Moby

Ever the contrarian, Moby claims not to care for his career-defining album Play, but you wouldn't know that from Wait For Me. Following a year after Last Night, a rousing paean to NYC nightlife, Wait For Me drops the glitter-ball beats in favor of moody strings, intimate indie rock and, yes, scratchily sampled African-American voices. Angelo Badalamenti and Joy Division bookend the record's sense of downcast grandiosity on "Shot..." and "Scream Pilots," but it's the shorter sketches and bursts of home-studio fiddling that lend the album shape and character.

For a guy who made his name driving party people to ecstasy, Moby has always had a thing
for the blues. His unlikely 1999 megahit, Play, used them literally, grafting ancient samples
into inviting electronic grooves. His latest uses them spiritually, giving his melancholy
streak room to brood and blossom. Instrumentals like "Shot in the Back of the Head" (Google
the haunting video, directed by David Lynch) billow moodily, lush arrangements... More >