Last Night : Moby : Review : Rolling Stone

Club drugs and rock stars abide by the same rule: What goes up must come down. After hitting a massive high on 1999's Play, Moby stopped making dance music, opting instead for the downtempo atmospherics of 2002's 18 and the strummed guitars of 2005's Hotel. So it's exciting to hear this forty-two-year-old vegan blogger return to form. A concept album about an all-night bender, Last Night solidifies Moby's link in the chain that binds DJ pioneers like Todd Terry to slinky futurists like Justice. From the space-age-Abba shimmer of "Ooh Yeah" to the itchy funk of the brilliant Nineties house throwback "Disco Lies," Moby goes for groove over texture, relying on high-hats, piano and strings while wisely staying off the mike. The album is billed as a love letter to New York nightlife, but tracks like the dance-hop "I Love to Move in Here" (featuring Grandmaster Caz) feel more like an Irish wake for the era before the city's megaclubs were shuttered. Appropriately, Last Night's only drawback is the harsh slowdown of the trancelike "Degenerates." After so many body-rocking tunes, it's like any sobering slap: a real downer.