"Play" 10 Years Later: Moby's Track by Track Guide to 1999's Global Smash

"Inside"
The idea with Play is to have this narrative arc, where it starts off energetic and then by the end dissolves into an opiated haze. "Inside" is like having done too much ketamine, because it's just so numb. Whenever I put it on, I feel like I'm in a K-hole.

"Guitar Flute & String"
I'm the worst judge of my music. This is my favorite song on the whole record. Hands down, bar none. Also recorded demo to a cassette. When Play was released, I didn't think anyone was gonna listen to it. So I figured towards the end, I will put on the songs that I like. No one's gonna listen to this record, certainly no one's ever gonna get this far in the record. Track 15 or whatever? So I put it on there for myself. [The title] is not very inventive. Brought to you by the people that invented the orange.

"The Sky Is Broken"
There's only three elements in the whole song: really bad drum samples, and old Oberheim Matrix 1000 synthesizer and vocals. It was intentionally very minimal, very austere, very simple.

"My Weakness"
I never expected anyone to ever listen to this song. It was tagged on to the end because I love music that's equal parts disconcerting and beautiful — you can get caught up in a sense of beauty, but also it's unsettling. It's why I like a lot of late 19th Century classical music like Debussy's "Prélude à l'après-midi d'un Faune" ̬ I know it's beautiful but it also makes me feel uncomfortable. "My Weakness" is such a strange piece of music. There's no drums and it's this odd African choir loop — I sampled it 12 years ago, I don't remember what it's from. What was most gratifying for me when Play became successful was when people liked the more obscure songs. Gillian Anderson used "The Sky Is Broken" in an X-Files. I was so flattered that someone had listened to the whole record.

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