MOBY
"Last Night"
Mute Records (9383-2)
Release Date: April 1, 2008

Last Night is Moby's first album released by Mute US. When early reports were surfacing about this album, it was being said that Moby was going to be trying to make this album more of a "dance album" than his more recent efforts had been. When I heard this news, I was very excited to hear the album. Unfortunately, after hearing Last Night, I was rather disappointed. While it's not a bad album, it wasn't what I thought it was going to be.

In the liner notes, Moby included an essay explaining what his intent with the album was. Basically, Moby was striving to make the album sound like a night out in New York. While I understand that this is what Moby was going after, it ultimately didn't work for me.

When I heard the album, it sounded like Moby was trying to re-tread the sounds of several eras in his back catalog. "Ooh Yeah" sounded like Moby was trying to return to the sound from his Instinct Records days. I could also pick out some songs that sound like they could have fit onto albums in Moby's back catalog: Everything is Wrong ("I Love to Move in Here," "Everyday It's 1989," and "The Stars"), Play ("Alice"), and 18 ("Live for Today"). The song "Degenerates" sounded like it could have appeared on one of the ambient CDs that was released as part of limited edition versions of some of Moby's albums. I also noticed that "I'm in Love" sounded like it was influenced by Donna Summer's "I Feel Love." Ultimately, it didn't feel as if Moby really brought anything new musically to this album.

The last four tracks that appear on the CD are all very slow in tempo, which really seems to go against the idea of Last Night being a "dance album." Also, it really makes it much harder to listen to the end of the album, especially with the last song on the disc ("Last Night") running for almost ten minutes. "Sweet Apocalypse" and "Mothers of the Night" sounded like they really should have been relegated as B-sides. If they had been, it really would have helped to improve the flow of the overall album.

Again, while Last Night isn't a bad album, it really wasn't what I was expecting. I probably won't be pulling out this album very much to listen to it. Last Night is definitely an album you really need to have going as background music, because it's just rather difficult to listen to if you're having to concentrate on it.

(reviewed by Lesley Muir Aeschliman on May 22, 2008)