To date, ten million people (and counting) have purchased Moby's seventh album Play. Released in 1999, the CD represented a turning point in the DJ's career. Previous efforts had been experimental and beyond the mainstream, but now he had unwittingly struck the nail on the head. Gone were his tweaked days of heavy metal or Casio confections (Animal Rights in 1997 and Everything Is Wrong in 1995). Moby had ventured into basement spirituals and abridged them into techno revelations, including tracks like "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad", "Find My Baby" and "Honey").
On his latest effort, 18, he doesn't stray too far from that format that worked so well for him three years ago. If it were any artist other than Moby, this would hardly be a surprise. But given the eclectic tastes and styles that are so prevalent in his previous material, fans expecting the unexpected may be disappointed.
Still, this is an artist who knows what elements work in a composition and how to package them best. I'll take Moby's familiarity over current radio fare anyday. Songs like "In this World" and "One of These Mornings" may seem familiar in their layered structures, but make for groovy music all the same. Frequently unable to filter out the source material, they connotate crackling vinyl recordings stripped to their bare bones and re-vamped under a Korg-like rainbow. The highlights on 18 are the leadoff track "We Are All Made of Stars" and the docile "Harbour". The former is a synthetic backbeat with Moby himself on vocals, the latter is an extended, beatific opus with Sinead O'Connor on vocals. Other notables include "Signs of Love", "the Rafters", "Sunday (the Day Before My Birthday)", and the Azure Ray-laced "Great Escape".
On 18, Moby ups the number of songs that feature feminine vocals and lowers the number of instrumental tracks. That balance yields, for the most part, an accessible recording. While it doesn't feel as cohesive as Play, it has more than its share of impassioned excursions and diversions.
