play, and then some

bizarrely, the first thing i think of when the word play comes to mind is this album play by moby. i don't like moby, per se. he's floating around out there in the pop music stratosphere like everyone else, i suppose. all of them are a collective something that drones on and on in the background, serving as sonic wallpaper for the most mundane moments of my life, like when i'm eating in some restaurant or when i'm watching some movie.

i don't necessarily even like this album, either. i recall that when it came out, it was absolutely everywhere, and that was kind of annoying. i remember thinking, why should i buy this? i can't go anywhere and not hear it. then again, when i realized that the album basically consisted of him taking some blues records from the 20s and setting them to a hip-hop beat, i was really annoyed. the songs he pilfered were much more alluring to my southern black blues-heavy ears than the beats he staged around them -- and the idea of what he did, the cleverness inside of it, well, that was enough for any hipster that crossed my path.

i think of moby as a well-intentioned dj that made good. he's a vegan, he loves jesus and he does charity work, and occasionally has bouts of panic attacks, so i'm not going to throw a rock at him. personally, i prefer fatboy slim -- even though he slices and dices as much as anyone else -- because he's funkier and he's way more fun, and his sampling thievery isn't as obvious. hearing the backstory to this album redeemed it for me on many levels and pulled me in.

still and all, someone that i love very much was really into this album while she was alive. and now that she's gone, i think of her whenever i hear it. which is still quite a lot.

one can only hope that all those blues artists he ripped off/sampled received some kind of royalty check/compensation/acknowledgement.