Moby — Hotel

Hotel

V2/Sony BMG

Mike Armitage (CHARTattack)

03/22/2005 12:23pm

Fans of Play and 18 will be disappointed with Hotel. Those happy/sad albums brought sample-based electronic music to mix radio stations worldwide. However, his platinum-winning formula of mixing melancholy string arrangements with Deep South vocal samples is gone.

For this double-disc release, Moby has chosen two new directions —neither of them good. On the first side, Moby ditches the catchy samples for his own voice, yet continues to embrace the violins. On the second disc, he strips down the rock into eerie, ambient soundscapes that drone on without end. Fortunately, this is not the first time Moby has switched styles in his career —maybe he’ll come out to play next time.

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