Customer Reviews

Destroyed

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I just want to say, if you are a real fan of moby and not just waiting for him to put out another "Play" album, then you are in for a treat with this one. I can't for the life of me figure out why all the critics are bashing this one and saying it's boring. What I personally love most about moby is how so many of his songs are able to hit my emotional core like no other artist. This is like an entire album of those types of songs and they all flow together perfectly, I love it. He's not trying to entertain you or help you pass the time here, there is real human emotion put into this. No it won't make you want to hit the dance floor, but it could easily stir up thoughts you didn't realize were buried so deep. So please ignore all the critics on this one. Just Turn it on, sit back, listen and reflect upon life and all the beauty that it can provide.

"Destroyed" continues along the path taken on Moby's last album "Wait For Me" but with dark and light hues sharply contrasted this time. It was apparently recorded while Moby was touring and suffering from insomnia at night.

Opening is the ambient instrumental "The Broken Places", and there are many more where that came from; the upbeat "Sevastopol", the cinematic cathedral "Stella Maris", and "The Violent Bear It" (with swirling keys and gentle beats midway that rise to a chiming crescendo).

Some songs like "Be The One" have repetitive lyrics acting as flourishes in the same way as say synths. "The Low Hum" is an echoey ballad with female vocals. The Bowie-style "The Day" is light Rock (with existential questioning lyrics, written after the passing of his mother), while "Lie Down In Darkness" features gloomy soulful female vocals remniscent of tracks from "Play". "The Right Way" features languid female vocals over cascading keys and lush strings.

There are a few Dancefloor moments; "Victoria Lucas" (with hummed vocals and which takes a while to build), the dramatic "After" (with vocodered vocals and Moby's juxtaposed with Middle Eastern-sounding harmonies), the Eurodisco "Blue Moon" (with male vocals), and the Giorgio Moroder-inspired "Sandpaper" (with repetitive sampled female vocals and available as a download on Amazon).

As I earlier stated, "Destroyed" features enough contrast to make it devastating!

Let me explain the title line...if you have the time...

I first heard Moby circa 1993 when a friend played me his 'Move' EP. I was diving headlong into the world of the rave culture and Moby was well known in this culture. I fell in love with his music immediately. His 'Ambient' disc and 'Everything Is Wrong' were albums in heavy rotation during a period of serious soul searching. There was something transcendent, ethereal almost, in the way he was able to craft a song.

For those long, dark nights, yet blissful in a melancholy kind of way, his music was the perfect fit.

I smiled as his music became hugely popular and ubiquitous (you know, the 'oh, you're just discovering him' kind of thing). His amalgam of old gospel songs and catchy electronica was, at the time, cutting edge. After his '18' release, however, I had moved on to other sounds and dabbled in his music at best, though I found the 'Hotel' album to be a move forward as he added more and more vocals.

Anyhow, when I read the blurb on the late night, isolated insomniac vibe of this album somehow I just knew...

There is a melancholy sound that is a throwback to his early works yet the changes and growth of his later releases are meshed into one here sounding comfortable yet completely fresh. It feels highly personal and mature, pensive yet peaceful. He creates beautiful, sometimes sad, sometimes blissful, orchestral electronic music that gets into your headspace and takes you places.

I'll leave out the details but I had an epiphany of sorts while listening to this album and as the epiphany deepened (at 70+ mph on the highway, mind you) as 'Lacrimae' played it felt like a religious experience. Deep, deep bliss.

The album is best absorbed as a whole, as an experience, headphones or long drives late at night highly recommended.

I've been a Moby fan since EVERYTHING IS WRONG dropped in the early '90s, and have to say that DESTROYED is his most consistently beautiful record. May not necessarily be his most popular or danceable or ambitious record, but it is the most beautiful. Hands down.

I think most of the negative and blase reviews came from "critics" and assorted media pinheads who only listened to parts of the first couple tracks. An unfortunate and increasingly common practice these days - to pass judgement on a record after only skimming through portions of the first two or three cuts.

But yes, DESTROYED does begin on a mellow note...it's a fairly slow-paced record, after all. It does not attempt to instantly clobber you with mile-a-minute dance beats, yowling vocal samples, or rat-a-tat synth assaults.

It's also not front-loaded with the most obviously impressive tracks, so most of those derisively aforementioned "critics" (coughs) never even had a chance to take in the content of the record they were supposedly reviewing. Point in case: my personal favorite track is the penultimate "Lacrimae," a gently powerful instrumental that almost imperceptibly slow-builds its way to towering heights of soul-stirring cathartic beauty. But in our increasingly ADD-addled, info-blip obsessed, faster/louder/dumber culture, how many will even be able to appreciate such a song? (insert depressed sigh)

And most of the songs here are structurally similar to "Lacrimae" in that they begin sparsely, with just a techno-bleep here and a whispery sound-swirl there, and gradually expand in both musical complexity and emotional wallop. In other words, some measure of patience, focus, and faith are required to effectively enter the electro-cathartic Mobyscape of DESTROYED.

Worth your time and effort, imo.

Disc two is packed with eight excellent new songs and three alternate versions of assorted tracks from DESTROYED. Track number one, "The Poison Tree", is an ecstatic return to Moby's PLAY-era electro-blues style, and "Fortitude" is nothing short of an epic beauty. Brilliant companion to the album proper.

Disc three is the DVD, which includes quite a few videos (some good, some bad, some spectacular), a slew of live tracks, and assorted interviews and ephemera. My only real complaint concerns the annoying absence of a "play all" function, which means you are immediately bounced back to the main menu screen after watching any single clip. Ech. But on the other hand, I have to say that these live performances are especially good.

Disc four is a high-energy live mix of new songs and popular standbys. A number of the songs sound surprisingly better than the studio-recorded versions, especially "In My Heart" and "We are All Made of Stars" from 18. The climactic vocal performance of "The Day" - a song about losing one's mother to cancer - is so impassioned that it nearly reduced me to tears. This fantastic Amazon-exclusive live record really surpassed my expectations.

So: four discs at a LOW price (five dollars a disc), featuring Moby's first live record, and a significantly expanded edition of his finest LP in many a year.

You kidding? Five stars easy.

This is Moby's best yet although it is different. Previously, I would say "Play", "Last Night", and "Wait for Me" are my favorites, and "Destroyed" doesn't disappoint. I am a programmer, and I like to listen to music that gets me into "the mode" without distracting me. This has been on repeat through my headphones for a couple of weeks now without getting old. In fact, I like it more and more with every listen.

It is a dreamlike mix of ambient beats, bass synth, and cello. The songs are more progressive than previous works. They start off with a few tracts and then slowly get more complete/layered without becoming over-complex.

Moby's previous works always felt like they started out strong and then hit a slump towards the end. The album would be over and I felt like I needed more closure. Play had a bunch of slow, empty poetry pieces. 18, Hotel, and Last Night all had forgettable ending tracks. Not so here. This is the first of Moby's albums I can say that almost every single song is excellent. In fact, the album actually gets progressively better with each track. The last few songs are incredibly beautiful piano/string-esc pieces.

I was surprised when I read a couple negative reviews by various magazines. I just don't think they listened to this album in the correct environment. This album needs to be listened to at night, early morning, or when in a thoughtful zen. I really wish everyone would quit wanting another "Play". "Play" was alright, but it really didn't show the talent/maturity that Moby is showing now. Those days are over folks...because these are some of his best.

Good buy! I want to hear more like it!

Normally I hate it, when artists that bring 'another' expanded edition to the market, while you have already 1/3th of the material of such an expansion. But with this Moby set, it is OK, as the additional work is just another Moby master piece: just listen, and relax! I love this kind of music while sitting for hours and hours (Manila - Amsterdam is about 14 hours) in the airplane!

I am still learning more about this incredible artist - and have not heard all his work. However, I have heard much of his work - and prefer this CD. If you like ambient/electronica with some beat and soulful vocals - this CD is brilliant. It really is art. Each song is subject to the listener's emotional interpretation - Moby just sets the table. In each song I feel like my heart is free-falling through the air - but without any anxiety. What other music can do that to a ham-fisted, hard-hearted case like me ?

Moby sounds different than most modern day singers, because he is unique. He always has been unique. His music was played as a background theme in many upscale bars, restaurant, hotels and even movies. He produced hits that the entire world liked and yet they didn't know Moby. I was lucky this year to attend one of Moby's live concerts, which took place in Moscow. This was an unbelievable show, and I was glad it was in Russia, where there is a huge following of Moby's art. The stadium was full and Moby with his band presented some of the tracks from this album mixed with some of his older "classic" songs that turned the crowds on and eventually reached almost an ecstatic point. And yet, I saw Moby as a very human, sensitive, creative and personal poet, who was overwhelmed with the response from the audience to the point of tears.

As for the album, I find it to be just beautiful. It is a great album to play when you are at home alone, or hear it in your car on a long drive from city to city. Whatever the place may be, this album is another masterpiece of Moby's art that most likely will live for decades to come proving that modern music doesn't have to fit into any specific music genre, but be it's own beautiful genus.

This is good music for ambient background listening for doing things like writing papers or organizing files. This album is not for pumping out pop tunes for mass consumption. This may upset listeners depending on what they are expecting.

This is a great album, if you actually know Moby's music. A more ambient/downtempo album then his commerical "Play" type music, this is a throw back (IMHO) to the Moby of the late 90's. It reminds me a lot of his Everything is wrong, and Voodoo Child work. If you are looking for a late night driving soundtrack or something to listen to while studying than this is an album for you.