Hotel

by

Moby

Edit

This product offered by amazon does NOT include the second cd, Hotel: Ambient, that is included in most editions of this release. Many of the review consider disc 2 of hotel, Hotel: Ambient, to be the better of the two. Imagine my disappointment when my amazon order did not include it. If you want the complete alblum, be careful what you order. Don't be a stooge like I was. I ran down to my local record store and got the double disc for what I paid for this incomplete edition. The alblum art is the exact same, the Amazon reviews mention the second disc. Amazon, please take action on this.

... But Amazon.com has AGAIN chosen to mislabel a copy-controlled "CD" (Philips and Apple have declared that "copy-controlled" discs are NOT CDs, either in a technical or a legal sense and therefore cannot be labelled as Compact Disc Digital Audio; check for yourselves). Anyway, it's one more great release by Moby, who has proven time and again that he's the master of both understanding - as if by some uncany magic skill - what the listener NEEDS to hear and how to keep the listener's interest. The arrangements are very interesting (I particularly loved the slide guitar on "Raining Again"), the songs well thought-out... It's what Mike Oldfield could have been now IF he had finally learned to avoid those horrid-sounding digital distortion boxes for his guitars and IF he still could stay on the cutting edge.

Moby is a true successor to the throne of Mike Oldfield, The Art Of Noise and other such great ambient acts. And he can rock out too!

Now, let me explain the "1 star" rating. PLEASE, all you accountants, ditch this "copy protection" stuff. All you do is pay - without any reason whatsoever - tons of money to Macrovision, annoy thousands of consumers who simply cannot play the discs they bought, because the transports of so many CD and DVD players today (and especially car CD players) will NOT (and don't have to, anyway) recognize this unauthorized "variation" of the CD Digital Audio format... So, they often go out looking for equipment that will tolerate this useless gimmick or just rip the discs and copy them, as Macrovision's "copy protection" (which was developed with the blessings of IFPI) DOES NOT prevent the ripping of the "protected" discs! Why bother then?

And, please, Amazon.com guys, when you see the "Copy Control" sign, label it accordingly - it's NOT ENHANCED, it's "COPY CONTROLLED" (or, better yet, "playback controlled").