Moby

When you’ve lost your direction it’s often reassuring to return to the familiar of where you started in order to reflect and contemplate on what went wrong, where and why? This seems to be what has happened to Moby since 1999’s Play went commercially supernova and, after subsequent disappointing attempts to recapture some lustre, he’s found solace in the dance music and lifestyle that brought about his rise to less fickle fame in the earlier part of his career. Intended as a concept album of a night out in his neighbourhood over eight hours, from evening to morning, encapsulating the last 25 years of New York clubbing. There’s a catalogue of influences, from turn of the ’90s rave generation, disco funk, mournful electronica and some more poignant downbeat empathy. Always danceable and full of the old, scratchy Moby-soul samples, it meshes well but the "night” progresses somewhat disjointedly and vocal trip-hop single "Alice,” though excellent, feels totally out of place, conceptually or otherwise. Despite missing the mark on a few points, the renaissance of Moby is a very nice return to form and to dance music of a more nostalgic, familiar kind.