Play (Moby album)
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| Play | |||||
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| Studio album by Moby | |||||
| Released | June 1, 1999 | ||||
| Recorded | 1998–1999 | ||||
| Genre | Electronica | ||||
| Length | 63:03 | ||||
| Label | V2/BMG Records 63881-27049 |
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| Producer | Moby | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
| Moby chronology | |||||
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Play is the sixth studio album by the music artist Moby. While some of Moby's earlier work garnered critical and commercial success within the electronic dance music scene, Play was his first true pop success. The album introduced Moby to a worldwide mainstream audience, not only through hit singles, but also through unprecedented licensing of his music in films, television and commercial advertisements.
One of the notable aspects of Play, as opposed to other electronic albums of the time, was the way in which it combined old gospel and folk music rhythms with modern house sensibilities. Moby sampled heavily from the collected field recordings of Alan Lomax in songs such as "Honey," "Find My Baby," "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?" and "Natural Blues," while the track "Run On" was inspired by the traditional "God's Gonna Cut You Down." The album also has more purely electronic tracks, as well as the rock-influenced single "South Side" and the more ambient "Porcelain."
Inside the booklet included with the album, there are five short essays written by Moby, on topics such as veganism, fundamentalism, and humanitarianism. After the essays is a disclaimer written by Moby: "These essays are not really related to the music, so if you hate the essays you might still like the music, and if you like the essays you might hate the music. Who knows, maybe by some bizarre twist of fate you'll like them both."
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[edit] Licensing of songs
Play was the first album ever to have all of its tracks licensed for use in movies, television shows, or commercials.[1] One of the more notable commercials featured golfer Tiger Woods playing a round of golf around New York City to the tune of "Find My Baby", but countless other uses of the album's songs are documented. Moby did not individually approve each commercial use, but it is unknown what sort of financial arrangement, if any, was reached. According to Wired magazine, the songs on Play "have been sold hundreds of times... a licensing venture so staggeringly lucrative that the album was a financial success months before it reached its multi-platinum sales total."
At the time the album came out, Moby explained that he licensed the songs because it was the only way he could get the music heard. Moby's previous album Animal Rights, a foray into the alternative rock scene, had not drawn many listeners, while Moby's earlier music was known primarily to fans of dance and ambient music and had not achieved mainstream recognition in his home country of the United States.
[edit] Commercial success and critical response
The apparent result of the marketing strategy was that the album, after an unremarkable debut, stayed on the charts for several years and broke sales projections for Moby and for dance music, which was not seen to be a dominant commercial genre in the US in the 1990s (as compared with in Europe, where Moby had initially found fame).
The album has sold over 2 million copies in the United States since it was released in 1999, and has sold 10 million copies worldwide. Eight singles were released from the album; the final single was still on the charts in 2001. In many ways, this album helped to establish Moby as a mainstream musician. His subsequent albums have been more pop-oriented, frequently featuring his own distinctive singing, often with female vocalists and samples similar to those on Play, as opposed to his earlier more club- or alternative-oriented records where he sang rarely.
Play was also lauded by many critics as one of 1999's best albums. It was voted as the best album of the year in The Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics poll. In 2003, the album was ranked number 341 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. However, the fusion of gospel and house for which the album was most widely praised, also drew some criticism for Moby's style of appropriation, with some critics claiming not enough credit was going to the original (often anonymous) musicians and performers. Others found the commercial use of songs featuring old blues samples to be in poor taste, although once the songs were licensed, Moby did not have personal control over how they were used. Moby also declares his Christian faith in the liner notes of the album, which some took as evidence that his interest in gospel samples was "in good faith" and not purely aesthetic.
In 2000, Play was re-released as a special edition album with several B-side tracks with the B Sides disc later released separately in 2004; the B-side was entitled Play: The B Sides. In addition, a mix of the song "South Side", which featured a duet with No Doubt frontwoman Gwen Stefani was released as a single. Thanks to a creative video and heavy airplay, the song helped to push the success of the album even further. Later on, Play was re-released with the single version of South Side featuring Gwen Stefani replacing the original. The original version was re-released on the U.S. edition of Moby's Go: The Very Best of Moby compilation.
[edit] Track listing
- "Honey" – 3:28
- "Find My Baby" – 3:59
- "Porcelain" – 4:01
- "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?" – 4:24
- "South Side"* – 3:49
- "Rushing" – 3:00
- "Bodyrock" – 3:36
- "Natural Blues" – 4:13
- "Machete" – 3:37
- "7" – 1:02
- "Run On" – 3:45
- "Down Slow" – 1:34
- "If Things Were Perfect" – 4:18
- "Everloving" – 3:25
- "Inside" – 4:48
- "Guitar Flute & String" – 2:09
- "The Sky Is Broken" – 4:18
- "My Weakness" – 3:37
- original pressing did not feature Gwen Stefani; later pressings replaced the original version with the Stefani version. Other copies had an additional CD with the newer version of the song shrink-wrapped in the same package.
[edit] Album chart positions
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Australian ARIA Albums Chart | 1 |
[edit] Singles
8 singles were released from UK version of Play:
| Single information |
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| "Honey" |
| "Run On" |
| "Bodyrock" |
"Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?"
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| "Natural Blues" |
| "Porcelain" |
| "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?" / "Honey" (Remix featuring Kelis)
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"South Side"
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[edit] Play: The DVD
A DVD was released as a companion to the album, featuring the music videos (the "South Side" video, featuring Gwen Stefani, however, was omitted), Moby's performance on Later... With Jools Holland, Moby's tour diary entitled Give an Idiot a Camcorder, and a DVD-Rom component where users are able to remix two of Moby's songs.
The DVD also included a separate CD, entitled Moby's Megamix, featuring remixes of Moby's songs by a number of different artists. Instead of having separate tracks, the Megamix is a single track.
[edit] References
- ^ Ethan Smith (2002). Organization Moby. Wired. Retrieved on 2006-08-24.
[edit] External links
- Play at MusicBrainz
| Preceded by Supernatural by Santana |
UK Albums Chart Number-one Album April 15, 2000 - May 20, 2000 |
Succeeded by Reload by Tom Jones |
| Preceded by On How Life Is by Macy Gray |
Australian ARIA Albums Chart number-one album February 28 - March 5, 2000 July 31 - August 13, 2000 |
Succeeded by Supernatural by Santana |
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