3. Play - Moby 1999
You know one of those albums, where
every single track from it is well known? Chances are you might not be able to name one. I mean, sure, there are huge albums that lots of people know every second of, but, Moby's 'Play', is an enigma. Every song, from 1 through to 18, has been in the public conscience, in one way or another, whether it has been through advertisements, T.V. shows, news reels or movies. It holds a record for having all of it's tracks licensed for some use, or other. However this fact sits with you, one thing cannot be denied, and that is, 'Play', is a damn fine collection of music, pure and simple. Already a critical and commercial success, Moby's fifth record became a true phenomenon, selling over 12 million copies worldwide, incredible for a introverted, techno nerd. 'Play', didn't start life with a bang though, not even close. In fact, the first obstacle was finding a label to release it through. It was shopped all over, to many labels, all of whom closed the door. V2 decided to release it, and set a goal to sell 250,000, which was as much as Moby's most successful record, 'Everything is Wrong'. Label, management and artist, all had that goal in mind, that it sold 40 times that, is pretty damn awesome. The likes of Warner Bros and Sony, must have been gutted to see the mammoth sales of a product, they turned down. Sometimes it takes a while for the rest of the world to get how good something is and in its first week of release, the record had only sold 6,000 copies! 10 months later, it was number one in the U.K, France, Germany, Australia...and loads more countries were being added to the list. It spent 5 weeks at the top of the album charts in the U.K., reached only 38 in the U.S., but has still sold 2 million there. Of his new found fame, Moby himself said, "Eleven months after Play was released, it was selling 150,000 copies a week. I was on tour constantly, drunk pretty much the entire time and it was just a blur. And then all of a sudden movie stars started coming to my concerts and I started getting invited to fancy parties and suddenly the journalists who wouldn't return my publicist's calls were talking about doing cover stories. It was a really odd phenomenon." The record itself, is a very warm sounding one, despite being predominantly, Electronic music. Using a lot of vocal samples from old gospel and folk music, particularly drawing heavily on the field recordings of Alan Lomax, for several of the tracks. There were, believe it or not, 9, yes 9, singles lifted from 'Play', the albums cycle just kept turning and turning. Get this, the final single, arguably one of the strongest tracks, 'Find My Baby', was released in February of 2001! That is 2 and a half years after the first single and two years after the albums release, incredible. Other tracks like 'Honey' and 'Bodyrock', the latter being a very Hip Hop influenced track, both show an upbeat side to the largely, mellow and fairly chilled vibe found on the likes of 'Porcelain', 'Natural Blues' and the absolutely stunning, 'Everloving'. Definitely an album that many different things going on, across the 18 songs. Moby became a household name with 'Play', and has continued to release great music to the present, but 'Play', will always be seen as his defining moment, and deserves its place here, as a musical highlight from the decade.