Board 8 > Rank the Tracks Week 37: Moby's Play (plus Since I Left You results)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Previous results can be seen here:
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks

The rules:
1. Listen to the album in full
2. Rank every track on the album
3. For the results, there will be a curve at the top of each list; two additional points between #1 and #2, and one additional point for the next two ranks. This way, the songs that really stick out to someone get an edge that is not immediately negated by someone else putting it lower. In the case of Demon Days, someone's 15th track will get 1 point, 14th 2 points, 4th 12 points, 3rd 14 points, 2nd 16 points, and 1st 19 points. For albums with greater than 15 tracks, everything ranked below #15 will be given 0 points and the scale for the top 15 will be the same as a 15-track album. For albums with more than 20 tracks, you only have to list your top 15 (with 16-20, I still like having the average rank listed)
4. If you want to include comments for individual songs, I will compile them in the results
5. The results will be posted at the beginning of the next topic
6. The deadline to vote is Sunday, November 21 at 8:00 AM EST - though if you are for whatever reason listening to the album around that time, just say so in the topic and I can delay a bit
7. You can sign up to be added to the user cycle - the next person on the list will choose 3 albums which the other users will vote on for the next topic.
7a. To ensure people are being given an actual choice, the three nominated albums must be by different artists. You can otherwise stick to a similar sound or era.
7b. The tiebreaker for these polls will be whichever is listed first in the poll options - make sure to deliver the results in order of your own preference (which will hopefully have the added benefit of influencing people toward your first choice if they can't decide).

Moby's Play track list:
1. Honey
2. Find My Baby
3. Porcelain
4. Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?
5. South Side
6. Rushing
7. Bodyrock
8. Natural Blues
9. Machete
10. 7
11. Run On
12. Down Slow
13. If Things Were Perfect
14. Everloving
15. Inside
16. Guitar Flute & String
17. The Sky is Broken
18. My Weakness

Schedule:
11/21: Steely Dan - Can't Buy a Thrill (Seginustemple)

User Cycle sign-ups:
11/28: MetalmindStats (Tear for Fears - The Hurting)
12/5: TheArkOfTurus
12/12: Snake5555555555
12/19: Jesse_Custer
12/26: ZaziGuado
1/2: SpikeSetsFire
1/9: Johnbobb
1/16: VeryInsane
1/23: CasanovaZelos
1/30: Seanchan
2/6: Giggsalot
2/13: RyoCaliente
2/20: darkx
2/27: neonreaper
3/6: Great_Paul
3/13: jcgamer107
3/20: ChichiriMuyo
3/27: ChainLTTP
4/3: BlueCrystalTear

---

The Avalanches' Since I Left You results

The participants sorted by deviation from final results:
SpikeSetsFire: 36
Seanchan: 47
CasanovaZelos: 54
MetalmindStats: 61
Johnbobb: 66
Raetsel_Lapin: 87

General Album Comments

CasanovaZelos: This might just be the hardest album for this topic series to cover, but this is actually a strength of Since I Left You as a whole. This is a sonic simulation of drifting between stations, a blur of different moods and ambience. The definitive tracks here are the title track and "Frontier Psychiatrist," which showcase the two extremes of the album. For those who don't know, this is a 'plunderphonics' record, meaning it consists entirely of samples. "Since I Left You" passes perfectly as a singular piece despite its disparate origins. Meanwhile, The Avalanches intentionally show their hand with "Frontier Psychiatrist," cycling through a hundred stray vocal quips while maintaining an impressive musicality. Few albums have ever felt this singular, made all the more impressive by its variety of sources.

SpikeSetsFire: This was my nomination. I feel like I should talk about it a little...
This album is widely regarded as being an All-Time Top 10 Australian album in many rankings.

The Avalanches consist of some DJs and Producers from Melbourne, Australia.
(That's my hometown, by the way. Woo! Go Melbourne!)
As CasanovaZelos mentioned, this album contains over 3,000 samples from songs, movies and TV shows...
Conceptually, nothing like this had ever happened before.

There is no gap between each track, so every song flows seamlessly together.
Get ready for an hour of pure exhilarating escapism.

If you're further interested and curious just what the fuck is happening here...
Someone has put together an extraordinary video on YouTube that shows where all the samples came from.
It really puts into perspective the sheer magnitude of how insane this album is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFEZiMyfSYI

I know it's going to be very hard to rank, but I hope you guys enjoy it.

CasanovaZelos (responding to SpikeSetsFire's claim 'conceptually nothing like this had ever happened before'): I wouldn't go that far - DJ Shadow's Endtroducing... does something similar with even more samples a few years earlier, and I would give it the edge.

Seanchan: Did a first listen to Since I Left You.

My reaction was pretty mixed. There were certainly a few "tracks" that stood out but it's definitely more of an album experience. I wasn't loving it but I wasn't hating it.

MetalmindStats: My own first listen of Since I Left You has already shown me it's easy to zone out to as a whole - and not so easy to evaluate individually, but I'm far from the first to feel it's by design rather than a downside.

Jesse_Custer: Not sure if Im going to do this one. I like the album, but felt like I was just arbitrarily ranking most of the tracks when I gave it a try.

Also, the video for Frontier Psychiatrist (which would be my #1 if I rank this album) is wonderfully bizarre and always fun to watch.

Seanchan: I didn't much care for this album. I found large swaths of it to be kind of boring and/or far too repetitive. Doing the ranking actually wasn't as difficult as I expected but after the first 3-4 songs my enjoyment started dropping off quick. I'm not very likely to want to listen to this again.

MetalmindStats: I think the recursiveness of Since I Left You's sampling unveiling itself on repeat listens is ultimately the reason it worked for me as a cohesive album, rather than merely as a one-time novelty. However, that also contributed to my track-comparing approach of ranking songs against each other largely on impulse each listen, then averaging the three sets of results.

---

Since I Left You track ranking

18. Avalanche Rock (Track #5)
Score: 0 (Average Rank: 17.33/18)
Biggest Fan(s): MetalmindStats (#16)
Biggest Detractor(s): CasanovaZelos, SpikeSetsFire, Raetsel_Lapin (#18)

17. Diners Only (Track #8)
Score: 14 (Average Rank: 14.33/18)
Biggest Fan(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#8)
Biggest Detractor(s): MetalmindStats, Johnbobb (#18)

16. Pablo's Cruise (Track #12)
Score: 19 (Average Rank: 13.5/18)
Biggest Fan(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#7)
Biggest Detractor(s): Seanchan (#18)

15. Little Journey (Track #16)
Score: 24 (Average Rank: 12/18)
Biggest Fan(s): Johnbobb (#7)
Biggest Detractor(s): CasanovaZelos, SpikeSetsFire, Raetsel_Lapin, Seanchan, MetalmindStats (#13)

14. Flight Tonight (Track #6)
Score: 31 (Average Rank: 11.17/18)
Biggest Fan(s): MetalmindStats (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#17)

12 (tie). ETOH (Track #14)
Score: 31 (Average Rank: 10.83/18)
Biggest Fan(s): SpikeSetsFire (#7)
Biggest Detractor(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#16)

12 (tie). Summer Crane (Track #15)
Score: 31 (Average Rank: 10.83/18)
Biggest Fan(s): CasanovaZelos (#7)
Biggest Detractor(s): Seanchan, MetalmindStats (#15)

11. Stay Another Season (Track #2)
Score: 36 (Average Rank: 10/18)
Biggest Fan(s): Seanchan (#7)
Biggest Detractor(s): Johnbobb (#15)

10. Tonight May Have to Last Me All My Life (Track #11)
Score: 37 (Average Rank: 11/18)
Biggest Fan(s): Johnbobb (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): MetalmindStats (#17)

9. Close to You (Track #7)
Score: 40 (Average Rank: 9.33/18)
Biggest Fan(s): Seanchan (#5)
Biggest Detractor(s): MetalmindStats, Johnbobb (#12)

8. Two Hearts in 3/4 Time (Track #4)
Score: 44 (Average Rank: 9.5/18)
Biggest Fan(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): SpikeSetsFire (#15)

7. Extra Kings (Track #18)
Score: 46 (Average Rank: 8.5/18)
Biggest Fan(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): Johnbobb (#11)

6. Since I Left You (Track #1)
Score: 58 (Average Rank: 6.67/18)
Biggest Fan(s): CasanovaZelos (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#14)

5. Radio (Track #3)
Score: 59 (Average Rank: 7/18)
Biggest Fan(s): MetalmindStats (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#15)

4. A Different Feeling (Track #9)
Score: 59 (Average Rank: 6.67/18)
Biggest Fan(s): Seanchan (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): CasanovaZelos (#15)

3. Electricity (Track #10)
Score: 68 (Average Rank: 4.83/18)
Biggest Fan(s): Seanchan (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): MetalmindStats (#7)

2. Live at Dominoes (Track #17)
Score: 73 (Average Rank: 4.83/18)
Biggest Fan(s): Seanchan (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#12)

1. Frontier Psychiatrist (Track #13)
Score: 92 (Average Rank: 2.67/18)
Biggest Fan(s): CasanovaZelos, SpikeSetsFire (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Seanchan (#6)

---

2/3s chance I'll make an appearance next week (for Moving Pictures or Aqualung)

---

I enjoyed this album back around the time it first come out, but its not an album I find myself caring to listen to these days.

Run On
Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?
Natural Blues
South Side
Porcelain
Inside
Everloving
Honey
Bodyrock
Rushing
The Sky is Broken
My Weakness
Find My Baby
If Things Were Perfect
Guitar Flute & String
Down Slow
Machete
7

Underleveled posted...

2/3s chance I'll make an appearance next week (for Moving Pictures or Aqualung)

Either one of those would be for the week of 12/5, not next week.

---

bump

---

Did a first listen of Play...wasn't digging it very much at all. I've heard somewhere around 3-5 of these songs even before this and I've just never been a fan.

I see it was nominated by the same person as Since I Left You. That makes a bunch of sense as the two albums feel like they orbit the same planet (in a manner of speaking).

---

Up

---

bump

---

up

---

bump

---

Did a 2nd listen to this today. My first impression was not really improved upon.

---

Moby's Play somehow feels more 90s to me than the Spice Girls. As in, I feel like Play is culturally stuck in its own era while Spice Girls at least survives as a significant reference point. I love late-90s popular electronic music but feel like I never hear it discussed.

---

Oh Play is for sure one of the most quintessentially 90s albums ever. It's got the electronica + millennium anxiety oozing out of it.

1: Guitar Flute & String
2: Inside
3: Everloving
4: If Things Were Perfect
5: Porcelain
6: South Side
7: Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?
8: My Weakness
9: The Sky Is Broken
10: Down Slow
11: Run On
12: Natural Blues
13: Machete
14: 7
15: Rushing
16: Bodyrock
17: Find My Baby
18: Honey
---

...in my dreams I'm bumping all the time...

---

I don't have it in me to listen to the full album but come on people Porcelain is one of the GOATs

bump

---

1. Porcelain
2. Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?
3. Natural Blues
4. My Weakness
5. Inside
6. Everloving
7. Run On
8. Bodyrock
9. Guitar Flute & String
10. Honey
11. South Side
12. Machete
13. Rushing
14. Find My Baby
15. The Sky is Broken
16. If Things Were Perfect
17. Down Slow
18. 7


---

1. Natural Blues
2. Run On
3. Honey
4. Porcelain
5. Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?
6. Bodyrock
7. Find My Baby
8. Machete
9. If Things Were Perfect
10. The Sky is Broken
11. My Weakness
12. Everloving
13. Rushing
14. South Side
15. Inside
16. Guitar Flute & String
17. Down Slow
18. 7

This album was way better than I expected. Moby's one of those people I've always known existed, despite not knowing much of anything about him or by him aside from the fact that he looks like Dean Pelton from Community. So on a first listen, I mostly only recognized bits and pieces of his stuff, but I pretty thoroughly enjoyed all of it. The complete tonal shift about 2/3 of the way through threw me off a bit; it's not bad, just feels like an entire different album compared to the rest.

---

My ranking:
Porcelain (#1015 all-time)
Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad? (#1727)
Natural Blues
Honey (#2287)
Run On
Bodyrock
South Side
Find My Baby
Everloving
My Weakness
Down Slow
Rushing
Inside
If Things Were Perfect
The Sky is Broken
Guitar Flute & String
Machete
7

---

1. Natural Blues
2. Find My Baby
3. Inside
4. Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?
5. Rushing
6. Porcelain
7. Bodyrock
8. Honey
9. Run On
10. My Weakness
11. Down Slow
12. Machete
13. The Sky Is Broken
14. If Things Were Perfect
15. 7
16. South Side
17. Everloving
18. Guitar Flute & String

The second half of the album feels like a completely different (and less enjoyable, for me) experience. Seven of the first eight songs make up my top eight, with only South Side landing in the bottom three. Some high highs for me - it's a solid top half - but there's also a lot of stuff I don't care about and find indistinguishable.

1. Find My Baby
2. Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?
3. Run On
4. Honey
5. Machete
6. My Weakness
7. Rushing
8. If Things Were Perfect
9. Porcelain
10. Guitar Flute & String
11. Bodyrock
12. Natural Blues
13. The Sky is Broken
14. Inside
15. Everloving
16. South Side
17. Down Slow
18. 7

I came into this series never even having heard of Moby, and now I'm leaving Play's week without really getting why it was (is?) such a big deal. I'm not sure any number of listens would shake my conviction that it's too bloated and disjointed to feel fully coherent, and not in a way that works for me. Excising the last third would at least have solved the former problem, though, and I think I would have liked the album in that case.

---

Haven't listened in probably 15 years, I actually like it more now than as a kid. The emphasis on delta blues/gospel/spiritual samples adds a lot of character to the crisp electronic production (I gotta say his drums are always on point), in some ways Play feels like an end-of-the-century retrospective on popular music in the recording era. Maybe the energy fizzles in the second half but there's a solid core of danceable grooves and that closer is a gem. Sounds great on headphones.

Honey
Run On
Find My Baby
My Weakness
Natural Blues
South Side
Porcelain
If Things Were Perfect
Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?
7
Down Slow
Inside
Bodyrock
Everloving
The Sky is Broken
Rushing
Guitar Flute & String
Machete
---

MetalmindStats posted...

I came into this series never even having heard of Moby, and now I'm leaving Play's week without really getting why it was (is?) such a big deal.

Play pretty much allowed electronica to become seen as an "intellectual" and emotional genre in the US mainstream (the Brits were already 5-10 years ahead of us with Aphex Twin et al). It seems crazy now but before it this was not a musical form taken as a serious art form by most.

1. Porcelain
2. The Sky Is Broken
3. South Side
4. Guitar Flute & String
5. Inside
6. Machete
7. My Weakness
8. Rushing
9. Everloving
10. Bodyrock
11. Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?
12. Natural Blues
13. Honey
14. If Things Were Perfect
15. Run On
16. Down Slow
17. 7
18. Find My Baby

I'll catch up with the two albums I missed eventually, just didn't have time

---

ChainLTTP posted...

Play pretty much allowed electronica to become seen as an "intellectual" and emotional genre in the US mainstream (the Brits were already 5-10 years ahead of us with Aphex Twin et al). It seems crazy now but before it this was not a musical form taken as a serious art form by most.

Thank you for the answer, but that wasn't really what I was talking about. I guess my point was more like, why is this album specifically the one that convinced Americans to take electronica seriously, etc? And maybe the answer to that really is as simple as an awful lot of people feeling differently about Play than I do, or perhaps I don't get it because I wasn't really there for it. Whatever the case, I also suspect my lack of knowledge of music theory let me down.

---

I would suggest reading Robert Christgau's review of it when it came out. Lots of interesting insights about how Moby effectively took the roots music that is in our collective DNA and brought it to life with the sounds of the millennium. It's good stuff.

1. Natural Blues
2. Machete
3. Bodyrock
4. Honey
5. Run On
6. Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?
7. Find My Baby
8. Porcelain
9. South Side
10. Everloving
11. Inside
12. Guitar Flute & String
13. My Weakness
14. 7
15. Rushing
16. Down Slow
17. If Things Were Perfect
18. The Sky is Broken

I didn't really enjoy this album. Something about it just failed to connect with me, even the songs at the top of my list. I was kind of bored and disengaged. Oh well, on to the next week!

---

Final bump before tallying tomorrow morning

---