Since he put New York on the techno map with the seminal 1990 trance track "Go," Moby has gone on to become a decent punk rocker, a virtuous ambient doodler and an even better soundtrack composer. But his calling remains convention-twisting, explosively emotive dance music. With Play, electronica's outspoken icon bounces back to make the true successor to his club-centered 1995 landmark, Everything Is Wrong.

Whereas that album focused on booming, four-to-the-floor tech pop, Play embraces both hip-hop syncopations and Alan Lomax's field recordings of early-twentieth-century African-American folk music to create time-traveling beatbox hymns. "Honey" features Bessie Jones' bluesy vamp over plunking piano and shuffling funk. "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?" showcases anguished gospel cries on a stage of glowing synths, while "Bodyrock" simultaneously suggests Fatboy Slim and Joy Division. Moby sing-speaks, plays innumerable instruments and crafts complex soulful harmonies out of simple, alienated elements. The ebb and flow of eighteen concise, contrasting cuts writes a story about Moby's beautifully conflicted interior world while giving the outside planet beats and tunes on which to groove. Read it with your heart and hips.

“My President”

Young Jeezy teams up with Nas on this track, in which he compare his own success with the idea of an African-American winning the Democratic Party's nomination in the 2008 presidential election. "When I pulled up in my car, that s--- was unbelievable to people in my neighborhood because they were like, 'We grew up with him. How the hell did he accomplish this?'" he told Rolling Stone. "I feel like it was the same way with Obama. I grew up all this time, but I've never seen a black man this close to running this country."