What Happens When You Dump Moby

After picking up Moby's 1999's masterpiece, Play, in which he managed to fuse gospel, rap and rock with dance music successfully, I was rather shocked when I put this seething album into my CD player. This is probably the only album to frighten me senseless and physically drain me after an entire listen, and can only be described as a thumping, tumultuous, Sisyphean warzone, preceded and superceded by some rather lovely instrumentals. Let me take you through the land of suffering, pain and anguish that is Animal Rights.

This album was clearly born of a broken heart, and the British version contains nine loud, pulsating rock songs dominated mainly by Moby's loud caterwauling and three melancholy instrumentals. It is difficult to know what to make of Moby (a.k.a. Richard Melville Hall), as in this and his previous album Everything Is Wrong he seems to be rather uptight and frustrated by his surroundings and life, which you can gauge in his essays in the album booklets. In this booklet he is particularly frustrated by the extremists in Christianity who he feels are not conforming to the type of humanity that is practiced in the religion, but you get the impression he is perhaps just displacing his own personal frustration onto these issues while ignoring trying to conquer his own personal sadness.

The album's title has nothing to do with the content of the songs which at times are rants simply on how broken he feels after being dumped, on how he feels he can't go on with life and his loss of faith is also alluded to in one song. These tracks are angst-ridden, tortured cries of pain and frustration, and can often make for an uncomfortable listen. His screams are brought to the forefront of these tracks, which he wrote, produced, engineered, played and mixed mostly all by himself. This is Moby's first foray into rock music, except for the track What Love from his previous album, which is what most of the songs on this album sound like, albeit more polished. To the songs, which I believe there are more of on the US version, but the 12 on this are often hard to digest so I can only guess what hard work there is on that version.

1. Now I Let It Go (2:08)

This album is, mostly all the way through, a plaintive, pessimistic affair that redeems itself towards the end. This instrumental is simply a melancholy guitar tune with a violin accompaniment that sets the tone nicely, and reminds me of the wonderful imagery created in The Smashing Pumpkins masterpiece Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Billy Corgan does get a mention in the booklet, in fact, and this album was also mixed in places by Pumpkins' producer Alan Moulder.

2. Come On Baby (4:39)

This opening tune is quite possibly my favourite of all of the rock songs on this. It sounds more like a fusion of dance and rock, and builds up wonderfully. It begins with a drum beat rattling in, presumably created by a drum machine, and then the loud guitars and bass come in with some sound effects adding to the noise. After the tone is set, the song quietens down and Moby comes in with his vocals, immediately singing about his heartache. The words are hard to understand, but you get the point when you hear him sing "Love was a one-time thing." After he sings "Come on baby," the loud, fast noise comes back in again and then the shouting begins. When Moby first shouts, this is exhilarating - it almost shocks you and you are swept away at this new level of sound. His voice seems to actually diminish the power and thrust of the tumultuous music and actually makes it sound weak in comparison. The music however, is so astoundingly energetic that it will prompt you to jump out of your seat and dance like a loon. The guitar solos are brilliant and are played at break-neck speed, and later on in the album Moby starts making howling noises that would probably be very popular when he would nearly kill himself playing this live. I could talk for much longer on this track, but I won't bore you – just know it is a excellent number where he uses his anger and frustration with abandon and creates a sort of musical heartbreak Valhalla where all those broken and angry souls can dance together as one, forgetting and massaging their pain. A fantastic opener, and one of my all-time Moby favourites.

3. Someone To Love (2:51)

For the next three shorter tracks, Moby's voice will either irritate or captivate - for myself it was the latter. These tracks are straight-forward rants, no doubt about it, and here the music comes in louder, with more force and much, much angrier. At times Moby's vocal delivery borders on self-pity and sounds as if he's blubbering as he is singing, and here he almost certainly is blubbering. This is blatantly about the end of his relationship, and the chorus consists of him screaming "Someone to love," which might be catchy if it wasn't so terrifying. The guitars thunder faster and faster, and the solos get more urgent.

4. Heavy Flow (1:53)

The least rewarding song on the album, this very short track sees Moby spit bile and contempt into the microphone. It begins with loud guitars and a strange whooshing sound effect that might have been used in some oceanic songs from his last album, and then he starts yelling and even swearing this time. He tries to sound as repugnant as he can, although his homicidal screaming seems to do that for him nicely, I think. This song is more personal and confounded, and as a result goes nowhere and ends abruptly at 1:53.

5. You (2:33)

"In my life I dream about you/ In my sleep I see only you/ You're everything I want, it's true," he sings in this track. This is a standard noisy rock song that reverses itself 2 minutes in, like he is trying desperately to erase the memory of his ex-paramour but all it does is warp his mind, which is what this track does to the listener.

6. My Love Will Never Die (4:32)

This track seems to do such an incredible job of expressing the sentiments of the last three tracks that you'll wonder why he bothered with them. This, along with tracks 7 & 10 is the most disturbing thing on this album. There is a lot of competition to be the most disturbing thing on this album, and this is a worthy contender. The reason this track is so impressive is the way it gradually builds itself up, starting with slow but urgent riffs that repeat but never sound too threatening. Moby's vocal is a little distorted and indecipherable, the song's title being the most important lyric of this song, and begins slowly before it gradually builds up into this towering wall of nightmarish screams, stretching out the word "Die!" to a heart-wrenching extreme. After he's finished, a long, incredible guitar solo builds up and builds up catatonically, and its relentlessness is not only incredibly impressive, but also tremendously exhilarating, offering up the same intensity as Come On Baby. A wonderful track.

7. Soft (3:57)

I can't quite decide if this shocks me more than track 10. This track is a odd and disturbing window into Moby's ravaged psyche it seems and begins softly as Moby sings his lyrics in a voyeuristic way over a rasping and creepy bassline: "I know what's in there/ I know what goes on in there/ And I can sense through the door/ What's in mind, what's inside." You get a distinct feeling from this song that the break-up has psychologically wounded him, and in this track he certainly does not hold back in the slightest. After a minute, the track thumps in loudly and Moby begins yelling again, I've no idea what, but there's more cursing and penetrating screaming. I think the most fleshed-out moment of the song is when he starts yelling: "Love baby, love me," followed by "It burns!" He stretches out the word "Burn!" so long that you fear his head might explode and, being impressed by displays of violent physical exertion, this astounded me. A good track, that perhaps descends into a mindless rant, but is utterly compelling throughout.

8. Say It's All Mine (6:04)

This is the only track where Moby's primal screaming genuinely bugs me on this album. A long, slow, lingering song that actually begins quite beautifully with some soft vocals, actually sung, and the song allows the first flush of pathos and sadness to creep in midst all the anger and bile. The soft delivery works well, but he reverts back to shouting for the chorus. This is all right for the first 4 minutes, but this song just sort of hangs around for too long and we get the point after the final verse is screamed in a fleshed-out, ridiculously over-the-top way. However, this is still strong as the softer verse gives welcome rest-bite from the loudness of the rest of the songs. We actually sympathise with him in this song, as he doesn't appear to be shamelessly wallowing in self-pity.

9. That's When I Reach For My Revolver (3:55)

A cover of an old track I am not familiar with from Mission of Burma, this seems to just be an attempt to turn this track, which sounds like a country song originally into an angry, noisy song about the loss of one's understanding and tolerance. A perfectly good reworking of this track, perhaps overshadowed by the quality of Moby's work. This is definitely more accessible as he is more subdued with the vocal this time.

10. Face It (10:01)

Here we go. Deep breath everyone and let us begin. This operatic number seems to be the centrepiece of this album, and is quite remarkable, weighing in at exactly 10 minutes and 1 second. It appears to represent some sort of catharsis for Moby, and by the time this ends you get the feeling that he is perhaps on the road to recovery and rebuilding his life after this obviously incredibly crushing break-up. This begins with an acoustic guitar tune where Moby sings in a southern drawl some morbid lyrics: "Come into my bedroom, come in at night/ You'll take your bullwhip, and gonna skin it alive." No idea what he's singing about, but once this intro finishes, the song creeps in slowly and builds up magnficently. The electric guitar is played quietly, almost teasing the listener, before it eventually decides to come thundering in with the ferocity of Godzilla in Doc Martins. After some stomping, it quietens down, again teasing you, and then everything comes in, making you feel as if a plane has just fallen on your head.

This is the the most frightening thing on the album, I've decided – Moby lets rip the most incredible, defeaning primal scream that would put Kobain to shame. "Aaaaahhhh! I feel it coming!" he screams, leaving you with your jaw drooping onto the floor. Everything else in the song seems to disappear as he continues to scream incoherently at the same volume for what seems like forever. After this, the song jumps into a beautiful section where a pleasant, sunny guitar melody is played as Moby sings "Sail on, sail on." Just when you think that this marks the beginning of a new dawning for Moby, he cruelly and brutally snatches that flicker of light away from everyone, singing "No, no, no, no" before launching back into another penetrating primeval caterwaul of "Face it! I gotta learn how to face it!" After he finishes here, the song jumps into a huge 6 minute stretch of instrumental beauty, the most astonishing thing being the guitar solos that leap in and out of the rest of the song. The rest of this song is a triumph - one of those incredible Moby instrumentals but done with piercing guitars as opposed to pianos and strings. I also love the way this track ends. It sort of grinds itself down, and as it slows and quietens down echoes of Moby's screaming can be heard in the background, tinny and faint, vanishing as the become but a distant memory. This track is an awakening, it fights with itself, but then realises that it has to stop, just like heartbreak does and life has to continue. This is a feat of incredible musical dexterity, matching easily any of the Smashing Pumpkins' huge 9-minute numbers for emotional wallop and lasting impact. Simply astonishing.

11. Living (6:59)

The album cools off with two instrumentals, this being the least impressive of the two. It is a guitar tune, which although sounds pleasant enough, is a slight drag when it is repeated for about 7 minutes. Not a lot happens in this one, and it ends messily thanks to poor production from Moby. Still, this seems to be a good come-down track after Face It.

12. Love Song For My Mom (3:40)

This is the better instrumental, of course, and uses the same instrumentation from the opening track, the soft guitar and violin. This has an emotional impact that Living failed to have, and any mom would be proud if their bald, angry son composed this for her. A lovely conclusion to the album, and I feel crucial at redeeming the rest of the album's shameless self-pity and relentless bleating.

Moby: Animal Rights (53:24)

Well, it's been a long journey. In fact, you could probably finish the album quicker than reading this review/ essay. I would say that this should be sought out for those who like records that deal with emotional extremities, and where the composers push themselves physically to make them. As an album simply to sit down and enjoy, this is not very successful as you will be shifted at times by Moby's screaming, which he has made very visceral in his production. The guitar and music is loud, noisy and not always that brilliantly recorded. I suppose really this will appeal to those looking for an excellent album that communicates heartbreak incredibly well, or just fans of shouty rock music that like a nice big guttural wail. The juxtaposition of instrumental and rock is a bizarre one, but it works, and for fans of simply exceptional music, this is an album to be bought immediately.

Hotel (2005)