Those who consider Moby an electro musician will have to wait for I Like It (very Donna Summer), the tenth track of his fifth release to find music to their taste. Indeed, the New York elf is rather into wide-angle pop today, but not necessarily the kind that plays on the radio. Yesterday based on bleeps, loops, and sound samples, his music now refuses blinders and constraints for the greatest happiness of those who have seen him, for a good decade, as a musician... plain and simple. Recorded at home or at the Electric Lady and Loho studios in Manhattan, Hotel showcases clear songs, some of which have particularly effective choruses (Spiders, Slipping Away). Breaking with his recent past, Moby did not use any vocal samples in this new album but performed all the tracks, occasionally enlisting singer Laura Dawn.
Modern in intention and approach, Hotel perfectly reflects the fractured times that the music industry (and the world!) is going through, and its songs are imbued with a serious nostalgia that recalls the great masters in the art of painting the present and the future with uncertain hues.