Search - Moby :: Last Night

Disco nostalgia with a quirky smile !

ippo77 | 04/01/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"It's easy to forget that before Moby's multi-million-shifting 1999 album "Play", he was a fading rave artist.Putting his patented electro-blues on hold, he now re-embraces clubbier material, glitter-spraying it with lush synthesized strings and sweeping melodies.

The bald vegan god-botherer Moby has fallen back in love with dance music and with this album he shows how his disco faith remains fervent from the big rave anthem of "Everyday It's Like 1989" to the quizzical slow groove of "Ooh Yeah".

"Last Night", stuffed as it is with old-skool house and hedonistic club bangers, has more than a certain whiff of nostalgia about it.

The track "Alice", a low-end rumble of electronica and hip hop, is the killer track, but the rest of the album covers quite a different spectrum of sound. At least half of it is day-glo rave in nature, from opener, "Ooh yeah", to "I'm In Love" and "I Love To Move In Here"..

The album , while tinted with hip-hop, primarily celebrates the nebulous utopianism of acid-house nightlife, explicitly so on "Everyday It's 1989".

Pumping beats and sensual grooves abound, including several knowing throwbacks to Italian rolling pianos and belting diva vocals of late 1980s house music, which ring out on a paean to good times gone. But there are also pulsing electronic torch songs, lustrous instrumentals and woozy ballads.

Big on melodies and upbeat moods, "Last Night" is Moby's most non-rock, disco-friendly, purely pleasurable album since "Play".

Collaborators include Grandmaster Caz, the man who provided most of the rhymes for the first hip-hop hot Rappers' Delight, but, though this is supposed to be Moby, erm, letting his hair down, there is an air of detachment about this concept album which fosters, rather than dispels the idea of Moby as some intellectual knob-twiddler.

"Last Night" is, loosely, a concept album that seeks to conjure up a night of multiple clubbing and walking home woozily through Manhattan at dawn - and, by that measure, it's a triumph. It charts an evening out, spanning hands-in-the-air rave to elegantly trashed comedown

It has its great moments, and they're usually when he reveals his sense of fun.

Fortunately on the CD there's enough Mobyesque quirk to save it from banality."

Makes You Want to Bump and Grind

Maggie Mae | Memphis, Tennessee | 05/24/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Moby is probably electronic music scenes' most famous vegetarian and he has put out album after album over the years. He is up to his typical tricks again with this release. He has a way with beats and is known for being extremely outspoken (he's had verbal fights with the rapper Eminem on television more than once).



With this album nothing has changed. He has a way of putting down excellent electronic beats with smooth pop vocals into each song. This album has a body moving vibe in a more traditional structure without being "mainstream". His songs make you want to bump and grind but not in the rap/dance sense. "Ooh Yeah" which features a rather sexy female voice has a delicate flow to it that you can't help but love and dance to because it has a rather nice delicate flow to it. Last Night is the perfect ambient mood CD to put on when your tryin' to get someone in "the mood"."

The Diffrent Sides Of Moby

Josephll | CET | 04/07/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Few Dance artists can compare to Moby in popularity and mainstream success, Moby is equally famous for the versatility in his music that uses elements from Rave, Techno, Rock, Pop and Lounge and for his lifestyle which includes strong religious believes and animal activism. Although his early beginnings with eponymous debut album Moby and Everything Is Wrong sound nothing like his worldwide breakthrough albums Play and 18 you can say that Moby is the most recognizable dance artist in the world cause he was able to blend so many diffrent styles into his album "Play" that even people that normally don't like dance music got their eyes on him and his music, Moby also manufacted his music well with good music videos and borrowing a handful of songs to tv commercials. Kind of like non-rap fans enjoying Kanye West cause his lyrics differ from the average rapper and he's able to sell himself better then anyone else. However, As important as "Play" was for dance music it was giant steps away from the more traditional Rave/Techno that Moby made in the early 90's with songs like "Go", "Drop A Beat", "Everytime You Touch Me" and "Feeling So Real". And for old time fans it was even harder to accept the more exprimental rock oriented flop album Hotel that simply became the last straw. But 3 years later Moby realized that singing ain't his thing and fans rather prefer him doing dance music then rock. "Last Night" goes way back in time and celebrates New Yorks openminded night life and it also pay tribute to a lenghty career full of rich influences, but it's the first studio album since his 1995 album "Everything Is Wrong" that is more dedicated to uptempo electronica/Techno and it couldn't be more suitable at this point of his career.



While a big number of songs here are dance oriented uptempos there's also plenty of songs that don't fit into that pattern that are taken from diffrent parts of Moby's career. First song "Oh Yeah" is a quite typical Moby song with a repetitibe voice saying oh yeah some sexy female backround voice and both guitar riffs and electro keyboard beats. A good start, I expect to hear this one in a commercial soon. One of the highlights is the secons song "I Love To Move In Here" with some sensual female vocals and a rap verse from Grandmaster Caz in a laidback midtempo sound. "257.Zero" is retro dance with a female voice briefly mentioning those number. It works incredibly smooth. "Everyday It's 1989" sound a little like "In This World" from "18" with distorted female vocals but soundwise it reminds me more of early 90's Moby with fast techno beats. It's works fine even if it's on fammilair territory. "Live for Tomorrow" is simular but more melancholy and is yet another good number. On the single "Alice" Moby sings a little and got this rapper with him aswell. it's much harder then most of the ofter things here and sounds like electro meets metal rap or something. Not my cup of tea. "Hyenas" is a guitar driven slow tempo with a lush female vocalist in almost lounge sound. "I'm In Love" is simular in slow sound featuring a female vocalist.



A strong uptempo in "Disco Lies" with a female vocalist singing it once more but this time she sings plenty. This one was a single. "The Stars" got trademark Moby sound with chants, techno beats and distorted female vocals but halfway it becomes darker with almost hardcore beats to shortly go back to how it started again. Very nice. "Degenerates" is instrumenal lounge and sound a little like film music. The same with "Sweet Apocalypse" which is more electro sounding and "Mothers Of The Night" a mesmerizing slow tempo that sound like Air at their best. The closer "Last Night" is the slowest cut here, with it's lush and elegant sound it couldn't be a better thing to play in the wee small hours at some after party.



Overall, No album has been able to sum up Moby 17 year old career any better then this one, it demontrates Moby's versatility in sound, richness in production and many influences among the years. Almost every song here is memorable enough to be good, wether it's back to back Disco or lush lounge music. But what strikes me most is that it's way more more entertaining then anything he did in a long time. It sounds like he's taking his experience and just offering the best of himself and his diffrent musical eras without exprimenting too much. This is the real Moby. And it offers something for anyone. It could hardly get better based on the few expectations that I had."