Play

Play is the sixth studio album by the music artist Moby. While some of Moby’s earlier work garnered critical and commercial success within the electronic dance music scene, Play was his first true pop success. The album introduced Moby to a worldwide mainstream audience, not only through hit singles, but also through unprecedented licensing of his music in films, television and commercial advertisements.

One of the notable aspects of Play, as opposed to other electronic albums of the time, was the way in which it combined old gospel and folk music rhythms with modern house sensibilities. Moby sampled heavily from the collected field recordings of Alan Lomax in songs such as “Honey,” “Find My Baby,” “Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?” and “Natural Blues,” while the track “Run On” was inspired by the traditional “God’s Gonna Cut You Down.” The album also has more purely electronic tracks, as well as the rock-influenced single “South Side” and the more ambient “Porcelain.”

Inside the booklet included with the album, there are five short essays written by Moby, on topics such as veganism, fundamentalism, and humanitarianism. After the essays is a disclaimer written by Moby: “These essays are not really related to the music, so if you hate the essays you might still like the music, and if you like the essays you might hate the music.