A great album can erase a lot of sins. And if anybody’s got extra incentive to deliver one these days, it’s Moby. Between his much-maligned (and tellingly titled) 2019 memoir Then It Fell Apart — which included his creepy tale of romantically pursuing a teenage Natalie Portman — and the heat he took for laying off his vegan cafe’s staff during the pandemic, things have not gone swimmingly for the chrome-domed knob-twiddler lately. And judging by All Visible Objects, they aren’t going to improve much anytime soon. Moby’s 17th album is predictable and unengaging, with track after track of lightly pumping low-impact house grooves topped with swirly keyboards and vocals. It’s all luxuriously appointed and elegantly crafted, to be sure. But aside from a couple of standouts like the anthemic Power is Taken (which features rabble-rousing vocals from Dead Kennedys drummer DH Peligro) and Refuge (which co-stars legendary Jamaican dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson), few of these tracks replicate the excitement or innovation of landmarks like Play — or the power and propulsion of his more recent politicized punk entries. Toss this one back.
THE PRESS RELEASE: “All of Moby’s profits from All Visible Objects will be donated to charities. Over the last 10 years Moby has been donating 100% of the profits from most of his work to animal and human rights charities. His restaurant, little pine, his free film music site mobygratis, his festival Circle V, and his last few albums have all donated 100% of their profits to animal and human rights organizations.”
