Next year marks the 20th anniversary of Moby’s Play – a techno masterpiece overshadowed by the fact that its songs were heavily licensed. Two decades on, nobody cares about licensing. At the time, however, Moby was regarded as somehow betraying his art by allowing his music to be extensively used on movie soundtracks and in ads.

Post-Play, there has been a sense that he hasn’t always known what to do with his career. Especially egregious were the two speed-punk albums he recorded with the Void Pacific Choir, in 2016 and 2017. These were whiny affairs, in which Moby didn’t so much wear his apocalyptic environmentalism on his sleeve as taped to his forehead.

But he’s on more fertile territory with his 15th long-player – a moochy rumination on death, renewal and cultural strife, which comes with the unlikely twin inspirations of WB Yeats and Kurt Vonnegut (the title is a line from Slaughterhouse Five).

The Yeats influence is tied to the poem The Second Coming, which Moby references on a number of occasions (‘Mere Anarchy’, ‘The Middle Is Gone’). Alongside the literary flourishes, Moby has made a point of featuring a female voice on every track, with Mindy Jones, in particular, bringing a balmy ethereal quality. Moby has continued to make interesting music since Play – but this stoic, beautifully bleak affair is perhaps his best record since that commercial high point.

Record label: Mute
Listen to: Mere Anarchy
Rating: 8/10