Over his 30 year plus music career, Moby has evolved from a techno dance master to an alternative pop hit maker to an Avant-Guard tone poem composer. With his new album ‘All Visible Objects’, he takes all of these musical styles and genres and puts them together on a single record.
The album can be divided into two parts. The first part is very disco-y dance pop heavy with tracks like Morning Side, Refuge, or Power is Taken. In fact, any of these new songs would fit perfectly alongside his earlier work like My Beautiful Blue Sky, Drop a Beat, or Electricity. (All of these tracks can be found on his self-titled debut and sophomore follow-up ‘Ambient’.) It’s safe to say, this first part will have you reminiscing for early 90s techno.
The second part of the album consists of the final four songs, and is more in line with his later, more melodic albums ‘Wait for Me’, ‘Destroyed’, or ‘Innocents’. Rich in melody and clocking in at a whopping 33 minutes 19 seconds, these final songs illustrated Moby’s skill at composing beautiful and haunting songs.
So, the question, does this album work? In all openness, I don’t know. I think ‘All Visible Objects’ would best be served by picking one musical style and sticking to it. The changes in genres can be very jarring, due to how different they are. For example, the opening track Morning Side is followed by a melodic song My Only Love, which is then followed by a massive dance song Refuge. The dancing themes go through the rest of the album until the final four tracks. I should mention, in full disclosure, I do prefer Moby’s latter, more melodic work. So the second part of this album is what I will be going back to in the future.
But, if you are looking for an album that could serve as a retrospect of Moby’s entire career, capturing his musical evolution, this might just be the album for you. There isn’t a “standout” single, but taken as a whole, you’ll get a great view of Moby’s career.
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