Track Listing

1. Honey
2. Find My Baby
3. Porcelain
4. Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?
5. South Side
6. Rushing
7. Bodyrock
8. Natural Blues
9. Machete
10. 7
11. Run On
12. Down Slow
13. If Things Were Perfect
14. Everloving
15. Inside
16. Guitar, Flute & String
17. Sky Is Broken
18. My Weakness

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1507 in Music
• Released on: 1999-06-01
• Number of discs: 1

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

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

Customer Reviews

A masterpiece from a truely talented individual
I've never been, what I would consider, a huge Moby fan. I've only recently become associated with him from his work on the "Saint" and "The Beach" soundtracks. Boy oh boy, do I wish I had discovered this talented individual sooner! My friend bought this CD and let me borrow it. Although I don't like the first two tracks, I immediately was hooked in by "Porcelain," which is also featured on the "Beach" soundtrack and in a recent Neiman Marcus commerical. I used to think that Orbital was the best techno artist around, but after this CD, Moby takes the cake! I've never known any techno artist to put so much feeling into a song, without saying anything. This album gets you grooving and relaxing all at the same time. Some tracks to defintely listen to: "Porcelain," "Rushing," "Bodyrock," "Machete," "Inside" and the last track, "My Weakness." "My Weakness," "Porcelain" and "Inside" have a spirituality that is rarely seen in techno music. So haunting and beautiful all at the same time. If you saw the episode of the X-Files where Mulder finally finds out about his sister, you heard "My Weakness" in the final scene with the ghost children. When I heard it there, i immediately wanted to know who did it. This is without a doubt the most moving techno song I've ever heard. It just hits you right in the gut. This CD is a MUST have for all Techno fans. Look out wallet! I'm buying more of his work! Look out Moby, you've got a new fan who looks forward to more years of this awesome music!

Definitive work of electronica
Moby has a long history of being one of the more popular DJ acts on the club scene. His ability to mix all manner of sounds to create some of the most diverse electronica music earned him an ardent, albeit small, cult following. The electronica/techno genre doesn't generally lend itself to widespread, mainstream acceptance. In an attempt to attract a much larger audience, Moby executed a unique strategy for promoting his multi-platinum breakout album "Play". As most of the tracks on "Play" aren't necessarily what the typical radio program director would consider to be 'radio-friendly', Moby got a large number of "Play"'s tracks to be attached to television commercials. TV commercials are a medium that does not need to conform to any specific musical format. As a result, these songs were made accessible to the general public, which developed a fervent interest in the songs and the artist. This ingenious marketing campaign led to "Play" selling a ridiculously high number of albums. One of the most notable commercials was for Tiger Woods and Nike Golf where Tiger is playing golf all across downtown Manhattan to tune "Find My Baby", track #2 on "Play".

Inventive marketing aside, "Play" still would not have found such a mass popularity if it weren't for the fact that is was a fabulous album. "Find My Baby" is actually one of the lesser tracks on the album, in my estimation. Moby mixes every kind of beat and mood in his song. He creates the slow and haunting meditative sounds of "Porcelain" while creating a body-moving, beat-thumping, dance club favorite in "Bodyrock" (I might add that this is a very good tune to listen to when working out). He mixes a cross of blues and techno with "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?" and plays soaring, heavenly sounds on "Natural Blues", arguably the two best tracks on "Play", respectively. Moby even manages to produce a 'radio-friendly' song that achieved mass appeal with "South Side". Initially just Moby with a non-descript female backup singer, "South Side" morphed into something much more when he remade it with No Doubt's Gwen Stefani as a powerful, opposing female voice on this song. The genius of this album cannot be understated. "Play" provides hours of satisfying repeated listenings. Moby has definitely 'arrived' with this album.

Not "traditional" Moby.. Better.
Moby falls into a genre called "techno" that has just been broadened with the release of his latest album "Play." More often than not, people will think of techno as just that repetitive, beat-heavy music playing at dance clubs and raves. In fact, techno is just sampling and synthesizing. Moby selects a unique genre from which to sample on this album.

Play is about soul and feeling, not something his previous albums were known for (although there were certainly exceptions). Much of it comes from old Gospel songs, as heard in "Natural Blues," and "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?" These two songs, like much of the album, combine a clean, synthetic melody with rusty, bluesy samples. The result is a sound unlike any you'll ever hear, and it's wonderful thing.

Bluesy, sure. But diverse? Definitely. The laid back, smooth "Porcelain" has a little bit (but don't worry -- not too much) of Pop influence. "Bodyrock" has some older rap influence. The haunting, rather sad "My Weakness" is a spine-tingling finish to a masterpiece of techno.

This is a great album to listen to sporadically. Listening to it all the way through in one sitting might result in a wild array of mood swings. However, each mood would be explored entirely in each of these songs.