18

The timing for the release of 18 is not proper: it comes as a follow-up to one of the most innovative and best albums of the 1990s, Play. Of course ...

18
Provided By:The Daily Vault

18
Moby
V2 Records, 2002
REVIEW BY: Vish Iyer
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 04/12/2004
The timing for the release of 18 is not proper: it comes as a follow-up to one of the mostinnovative and best albums of the 1990s, Play. Of course, the expectations for this follow-up werepretty high. This alone is bad for the follow-up. If this is notenough, the follow-up turns out to be strictly mediocre.
Frankly, overwhelmed by the gargantuan success of Play, Moby has tried to repeat what he had done with itssuccessor 18. It seems as if he has run out of ideas for this album,and didn't have enough of them to make this album unique andspecial in any way, hence making it sound a lot like Play, only not as good. The result: a number of songs thatsound more or less the same as songs on Play.
The songs "In This World," "One Of These Mornings" and "Sunday(The Day Before My Birthday)" are amongst the best on 18, and these sound really good. But sadly, any of thesenumbers could be "Porcelain" or "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad"from Play, if one changes the lyrics. It is because of thestriking similarity of these songs from 18 to the ones on Play, that they don't seem as enjoyable as they ought to be.In a way, there is a feeling that not enough justice has been doneto both sets of songs, from Play and from 18.
Still, not everything is disheartening about 18. There are also many reasons to smile about this album.Not every good song on 18 sounds like a copy of the ones on Play. To begin with, the first single, "We Are All Made OfStars," with an uncannily '80s-ish feel to it, is a perfect radiosong -- irresistibly likeable. Other songs like "At Least We Tried"and "I'm Not Worried At All" not only have fantastic vocals, buttheir melancholy, and musically simple and honest nature aretouching. As a matter of fact, "I'm Not Worried At All" is abeautiful way to end the album: positive lyrics, simple and sombertune; it really invokes a teardrop or two.

Click here to read complete Review



Local Articles
Entertainment
Home