Animal Rights

Forever confounding expectations, just as techno was gaining momentum in the mid-90s, Moby turns to his alternative rock roots with an album strongly based in skrotchy-distorted electric guitars and breast-beating impassioned industrial strength screams. (In the ‘80s, he played in the hardcore punk group the Vatican Commandos.) 1996’s Animal Rights belongs alongside Nine Inch Nails and Foo Fighters, despite a few gentle ambient moments dropped  in the mix. “Dead Sun” begins like the Moby album you were expecting and “Anima” has the mildly surging orchestrated keyboards and tinkled piano notes that have since become a trademark. But track two, “Someone to Love,” harshes the mellow, and most of what follows is torrential. Mission of Burma’s now classic “That When I Reach for My Revolver” is played straight. “Come On Baby” sounds more like a postured threat than a come-on. “Soft” is anything but. “Say It’s All Mine” calls and responds from spoken pieces and a nervous breakdown of a chorus. Guitar solos, a traditional rhythm section, verse-chorus-verse-chorus. The conventionality is the surprise.