Listen to Moby Score!

Moby is quite frankly one of the most innovative and original musical artists in music today. This may seem a highly opinionated statement, but I strongly feel once you are familiar with his work, you will agree. I recently ran an Epinion's search on Moby, and was rather surprised at what I found. Over 50 reviews for his Play CD, but less than 4 for his earlier works, collectively. Play is a great CD, but it points to the fact that many of Moby's fans are new to his material, and I urge you to become familiar with the material that led up to Play.

Two of Moby's earlier works are Everything is Wrong and I Like to Score. Both of these CD's are phenomenal collections of music, and I am going to focus on I Like to Score for this review. As you may have guessed from the CD title, all of the songs here are previous Moby works which were either written for, or included in, movies…(that's what you were thinking, right??)

Moby's main musical style may be considered electronic, but it definitely isn't limited to only electronic. In his music you can hear influences from many genres; blues, folk, punk, metal, industrial, ambient, even gospel. Moby somehow melds these influences together, creating a sound that is delightfully innovative in this day of artist's continually 'jumping someone else's train'.

All of the songs on I Like to Score can be found on their respective movie's soundtracks, or you can get them all in this handy, easy to carry jewel case! This is a good collection of Moby songs, although they represent the funkier, mellower side of Moby's music. Occasionally, Moby can get downright thrash sounding, but you wont find any of that style here.

My favorite track here is "New Dawn Fades" from the Heat soundtrack. This is actually a remake of a classic Joy Division song, in which Moby captures the intensity and texture of the original. It's a slow, lamenting procession of power chords with desperate lyrics, and it's delicious! I've never heard an artist capture the sound of Joy Division so accurately, including the early works of New Order (i.e. the album "Movement AD, the first one recorded after Ian Curtis died. For those of you who don't know, New Order is the surviving members of Joy Division).

I also love the songs, "First Cool Hive" and "God Moving Over the Face of Water". Both of these songs are taken from Moby's CD, "Everything is Wrong" as well as being on soundtracks. These songs are both hymn-like anthems, emphasizing gentle, ambient keyboards with an angelic chorus of soaring female vocals. Songs like these seem to draw an emotional response from the listener, demonstrating Moby's unique capacity to connect with his audience.

If you are looking to broaden your musical horizons, Moby is a great place to start. Most of his work his highly accessible to the uninitiated, while his more unusual sounds may take a bit more to grow on you. I also recommend learning more about the man behind Moby. Within his CD inserts, you will always find some very interesting reading, manifestos on his view of society and life in general. While you will usually find him questioning the right leaning conservatives, you will find he always backs up his opinions with clear thinking and sound examples.