- If you’re looking to impress the cool taste-making audience of community radio fans, reviewing a new Moby album in the year 2020 may not seem like the best career move. “Not the best career move” seemingly being Moby’s personal mission statement of the last couple of years. First there was the memoir detailing the time he dated Natalie Portman, a relationship which apparently didn’t exist outside his own mind; then after hiding from the spotlight brought on by that he re-emerged with new animal rights neck tattoos which surely must rank among the worst celebrity tattoos of all time; and most recently his treatment of the staff at his Little Pine restaurant during Covid-19 left many of them without income or healthcare. Yeah, between mimed bongos and Mercedes commercials, Moby hasn’t had a flawless track record, but even so it is hard to think of any other artist who has fallen from grace so spectacularly, not in the single swift stroke of being cancelled, but in a manner more akin to falling down the stairs; repeatedly; while kicking yourself in the face the whole way down.
Fans might think it were kinder if Moby had just faded away into irrelevance rather than become the tragedy we now see before us. Yet, in a way he’s done that too, because in spite of all the news coverage of his non-musical ventures, you may be surprised to learn that All Visible Objects is in fact his sixth album of the last five years- in terms of album releases it’s been the most prolific period of his career.
This new record eschews the sounds of his most recent output: variously the long-form ambient work of the Long Ambients albums, the downtempo style of Everything Was Beautiful, and Nothing Hurt and the more rock oriented works with the The Void Pacific Choir. Instead we find seventy-three minutes of electronica, which at its most upbeat can be called dance -but certainly not techno- and at its most peaceful is represented by the instrumental of near-solo piano on the track Separation.
The first half of the record feels the more dance-ey than the second, but it’s not a record of two distinct halves, nor does it run out of steam; it’s perfectly listenable as a single coherent work. There isn’t much lyrical content, although there are vocals on more than half the tracks and Moby largely leaves the singing to others, singing on only two songs himself. Moby has never been the greatest singer, and while his voice is rarely detrimental to a song, using the stronger voices available to you is never a bad idea.
The lead single, January’s Power Is Taken is both the hardest dance track on the record as well as the most overtly political, being based around the lines “We who hate oppression must fight against the oppressors; power is not shared, power is taken”. It’s true enough to be worth saying, but vague enough not to be preachy.
Overall the album is unmistakably Moby and you will pick that even if you’ve not listened to him for fifteen years. The gospel samples of his heyday are gone, and would probably be very long in the tooth if they were here, but the soaring string synths are as prominent as ever. Evolution might be too strong-a word for what’s here, but there’s a definite freshness; it belongs in 2020. All Visible Objects is well worth a listen if you enjoyed Moby’s more successful works. I just pray that next time I see a headline about Moby it’s filed under Music and not Industrial Relations.
- Sam Gunders.