Elly Roberts reviews
Moby: Hotel
Distributed by
Mute Records
- Released: March 2005
- Format:2 CD set
- Rating: 2/10
- Cat.no: LCDSTUMM240
The view from the window of Moby’s Hotel is that of a concrete jungle.
A cold and imposing landscape. Flip over and you’ll find a minimalist interior-huge
empty spaces. A strange reflection on what is his home town of New York.
At ground level we all know it has a massive soul.So,if Richard Hall, aka
Moby, ever thought his Hotel would get a five star rating then he’s living in
cloud cuckoo land.
This twin CD release (ambient & whatever) needs a lift
that goes upwards, not to the basement of his admiration for 80s synth-pop,
e.g. Very and Lift Me Up. Play was a massive success
and rightly so. Several tracks moved me, like Porcelain, Why Does My Heart Feel So Sad?
Follow-up, 18, never matched it.
This one goes nowhere: probably stuck in the elevator shaft
looking for the panic button. This is a pretty shaky structure, that may well
come crashing down on his career. Liner notes explain away the album’s title
,"A variety of reasons,but here’s one of them. Hotels fascinate me in that
they’re incredibly intimate spaces that are scoured every 24 hours and made
to look completely anonymous.." Yeah, right Moby.
Anyway, his familiar genre-bending is absent. His style remains simple enough: the proverbial
spacey FX (Homeward Angel)and dance beats, but this time around it’s rendered
dull as dish water. Play gave him a baseline for exploration: it had a heart
as well. This time he’s used his head, so when he’s reliant upon his own
creative output he comes out faltering like a building without a
foundation. Don’t forget Moby, even the best Hotels have a soul - this one
doesn’t.
Only one standout track;a belting Raining Down.
Disc 2: Ambient, protracted sound effects.
The full list of tracks included are :
Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2010.
