Moby: Go, Going, Gone
The new Moby album Go = remixes from Play and 18. Again.
How many times can Moby keep releasing and rereleasing new mixes of hits from Go and Play? If we said, "indefinitely," would that be something you might be interested in?
Yes, Play was a monster hit for Moby, raking in whatever it is 10 million CDs sold worldwide will get you on the open market these days.
And yes, he set the pace for subsequent electronica acts by cleverly licensing every song on the album for commercial use, offering the let-there-be-light moment for legions to come (“Days Go By”! “Breathe”! “Remind Me”!).
And yes, OK, far be if from us to begrudge a performer his living; we do understand that, you know, a brother’s gotta eat.
But seriously now.
How many times can Moby keep re-merchandising the same “new” CD?
It’s not that he’s creating songs that sound similar on each new record—that would be regrettable, but it happens. No...Moby is literally selling the same songs, in different track orders and remixed by different DJs.
Exhibit A: A listing on Amazon.com for what we can only hope is a typo...a Moby album that fans can pre-order for delivery when it’s ready—in the year 2020. The album? Play/18.
Yes, that’s right. The same tracks that anyone’s who’s bought a Moby CD in the last year has been listening to. Don’t believe it? Check out the track listings for Go: The Very Best of Moby and for the “new” Go: The Very Best of Moby Remixed, to be released in early March.
Now, every dance-music artist releases dozens of singles and remixes of singles and mashups of singles-plus-somebody-else’s-singles, and these eventually get compiled into a remix album. We get that.
Britney did it when the only tracks coming out of her studio were abandoned hair extensions. Sarah McLachlan did it. Even The Beatles have their “regrooved” CD.
But something about the way Moby’s going about it just seems...mercantile. Maybe because he sold out before he had anything to buy in with, or because he’s gotten so much iffy press, or because, damn him, he once dissed Aphex Twin and Orbital.
But here’s the thing. When he released Go this past October and then again in November, his marketing people described it as “the only definitive greatest hits collection chronicling Moby’s entire career”---perfect timing for those who wanted to offer their loved ones a very Moby Christmas.
Depending on which country you were in and when and where you bought the album, your version of this “definitive collection” might have been slightly different from others. Some track listings offered “Escapar”; the French release boasted a Fafu remix of “Honey” and “Run On,” but not “Feeling So Real.”
And of course, there was the “deluxe” version, which featured the 15 slightly-different-depending tracks as well as 11 bonus tracks—well, not bonus for everyone. Some people got one or two of the bonuses on their non-deluxe mix.
And then there were the three separate releases of one of the CD’s two new songs, “New York, New York” with Debbie Harry—three on one release cranked out by DJ/enabler Armand van Helden.
Don’t misunderstand. We heart Moby. We can listen to remixes of Play until...well...until 2020.* But by then, you know, we’re really going to be hoping for some new material, because, call us Ishmael, but we’re thinking it’s maybe starting to smell a little bit Warhol in here. Fifty bucks says it’s coming from the whale.
*Note: At no time was the term “played out” employed in any capacity. Thank you.
