Play

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.com's Best of 1999
Those who have followed Moby's career are familiar by now with his deep convictions and spiritual connection. On his 1999 release, Play, he celebrates his faith in a masterful, unobtrusive way, channeling gospel and other inspirational samples through beats so earthy they could grow grass on a cement dance floor. It's impossible to separate the joy of the message from the joy of the grooves. --Beth Massa

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Amazon.com essential recording
The great iconoclast of techno returns with a smooth, sacred, and exhilarating record. Play's concoction of breakbeat rhythms, ambient mixology, and inspired blues and gospel samples cry out across musical genres and histories, imparting a time-tested wisdom to beat-driven ears. Moby's devout faith--in both God and his own musical whims--give this approach a sort of legitimacy that another, less sincere artist would never have. That sincerity reverberates through the beats and instrumental eclecticism like a pulse. The soulful refrains and proclamations in "Find My Baby" and "Natural Blues" somehow nestle between straight-up dance-floor rave-ups ("Bodyrock") and melt-in-your-mouth ambience ("Inside") with an effortless grace. Moby reaches across his turntables and finds something pure--almost organic. In fact, the album feels more natural than techno is ever supposed to feel, more spiritual than what DJs are supposed to be able to muster, and more alive than it has any right to be. --Matthew Cooke

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-07-02 rating:
Still beautiful to listen to...
Just bought this CD a couple of weeks ago. I enjoyed listening to it because there's something different about these music compared to contemporary ones. Although obviously they are very modern, you can say Moby's technique of utilizing notes harks back to medieval times. The prolongation of some notes (which are hypnotizing) resembles those of the chants used in religious services. The transitions can be compared to majority of the classical/baroque music. And who could miss the vocals that resemble arias?

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review by: BT date: 2008-04-29 rating:
Play - by Moby
This is the album that got me hooked on Moby. I've been a fan ever since.
It goes without saying, I recommend it very highly.

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review by: kayaker date: 2008-03-30 rating:
A Defintive Album of the 90's
In an era dominated by Grunge and Hip-hop, Moby managed to create an album which will arguably be placed on the best list of the 90's. He introduced the Blues to Electronica and made it commercially trendy.

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review by: date: 2008-03-24 rating:
A wonderful surprise...
I will admit when I first bought this album, I did not like it. In fact, I hated it and would have attempted to sell it immediately, but I'd only paid five bucks or so for it in the first place so I kept it, figuring I wouldn't get much of a return. Two weeks passed with me glaring at what seemed to be wasted money in my cd rack before I finally decided to give Moby's "Play" another listen. Boy, am I glad I did.

This cd is something strange and intriguing with tracks that are pure ear candy and I enjoyed every minute of it. It's easy to fall into the "skip-a-song" trap with an album you've heard many times before, but no matter how often I listen to "Play" I never seem to get tired of it. My favorite songs are "South Side" and "Porcelain" but every track is pretty good. I'm not really a techno/dance fan but this album truly made me more open to hearing similar artists.

Just goes to show that everything deserves a second chance.
:]]


review by: date: 2008-02-04 rating:
White man plays black

I'm giving this album 4 stars not because it has "killer" songs-though it does have good ones-but for the fact that it is very easy on the ear. Moby has a very mellow, rhythmic, black sounding album here. I don't really have the vocabulary to describe his musical influences...maybe you could list them as blues, soul and perhaps gospel. Some of his songs sound sort of school-girly...like maybe the kind of stuff you'd hear black girls skipping along to in America.

Moby melds these African American musical influences with elements of hip-hop and dance music. He also seems to sample material from the source-black men and women. I really can't say whether Moby is doing the originals justice but I can say that I like what he's done with the source material. This is another way of saying that if you are familiar with the source material you may find Moby's treatment annoying. Personally, sometimes I feel the same way about people messing with the originals. One case which changed my mind was Muddy Waters' own revisiting of his blues songs, but with a harder, rock sound [I've reviewed Waters' "Hard again" here. Found it superior to his more "classic" approach, as in "Anthology"].

Anyway, some of my favourite tracks on the album are: "Honey", "Body rock", "Natural blues", "Run on" and "If things were perfect".

"Body rock" might be the most well known song from this album and is the least "black" sounding-well, to my ears at least. It's more of a funk/rock song and thus stands out from the mood of the other songs.

There are some instrumentals on this album-around three. Also, a highlight of the album are the wonderfully poetic, spoken voice songs of "If things were perfect" and "The sky is broken". These tracks are sparse, sensual and soothing.

Overall, the tone of the album is pretty consistent: "black" music but with some modern treatment. You'll hear accoustic guitar, piano and violin, on occasion, along with electronic music-be that synthesiser, or techno beats.

Overall, this album does not overstay its welcome. 18 tracks is quite a lot for a non compilation cd, but it never really palls. Some albums I mark down for having too much padding [e.g. The Red Hot Chilli Peppers' "Blood, sugar, sex, magik"] despite having quality songs on them. This is the perfect cd to "chill out" too, as well as to bop along to, sometimes, with his catchy songs.

P.S. for some reason the rap star Eminem had a go at Moby. In one of his songs he has a lyric along the lines of "Moby you don't know me. Blow me". Not really sure what that is all about! Who started that little tiff?

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