Animal Rights (album)

Background

Moby's decision to release a punk rock album was in part the result of being disillusioned by the lack of positive media feedback he had been receiving from the music media for his electronic works, which they struggled to comprehend and failed to take very seriously. Moby had previous experience performing rock music, having been a member of the groups Vatican Commandos and Ultra Vivid Scene in the 1980s.

The album was recorded between the summer of 1995 and spring of 1996 in Manhattan, New York. Moby worked alongside Alan Moulder in the making of the album. Ironically, just as Moby decided to change direction, the electronic music he moved away from started to gain recognition and popularity through artists like The Chemical Brothers and The Prodigy.

The album's liner notes contain various pictures (the cover photograph features Moby at two weeks old, being held by his grandfather), an essay on the course of basic rights over history, an essay outlining Moby's disregard for the Christian Coalition, and a page with various "last minute maxims", such as "cruelty is unacceptable" and "you can't expect people to worry about the world when they can't feed themselves or their children."

Release

Animal Rights was released on September 23, 1996 in the United Kingdom, where it charted at number 38 on the UK Albums Chart. The album was not released in Moby's native United States until five months later on February 11, 1997. The album failed to chart on the Billboard 200, but reached number 31 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart.

According to manager Eric Härle, the album almost killed Moby's career because not only did the new direction leave audiences cold – with music media uninterested and his existing fan base largely alienated by it – but it led to people being confused as to what kind of artist Moby really was. Having wiped out all his early good work in establishing himself, Moby was left struggling for any kind of recognition and quickly became seen as a "has-been" in the eyes of many people in the industry.

The album's first single, released on August 26, 1996, was a cover of Mission of Burma's 1981 song "That's When I Reach for My Revolver". The release was subject to some controversy as both the BBC and MTV asked Moby to change the lyrics of the song's title line. Moby acquiesced and rerecorded an alternate version of song titled "That's When I Realize It's Over" so its video could air on the networks. Mission of Burma fans were reportedly outraged; Moby defended himself, saying he didn't consider the change in lyrics to be very important. One of the album's "last minute maxims" is "freedom of speech is absolute and inviolate." The single peaked at number 50 on the UK Singles Chart.

The album's second single, "Come on Baby", was released in early November 1996, but failed to chart in any country in which it was released.

Moby toured the record as the opening act for Soundgarden on their Down on the Upside tour. In an interview for Rolling Stone, Moby admitted that the failure of Animal Rights combined with the negative reception he received from Soundgarden's fanbase during the tour led him to consider quitting music. However, he chose to continue his career after other artists, including Terence Trent D'Arby, Axl Rose and Bono, personally told him they enjoyed the album.

Reception

Animal Rights was poorly received upon its first release, however, in later years, it garnered generally positive reviews. Moby had earlier made his reputation with electronic music, but Animal Rights found him embracing punk rock and ambient music.

While most praised his attempt at diversifying, Salon critic Douglas Wolk, for instance, opined that Animal Rights "finds Moby falling on his nose" and concluded that "maybe somebody should try to convince Moby that guitars are actually made out of dead animals", while Rolling Stone's Lorraine Ali felt that "this time around, he has decided to push an agenda instead of boundaries". Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote that Animal Rights "ranks as one of the classic failed albums, right alongside Sinéad O'Connor's big-band Am I Not Your Girl." Seeming to expect its critical reception, Moby added the following entreaty to the bottom of the credits page: "please listen to animal rights in its entirety at least once."

On the other hand, Drowned in Sound critic Mark Reed, in a 2002 retrospective review, suggested that Animal Rights had been unfairly lambasted by contemporary critics for being unrepresentative of Moby's capabilities and for "daring to go against the grain", describing it as "one of the most underbought, underrated, unusual albums a major recording artist has ever produced." In a 2016 installment of Noisey's Rate Your Records feature, Moby named Animal Rights as his personal favorite of his studio albums.

Track listing

All tracks written by Moby, except where noted.

Bonus disc: Little Idiot

Fans in the UK who were early enough to the record shops were treated to a 49-minute bonus CD called Little Idiot. Consisting entirely of drum-free ambient tracks, it was the second in a line of ambient bonus CDs (following from Underwater, which came with Everything Is Wrong). Little Idiot included reworkings of tracks from Animal Rights – it also features a drawing of Moby's character "Little Idiot", who would later appear on various music videos and single and album covers.

Personnel