Like many people, I went through a phase in 1999-2000 of being obsessed with Moby’s breakthrough album, “Play”. The songs were catchy yet simple, modern but filled with old samples…perfect turn-of-the-millennium music.
But then Moby went and sold out faster than emergency generators on Y2K. Almost every single track on “Play” was licensed for commercials, and the ubiquity of the music eventually made people’s ears turn elsewhere.
In the spring of 2006, I dusted off the CD and gave it another listen. Then track 6, a song called “Rushing”, came on. Unlike the songs before and after it on the album, “Rushing” was never released as a single or used to sell cars. As a result, it had flown under my radar when I first bought the album seven years earlier.
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. The simplicity of the sampled vocal part, quietly singing “hey yeah” through the entire track.
2. The fact that the vinyl pops from the original record are still audible, and made louder by the reverb that Moby added to it.
3. The floaty piano part that begins halfway through.
4. The way it just disintegrates at the end, not even hitting the 3-minute mark. Sometimes the best songs are the ones that leave you wanting more.
Recommended listening activity:
Lying on the couch doing a crossword.