene, now something comes from the Parisian scene, but broadly speaking, what comes out of European clubs should go back inside as soon as possible. In particular, regarding our dear country, as long as Cecchetto continues in near-monopoly conditions to impose his products or protégés upon us, we can't expect much evolution (can you imagine someone who's not Italian listening to 883? Alexia might be the only specimen, and it's better if she doesn't reproduce!). Sad and bitter, but Planet Funk, the most interesting Italian band in this regard, plays and sounds good music but had to go to England. Let's hope something comes to our rescue from Russia (and if the morning shows the day, t.A.T.u, the roses can bloom...). At the cost of seeming prolix, everything mentioned was necessary to find the key that allows us to understand this work. To prove my thesis, listen to track 2 (find my baby), and give me reason: this track explains all the work of the pleasant Richard (but with everything he's earned, couldn't he buy a house by the sea?) The track starts with a classic thump-clap in a series with the voice sampling, which then says a single phrase, which by chance is the title. Then comes the guitar or little guitar, the electric bass, classic loop, simple, even simpler than Adam Clayton's stupid loop in "with or without", at least that was played. And then the flair, the true creativity, knowing how to mix, the alchemies of this mind (his music reflects his identity: cerebral). The sample of the wow is magnificent: stuff for DJs at their first parties, who get excited with their new 1210s with lids under the table, and classmates in the living room dancing. The sampling of the female voice is stuff to make people of the caliber of A Guy Called Gerald pale (the peel sessions-track3-emotions electric-1991-Strange Fruit Records, listen to believe). Yet the piece, in its overall balance, is quite good. His work is all there, the alchemy. Let's do the exercise of starting from "find my baby", even stopping and starting again at the end of the eighth when the different tracks enter until it manages to "play" in our head the different tracks, at different times and intervals. Practically until paranoia. Don't worry, once you get the hang of it, it doesn't get tiring (I swear). Let us carefully contemplate the thought that "find my baby" is, among the released singles, the ugliest, or rather, the least beautiful. Have you wondered why he released it? After how many other singles was it released? I have some friends who have sold something, but Richard is not among them (as thin and pale as he is, he would scare all the girls away). Yet no one can take away my conviction that, after the unexpected success of the previous singles, the sweet "Porcelain", whispered, a caress; the engaging "Bodyrock", refined borrowing from the crossover that evolves the symbiosis and alternation between drums and guitar (I beg you first, oh no, oh please...); "Run on", which sounds like a jazzy colored tune coming out of a little church in the US countryside; "Natural blues" and "Why does my heart feel so bad", which deserve a separate discourse and I will discuss later; after the success of these singles and excuse me if I forgot some, Richard earned the weight in his record company to be able to decide to release as a single a track he liked (more than it should meet the favor of the audience, in relation). One out of two might have bought it because they liked the previous ones. So, let's recap, the card wins and the card loses... Now I should write more about his ability to make a piece feel "familiar", without having effectively plagiarized anyone (jam effect)... In this regard, I propose an experiment: Take a good DJ, give him an acoustic guitar and a DIY manual of those 20 euros. Pair him with a cute girl, preferably blonde, and leave them in an apartment. Come back in a couple of months with a Rowland and a dat and you will record something impressively similar to track 14 (everloving). Here, this is Moby's ability to communicate with listeners that determined Play's great success, simplicity, in everything, in sounds, structure, times, and combinations. The tracks form in his head simply, he records them, and then he sets them simply, like someone who would have a wardrobe all in pastel colors, but how can you go wrong? One last comment on track 3 (Porcelain): I consider this track the most important to explain the album, after "find my baby". The reason is simple and concerns one of the three dimensions to explain reality: time. In this context, the exercise of dismembering the track into its components (the recorded tracks) does not help. Here it requires just a bit of ear, intuition and, if you have the bad habit of smoking, a cigarette: after the kick drum has entered (sigh!), so not immediately, to be clear after the 16th octet, pay attention to the time; it’s a simple time like Soul to Soul, those that when they first came out made the fortune of Suzanne Vega's track (do you remember tu-tu-turu-tu-tu-turu?). Fixate on that, when the organ comes in, stay fixed on the tempo. Done? now tell me what’s different from what a beginner, a child, or someone still practicing scales would come up with, whom you put a base under and struggle with the fingers to follow the rhythm laid out by the base! Simplicity, that’s all. Just like that hoe Adam Clayton who broke my car’s woofer, yet he helped us more than once with the girl, Moby finds his balance here, the alchemy. Too bad that after Play he got scared and in recreating pieces for 18 he started again with the same appreciable simplicity from Play’s pieces precisely. Like the governments of the Roman Empire that trimmed the currency: the coin kept circulating, but was worth a little less each time. Who knows if maybe by buying a house by the sea and getting a little healthy tan, he can start again from something else and give us something new and good. However, those who don't know the album, have heard of it, and might be curious but don’t have it, without wasting time reading further, should get it. Play by Moby (1999) has the great merit of giving artistic dignity to electronic music made of samples and various manipulations that until its release seemed like an expedient for those who didn't know how to play. A third good reason that alone might make you feel the need to own a copy. Oh, I forgot about "Natural Blues", track 8, the one written in memory of his deceased brother, the one with the double video, the video with the puppets, the one that RAI offered us as a theme for the special programs of the 2000 European football championships (we lost the final! What the heck, didn’t they know that Moby brings bad luck?). Well, not much to say about Natural Blues: fourth good reason, which alone is worth the need to possess a copy.

[Editor’s Note: this review is objectively too long. We keep it 'as is' because it’s too laborious to edit, asking the reviewer in the future to confine to one sheet (as specified in "how to write a review").