Since he moved from New York to Los Angeles Moby seems to have rediscovered his creative zeal – and with ‘Innocents’ he produces a work of some substance. Until now he has tended not to use guest vocalists, but this one employs Mark Lanegan, the Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne, Cold Specks and Damien Jurado, and does so in a way that doesn’t lose a thread of continuity. As with much of Moby’s material these days the songs are down tempo, but they are focussed, intense and beautifully produced. Jurado’s contribution is perhaps the most striking, his pure tone lifting ‘Almost Home’ to stratospheric heights, while at the other end of the frequency scale Mark Lanegan’s voice barely gets out of his boots for the rumbling, atmospheric ‘The Lonely Night’. ‘A Case For Shame’ uses an oscillating piano to counter the Cold Specks vocals, while the instrumental ‘Everything That Rises’ uses a seemingly innocuous riff to build a track with impressive power. Moby rounds things off appropriately by making his only vocal appearance at the end on ‘The Dogs’, bringing all the different strands together to a melancholic but strangely uplifting whole. It caps his best album release for years.
5 out of 5
Reviewed By Ben Hogwood
