Moby - Go (Bonus Remix album)
In 2006, the noted electronica artist Moby (best known for his supermassively popular 1999 album Play) released a career best of, spanning everything from his early work with club music right through his (then) most recent effort Hotel. Seeing as that was just a best of with an extra song tacked on, I'm not going to bother with that for now and move right to what for me was the real reason to get the compilation. The thing about this album is that Moby either was asked by or asked many of his contemporaries in the electronica scene to remix some of his songs, which he added to the best of as a sort of bonus. Naturally, since they got to pick what songs to remix, the songs all come from Moby's work since Play, but then again his earlier work was far more club oriented anyways. I should also just point out quickly that I am reviewing the US bonus disc, as I haven't heard the international one yet. I guess Canada is counted as US these days for album releases?
The album kicks off what I found to be something of an odd choice, Play's one club heavy song "Bodyrock." The reason why I find this odd is that the song was alike to Moby's early work and really didn't need any tweaking to make it a good club track, and it's the only song on this remix album I could really say that about. The end result is alright, it's not my favourite on the album but I'll give the remixer credit for making an interesting and totally new version of the song.
As we move into the next track, my curiosity with the album is justified, as the song is a remixof the last track from 2002's 18, the gospel influenced ambient track "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?" This is not a club track originally, and at least for the middle and end of the song the remixer does an excellent job of making it danceable, but the minute and a half intro of dramatic somber piano (added in) really detracts from the song. As a curiosity it's worthwhile, but I can't say I really like the track.
"Natural Blues" was one of my favourite tracks from Play, as it combined an excellent blues beat and vocals to a dance backdrop, but the remix really took the entire melody out of this song. Basically it's a rave track, with little melody and a repetitive bass line augmented by little keyboards. I think this could have made a great dance track if it had kept the original melody at least a little.
"South Side" is really very similar to the last track, in that the melody was all stripped out and made into a somewhat featureless electronica track.
"We Are All Made of Stars" is a more intriguing song, and it perked my interest back up somewhat. It still strips the song of all its original melody, but the end result is far more interesting than the last few songs. When I first listened through the album, this was enough to keep me going. Basically, it's a drum and bass track with keyboards and a little bit of distorted vocal noise in the background. Interesting, and very different from the original, but again it's not particularly impressive.
The next track I was really excited about, for two reasons. First, "Extreme Ways" is actually the song that made me go and look up Moby, and discover he had been the artist behind so many songs I'd heard and liked, and second because it as remixed by one of my favourite trance DJs, Dutch electronica superstar Tiësto. And I will definitely give it credit, this is my favourite track on the album so far. It is very much in the style of one of Tiësto's more sedate numbers, lacking the deeper sound of his more club oriented tracks, but it is interesting right through, and it keeps enough of the original melodies to keep it recognisable. My only complaint is with the vocals, despite keeping the majority of them Tiësto has tweaked them somewhat and they come through flat and a little boring. Aside from that this was a successful remix, and gave me hope for the rest of the album.
"Jam For the Ladies" is another track I really liked in the original, but by this point I was generally not hopeful of anything particularly stunning. Luckily this track surpassed everything else so far on the album. Basically the remixer sped up the BPM and vocals and added in heavier amounts of keyboards to the mix. This one got me moving around a bit as I heard it, which was again a first on this album. My biggest complaint is once more with the vocals, as they have been sped up to the point of sounding almost silly, but it's still a good track.
And now we get into the best two songs on the album, both from Moby's then most recent effort Hotel. First up is the '80s style "Lift Me Up" which becomes a pleasant little electronic song. It's not especially complicated or interesting, but it's a nice listen, and is a frequent play for me. The real winner, however, is it's follow up track "Raining Again." The initial intro to the song is similar to the original, and keeps basically the same melody and vocals, and overall the song sticks to the original, but where it really wins for me is in the addition of heavy club beats and less prominent vocals. This is what I had hoped for and expected when I picked up the album, so I was very pleased when this came on.
The next track, "Dream About Me," is largely forgettable, again just a pleasant little track good for background noise, but album closer "Slipping Away" is a little bit more interesting, if just because of how much more danceable it is than the original, but honestly I just don't have much to say about it.
Overall the album didn't really blow me away, it had a few real gems on it but for the most part I really prefer the originals. Now, this is to be expected on an album composed entirely of remixes by different artists, but I guess somehow I had expected a little bit more. If you're a fan of Moby it's worth hearing, if just for the curiosity factor, but I think ultimately this is more aimed at the hardcore fan than the casual listener, and due to Play's unbelievable success and broad appeal, I suspect the majority of Moby listeners are casual fans.
6/10
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