Album Review: Moby - Innocents

Moby
Innocents
Rating: Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It

Based on his output since his breakthrough record Play, Moby, for me, does his best work when he is making music for himself and not for his perceived audience. Too many times he has tried to replicate the success of Play only to miss the mark, like on its follow up, the practically carbon copy 18, or the hodgepodge of different dance music styles on Last Night. Where he just stops trying to be the worldwide success story is where he truly shines, like on his minimalist masterpiece Wait For Me, or the more forward thinking collection of tracks on Destroyed. On his eleventh studio album, Innocents, we get sort of a middle ground Moby. There are hints of his more experimental wanderings, but it mainly plays as a retrospective of all his musical personas. You get lots of dreamy ambient numbers, his now trademarked dance tracks with field recording samples, wonky pop songs, and several introspective ballads. Aside from the relatively somber tone of the record, there is not a lot of thematic cohesiveness here like on Wait For Me that tied everything together, however, there is still a lot to recommend on Innocents that keep it from edging toward his less successful offerings.

I had high hopes that this record would be as sublime as Wait For Me based on the first few set of tracks. Opening with the stunning instrumental "Everything That Rises," which perfectly meshes sweeping synth strings with faded, grainy samples, Moby provides a masterclass in how to create a gorgeous build in a track. While on second and track and first single "A Case For Shame," Moby collaborates with Cold Specks to create a haunting, spectral ballad with minimal backing of muted percussion, piano, and strings, and evocative, bluesy vocals.



Instead of leaping off from this point, Innocents sort of meanders a bit. His collaboration with Damien Jurado ("Almost Home") aims for transcendence but just hits a flat line early, then maintains that mood for almost 6 minutes, never really doing much. In fact, a couple of times during the track I wondered if I had accidentally pressed skip back to the beginning. Moby follows this with a pretty, yet involving instrumental ("Going Wrong"), his collaboration with Wayne Coyne of Flaming Lips, "The Perfect Life," which, while more involving than "Almost Home," suffers from its basic one note feeling.



From here, things pick up slightly, with the sample leaning "The Last Day" with breathy vocals from Skylar Grey, which is another typical Play-esque track, that despite its familiarity still retains a sly charm,



synth charged "Saints" is another booming Moby dance track,



while "A Long Time" is slow-burning blues fueled track.



Two more collaborations hit the mark at the back end of the record. His second collaboration with Cold Specks, "Tell Me" has a haunted, stately vibe, its beautiful combination of vocals and vocal samples creating a interesting juxtaposition;



and his work with former Screaming Trees front man Mark Lanegan perfectly utilizes his world-weary vocals with the drone of electronics.



And of course, Moby finishes the record off with the amazing closing track "The Dogs," with his wan voice adding just the right amount of pathos to the gorgeous swirl of electronics and strings.



Ultimately, Innocents is a charming record that has more hits than misses on it, however, it feels like there is a lot of push and pull from Moby as to which type of record he wants to make. He could easily remake Play over and over again, and would likely find success more often than not. You sense that Moby really doesn't want to do that, and this dichotomy between sticking to the tried and true while itching to be more experimental results, at times, into something sublime. This was most apparent on Wait For Me, and while Innocents falls short of that high mark, it's good to see that he still has it in him to make some amazing music.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and piques one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.