Moby – Play

The inlay sleeve fans out quite a bit with several thought provoking essays. I must mention the essays as I they where controversial at the time and caused quite a bit of debate back in the Nineties, reading them know, they still pack a punch but you have to respect Moby for saying what was on his mind and not following the herd so to speak. I Moby saying when the record was released that the essays had very little, if anything to do with the music, and he said something like, it's not necessary at all to read them but I struck them in there in the hope that some people would like both.
I have heard through the grapevine that they are now actually studied in some quarters, possibly a bit like Dave Brubeck's liner notes when he articulated levels and degrees of Music, improvisation, and creating art. Obviously not what Moby was writing about, the common denominator however is that they are researched, and have not been forgotten.
I also at the time a few Blues fans who I sometimes came across in HMV and Virgin record stores and they where going crazy trying to track down the old Blues numbers that Moby sampled and covered. It's fair to say that Moby caused quite a bit of interest in these records, and this would have blended nicely with the huge resurgence of Blues reissues at the time on compact disc. I vividly The Complete Robert Johnson being released to unbelievable hyperbole in the media when it was released as a box set that I think was also Digitally Remastered. Not everyone was impressed, I think one of the beards in ZZ Top was quoted as saying something like, The phantom of the Blues is now blasting out of brand new BMW's. Fair enough, it did tempt more than a few folks to take a toe dip in the Blues, but these high profile releases, and Moby's innovation and inventiveness of the Blues, definitely done it's bit to keep the music alive, along with equally high profile releases at that time by legends John Lee Hooker, BB King and Buddy Guy etc.
This was a good time to be a Blues fan, and Moby definitely made a most welcome contribution.

The Grain Of Salt
From
The ✮😎✮ Cool Vault

Perfect pressing.
Bass stupendous especially from vinyl but you need a good system to control it.

I agree that this doesn't offer much beyond what you can get on CD, sonically. But it does sound as good as that, and there were no QC issues with my copy. Glad to own it on vinyl.

Do someone actually own this particular version and how does it sounds ?

Swapping in the full length "Honey" from the original 1999 pressing of the album, the complete "Down Slow" from Bodyrock help make this a truly "Complete" experience, in my opinion. In of commercially released tracks of the era.

Excluding the small mountain of single remixes covered elsewhere, other material (mostly out-takes) not formally released from the Play sessions can be found on 18 DVD + B Sides respectively. Most worth checking out if you're a fan of this era of Moby. Obviously, Moby would have a great deal more in his own archives (to put it mildly) given how prolific he is.

The album really does deserve a super deluxe box-set as it would be easy to fill 4-5 CDs plus a reissue of Play (The DVD).

I have this album 2022 edition. However, I notice a mistake because the song 'South Side' does not feature Gwen Stefani, but her name does appear as a vocalist in the credits of the vinyl.

Sounds very good, it is my must-have in my collection

Not a great remaster at all, simply "louder" which wasted any benefit of presenting the music in 24-Bit. I bought (and submitted) this ten years ago but rarely play it because some tracks begin to sound fatiguing as the upper dynamics are flat. The waveforms are pretty brick walled validating that listening experience. This is a mastering for Spotify, designed to be as loud as possible in the background rather than any material high fidelity benefit.

I've gone back to the original 1999 mastering which was more than adequate, and loud enough. It's recently been reissued including all the B-sides: Play (The Complete Recordings) (I was glad to hear they didn't reuse this mastering!)

5 stars for the music, 2 for the mastering effort. Money best spent elsewhere, in my opinion.

Moby - Play : The Complete Recordings" is now available in the iTunes Store

mastering sounds nice but my copy has quality control issues last two tracks on side C have clicks & pops first track on side D has nasty distortion.