Sorry to say, but this is one (well 2) expensive coasters.
I listened to it all the way through & was more than unthrilled.
The next time, I got as far as the diabolical cover version of New Order's Temptation & threw the discs in the bin.
Moby needs to go back to his punk roots & keep this rubbish to himself.
I had to give it a star or my review can't be submitted, but I can award a star for the cd case which is handy to replace any broken ones I might have.

I am a big fan and have all his cd's. But this one won't get played a lot. Double music doesn't mean more enjoyment when the songs are so monotonous they might just be one long song.

I have to admit I had been a bit wary of hearing Moby's last studio album HOTEL. I had been hearing mixed reviews for it, some good and some bad. I decided to check it out finally after I heard the irresistably catchy "Dream About Me" on Moby's best of compilation. I have to admit I enjoyed this cd a lot more than I thought. Yes HOTEL is not PLAY or even 18 but I think it had some pretty decent songs. It was a bit odd hearing Moby's version of New Order's "Temptation". Hearing the whispy vocals of Laura Dawn sing one of my favorite New Order songs set to a downtempo beat was strange but I loved it. There were some filler tracks that were pretty forgettable for me. The second disc of HOTEL was even better. I find myself listening to the second disc of ambient tracks more than the first disc. The music is perfect to sit back and relax to while reading a good book. While I am glad that HOTEL isn't as a bad as I thought it would be, I definitely do think it could have been better. Here is hope for better music for Moby's next studio album.

If you do some digging on this album, you should find that almost every publication panned it, despite its decent record sales. It's often interesting when critics don't like an album, but lots of *real people* do. Inevitably, sometimes it's the public's water-downed tastes, but occasionally it's the critics' pretentiousness and self-indulgence. Regarding Hotel, I suspect it's the latter. In fact, most of these negative reviews consist of harsh personal jabs towards Moby. You get the impression that these critics want Moby to make albums specifically for them; fortunately, Moby hasn't.

To me, Hotel makes a lot of sense. In relation to his best past music, the big change with Hotel is that it's essentially more of rock/pop album, often with the synths remaining in the background. But in spite of this superficial shift, I find that some (not all) of the same elements that originally drew me to his earlier work (from "Everything" to "18") are present here. The music often has a similar effect on me as his past music: It's somewhat introspective and bittersweet but still life-affirming; none of its emotions are simply distinctly happy or sad, they're more real. Likewise, all the songs are still impeccably produced, and the best songs have a similar structure as his electronic material: Numbers like "Slipping Away", "Spiders", and "Lift me Up" almost have a linear cut-and-paste feel. At times this does make for an awkward pop-song verse/chorus structure, as many songs seem more like choruses with filler verses. But a great amount of attention is given to the transitions between parts of a song; similar to the different pieces of his great song "Feeling so Real", but less *out there*. The production feels clean and impersonal, but in the same way that some great electronic music feels clean and impersonal. Vocals and lyrics are used as instruments, along with strings and subtle shifts to push the songs forward. It feels like pop music, but what distinguishes it and makes it great Moby is the focus is on the overall flow; this is best done on "Slipping Away".

At its worst some songs do feel very simplistic (especially "Beautiful") or uninspired (maybe "Where You End" or "Forever"). But there's enough variety on the album to prevent it from getting in a rut. Overall, many songs could use a lot more complexity, but I'm still endlessly intrigued by Hotel, and I'm curious about where Moby will go from here. Did I mention that it's also his catchiest album?

Encountering Moby's "Hotel" was a bit like entering a hotel room for me. Just like the complimentary bars of soap and bottles of shampoo in the bathroom and (sometimes) mints on the pillows, this album came with its own "perk" in the form of a bonus CD. Two albums for the price of one. I approached "Hotel" more fascinated with the packaging deal than the music itself.

Fast forward a few years, and that's still pretty much the case. Disc one is a combination of some really irritating "songs," complete with Moby singing like a 13-year-old boy with first-date jitters, and some instrumental filler. Moby's stabs at synth-pop with choruses and verses and all that make me feel almost embarrassed for him. "Look at us we're beautiful/All the people push 'n' pull" sounds a pretty bad idea to sing over any piece of music, let alone Moby's increasingly faceless brand of pop-fluff. The New Order, "Temptation," is disgraceful. Compositionally, some New Order songs don't have that much structure to them, as is the case with this tune. But New Order made up for shakily sewn songs by way of arrangement and (spirited) performances. Moby forsakes both attributes, leaving the song to pathetically rot in its skeletal form. And I can't believe a grown man actually wrote "I Liked It."

The bonus CD, which you probably already know through its title "Hotel Ambient," is an entire album expounding on Moby's quiet, spacey, ambient instrumentals. I think it's even longer than the "Hotel" album itself. And it's fine, if you want to listen to music that doesn't sound like much of anything at all. The way I see it, the world has its Harold Budd's and Brian Eno's, ones who can twist something interesting out of the ambient style, and the world has its Mobys. A friend of mine once told me he thought that the bonus CD was "a bunch of schlock" and that he could've done an equally quality job on his Ensoniq keyboard in the privacy of his own bedroom. And no, he did not say that as a ringing endorsement of his own abilities.

An album like this gives me pause to look backward and wonder what it was about 1999's breakthrough "Play" that caught everyone's attention. Were we all that starved for a DJ/keyboard guru to represent our life and times? If so, was Moby even worth it? I'm not going to knock Moby for not doing grand things, no, no, no. The follow-up to "Play," 2002's "18," showed that Moby wasn't all that interested in shaking the earth. But passages of "18" felt right given the somewhat disappointing context. The only thing "Hotel" shows is that Moby is one crappy songwriter and that anyone who can afford to buy a decent model synthesizer, even an older model, can make mood music on par with him.

Now, the logic of my rating:
"Hotel" - 0 stars
"Hotel Ambient" - 2 stars
Average = 1 star