Customer Reviews

Play & Play: The B Sides

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

 

 

"Play" has got to constitute Moby's greatest contribution to the world. When I say "Play", I mean both the original album and this "B Sides" album he released over a year later. Both albums are solid and show without a doubt that he had just too much good material to release and refused to let it sit on the shelf.

The "B Sides" album actually is just as good as the original, so if you liked "Play" you will definitely love this one. There are no weak tracks, so you can be safe with this one.

ok ok this is a very nice little collection of b sides from the Play album BUT where is the song Princess from the Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad single? It's fantastic and admittedly it's not as "ambient" as most of the songs on this album but if it were included at the end it would be a great uplifting way to close this collection. Just my opinion.

While this is not an acoustic album, most "Unplugged" albums are the artists' at their most basic, Play:The B Sides is Moby stripped-down to mostly instrumental music, basic,simple, pure and beautiful. A rare collection that is great to listen to in the car, at home, or on head phones.

Some people complain that Moby is inconsistent, but they'd have little case for it on this disc. As a whole the album is a wonderful aural journey. We start out with the funky, dance-grooved "Flower." Then "Sunday" has lush strings and spacy vocals washing over a big thumping beat. "Memeory Gospel" brings the tempo down with more lush strings, but there's plenty energy in the soulful female gospel vocals. "Whispering Wind" takes you off into a trancy ambient space, with semi-spoken vocals reaching over a great, echoey distance, and a slow but insistent beat that doesn't let you go. "Summer" lives up to its title, with sunny, bright orchestration, and still that pulsing ambient heartbeat. "Spirit" brings you all the way down at the outset, then wakes you back up with a throbbing beat, and eases you back down at the end. "Flying Foxes" is gorgeous, trancy ambient sound with all the good ingredients: easy, throbbing beat, dreamy snatches of vocals and lots of strings. If you can't chill out to this one, you never will, and it's generously long at over 6 minutes. "Sunspot" immediately follows, floating you even further out on the ambient carpet -- towards the sun, maybe? Wonderful chillout. "Flying Over the Dateline" keeps the spacy trip in motion, with more lushness and heartbeat rhythms. "Running" picks up the tempo, but keeps you flying on soft pink clouds. Finally, our pilot brings us back down for a safe, slow, gentle landing with "The Sun Never Stops Setting." This album gets a Wow! for talent, skill, thought-out arrangements and overall cohesiveness. It's literally a trip, well planned and brilliantly guided. It may be Moby's best so far. It's certainly one of them, and one of the best ambient discs ever made.

While I can't say this is awful, its just not engaging enough to engender a reaction that powerful, I can't recommend this either. It's good background music but there really isn't enough going on to make Play: The B Sides an album I can sit down and listen to. Its not boring, nor is it that interesting, rather it pleasantly burbles along like your dotty aunt Marge who doesn't care if you're listening to her or not. Mild and disengaged.

thanks for the music, i love moby. it play perfectly no scratches or nothing. sign. a. hamilton

Great CD for any Moby fan who likes his mellow tunes. Not as good as his "18 - B Sides", but still nice cruisin' music. Great for driving.

I listen to Moby often while I work, and this album is fantastic. Memory Gospel is a beautiful piece of music and it's consistent with the tone and idea of "Play". Moby fans who don't have this yet should seriously look into it.

Play is a 5 star album. This one has some really good tracks and goes well with Play. "Memory Gospel" is one of the best songs on there.

A "B Side" is like this. A record and cassette tape has an A SIDE and a B SIDE to it. The B Side tracks are simply the other side of the album (CD) where you can hear everything that the artist didn't think was appropiate for the original debut of the album. To think of it in a easier way, they are tracks that were suppose to make it to the album, but never did. I am still a little confused as to why he re-released this since it was already made as an IMPORT, but it was nice considering I can get it for a nice, cheap price...It's a great buy though since the re-release. The B Sides were a completely different adventure as to what the Original 'Play' brought you. The music was very inspirational and it just goes to show you what Moby can really do to make beautiful music (Ex. Go). This is a DEFINITE album to own for Moby fans.