MOBY LAST NIGHT ALBUM MUTE, EMI RELEASE: MARCH 31, 2008 REVIEW: MARCH 5, 2008

Moby returns with an album that seems to have forgotten the last decade or so even existed – to follow a natural progression from the work he was doing back in the early nineties, rather than his heady highlights (“Play”) and some of the more self-indulgent stuff heard in his recent career. Even Moby himself seems to recognise this, as he states that the album is “a lot more dance-oriented and electronic than my last few albums, probably as a result of all the DJ:ing I've been doing lately”.

“Ooh Yeah” starts off proceedings, and all at once it seems you are transported back into the heady days of disco. “I Love to Move in Here” skips a little further forward, and we are back in Moby's halcyon period – the early 90:s. The track flows along in a semi-old school rave way – carefully selected trance-inducing vocals slithering over old school bass and electro beats; MC Grandmaster Caz (one of the original “Rapper's Delight” writers no less) giving the necessary kudos to the authenticity of the track.

The fact is it doesn't seem to move on from here. “Everyday It's 1989” isn't ironic, this track does indeed sound like it is from that period, so the big question that starts to spring out is: why this album now? Surely if you want to listen to original sounds of that era, listen to originals – you don't need recreations.

Obviously there are some nice tracks here; “Alive” and “I'm in Love” both show keen dancefloor sensibilities – the latter showing off Moby's mastery of the acid squiggle in particular. It's just to me technical achievement is only half the story; the excitement must also come from new, cutting edge music – music that hasn't been heard before.... I feel I've heard all this and more many times already.

I am sorry to say that what started out as an intriguing album, and indeed one that made me want to listen to Moby with fresh ears again, just left me feeling slightly deflated. As good as the tunes are (come on, Moby is one of the great modern music composers), the overall album left me thinking that if somebody wanted to listen to something so authentically of the late eighties era, why not just go back to some of Moby's original era albums, and branch off from there – without a fresh direction or a modern spin on the old acid/rave themes, this album seems slightly out of time – making it seem incredibly dated before it has even been released. A real shame.

MIKE WHYTE