Album Review: Moby, Future Quiet

Moby has pulled off a musical u-turn of sorts, with this album envisioned as a refuge from the bombast of 21st century living. Gone are the house beats and dancefloor licks that characterised his most successful work, replaced by minimalist piano and heavily orchestrated synths, with occasional guest vocalists.

The result is beautiful and frequently stunning, its 14 tracks spread over more than 85 minutes, with most weighing in around the six-minute mark. Opener ‘When It’s Cold, I’d Like To Die’ is a new version of the song from his 1995 album Everything Is Wrong and, like Kate Bush’s Hounds Of Love, has found a whole new audience via Stranger Things.

Here, he lays down a lush orchestral synth backdrop, over which former American Idol contestant Jacob Lusk showcases his soaring vocal talents. Brooklyn singer-songwriter India Carney, meanwhile, sounds like she’s whispering in your ear on the breathy fragility of ‘Precious Mind’. Elise Serenelle’s operatics engage with the fragile synths of ‘Estrella Del Mar’ to haunting effect, and ‘On Air’ features talented R&B crooner, serpentwithfeet.

Moby proves himself quite the classical pianist on tracks like ‘Mono No Aware’, ‘Ruhe’, ‘Selene’ and ‘Gentle Absence’, some of which Philip Glass would be proud of. The extremely sparse 'Tallinn’ takes minimalism to the nth degree, the gaps between notes stretching out into an eternity.

Elsewhere, ‘The Opposite Of Fear’ is an Eno-esque ambient soundscape that runs for eight-and-a-half minutes, while ‘Mott St 1992’ would not seem out of place on Moby’s mega-selling 1999 album, Play.

An album to lose yourself in, in a very good way.

7.5/10