#341 - Moby - Play (1999)

MUSIC HISTORY COMPILED BY ADAM BERNARD:

MOBY BIO

Richard Melville Hall, aka Moby was born in NYC in 1965, took up guitar and piano at the age of 9, and played in a few underground punk bands during the 1980s while DJing at clubs. In 1989 he made the change to EDM. His 1991 single, Go, was his mainstream breakthrough. He had 8 top ten hits on the Billboard Dance charts from 1992-1997. During this time he released 4 albums - the self-titled Moby in 1992, Ambient in 1993, Everything is Wrong in 1995, and Animal Rights in 1996, leading us to today's album. From 1987 to 1995, Moby described his life as a "very clean" one and abstained from drugs, alcohol, and "for the most part", sex. After taking LSD once at nineteen, he started to suffer from panic attacks which he continued to experience but learned to deal with them more effectively. Shortly after his mother died from lung cancer in 1997, Moby recalled that he had "an epiphany" and experimented with alcohol, drugs, and sex which continued for four years after the commercial success of Play. Some of his other famous works are an updated version of the "James Bond Theme" used for Tomorrow Never Dies, music used in the movie Scream, and a cover of "New Dawn Fades" by Joy Division, an instrumental version of which appeared in Heat 

He is a known vegan and huge supporter of animal rights. He owned vegan cafes on both coasts and organized a vegan music and food festival called Circle V.

BACKGROUND – PLAY

This is the 5th studio album by the American electronic musician. It came out in May 1999 (UK) and June 1999 (USA). His previous album "Animal Rights" (1996) deviated from his usual electronic style, it was darker and more guitar based. It was such a flop commercially and critically (especially among his fans), Moby considering walking away from music. He explained: "I was opening for Soundgarden and getting shit thrown at me every night onstage. I did my own tour and was playing to roughly fifty people a night." However, positive reactions to Animal Rights from fellow artists such as Axel Rose, and Bono inspired Moby to continue producing music. He got back to work in his Little Italy New York studios to work on Play in mid 1997, but had to put it on hold several times to complete touring obligations. After multiple mixes were done, he finally settled on the final one in March 1999, but thought this would be his last record. His American label (Elektra) dropped him after Animal Rights bombed, so he had to shop the album around to various labels before V2 picked it up. He faced an uphill battle, as many journalists wouldn't even listen to the album to do a review. The first show he played in support of Play, at the basement of the Virgin Megastore in Union Square NY, was attended by only around 40 people. Further damaging the album's commercial prospects, the songs received little airplay from radio stations or MTV/VH1. Management decided to try licensing the songs for use in films, commercials and TV shows to spark some interest, and by the beginning of 2000 it had worked. It slowly climbed the charts and remained there for all of 2000, gaining the legacy that has us talking about it today. 

It peaked at #1 on the UK Albums & UK Independent Album charts, 38th on the Billboard 200. The album also peaked at #1 in Australia, France, Ireland, New Zealand, and Scotland, and top 5 in a few other countries. Play has been certified platinum in more than 20 countries, and with over 12 million copies sold worldwide (over 2 million in the US), it is the biggest-selling electronica album of all time. 

Moby noted that he intentionally sequenced the album such that "it starts off energetic and then by the end dissolves into an opiated haze."