Released March 14, 2005 Producer Moby Release date 14 March 2005 | Recorded 2004 Artist Moby Label Virgin Records | |
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Length 57:08 (disc one)
67:53 (disc two) Hotel
(2005) Go - The Very Best of Moby
(2007) Genres Ambient music, Electronica, Downtempo, Alternative rock, Trip hop Nominations Echo Award for Best International Rock/Pop Male Artist, NRJ Music Award for International Album of the Year Similar Moby albums, Electronica albums | ||
Moby it s raining again
Hotel is the seventh studio album by American electronica musician Moby, first released internationally on March 14, 2005 and then on March 22, 2005 in the United States. Hotel was recorded under the Pacha label and mixed at Moby's apartment, Electric Lady Studios, and Loho Studios in Manhattan, New York City. Initial quantities of the album came with a second CD of ambient music entitled Hotel: Ambient.
Contents
The album was a departure from Moby's previous two electronica and dance driven albums (Play and 18), incorporating a more alternative rock-based approach, and is the first Moby album since 1993's Ambient to not contain any vocal samples. The album received a mixed critical reception. Despite this, it reached number 8 in the UK and debuted straight at number 1 in some European countries and went on to earn gold and platinum awards in over twenty countries, with global sales of over 2 million copies.
On December 16, 2014, Hotel: Ambient was reissued as a standalone release with additional tracks.
Moby hotel intro
Background
The album name Hotel was explained in one of Moby's journal entries. The artist was fascinated by the nature of hotels, where humans spend often significant portions of their lives, but have all traces of their tenancy removed for the next guests.
Moby is responsible for playing the instruments on all the tracks, except for drums. Laura Dawn provides additional vocals. The first UK single was "Lift Me Up", released on February 28, 2005. The second UK single, "Spiders", was released on May 23, 2005 to coincide with Moby's UK tour. The album includes a ballad cover of New Order's "Temptation". Worldwide, the album has sold over 2 million copies.
As with Moby's previous albums, Play and 18, there was a Hotel DVD featuring the videos for the singles, a live concert, and a sequel to Moby's home movie and tour diary series, Give an Idiot a Camcorder.
Moby's opinion in retrospect
In recent years, Moby has stated in several interviews that Hotel is his least favourite of all of the albums he has made. In his interview on Q, Moby said that although the production was "very slick and very professional", he was dissatisfied with the final product once it was done.
"I like some of the songs, but I produce it in such a generic way, that I was really kinda disappointed with myself as a producer and as a musician."
In his Q&A with The Arts Deck, he felt that while he was making the album, he was more focused on the fame aspect after the unexpected success with Play and wanted to produce an album that had the potential to be commercially successful.
"It's the only time in my life I've ever done that. I recorded it in a big studio with a really successful engineer [Brian Sperber] and ended up with a very slick, polished anodyne record that I just don't like very much. Some of the songs are nice but I'm disappointed I made such a conventional generic record."
Songs
1Hotel Intro1:55
2Raining Again3:46
3Beautiful3:12