The Justice

In early March, Moby posted a brief update on his website regarding his upcoming album, which he referred to as a love letter to New York City dance music. The album's intention was to crunch eight hours of an average night's club music into a 65 minute album of sound. After a few moments of the opening track, "Ooh Yeah," off Moby's latest EP Last Night, it becomes clear that the Connecticut-born DJ has achieved his goal.

Moby's last release, 2005's Hotel, was a great departure (and for some fans, a disappointment), with its heavy use of constructed, layered sound. The album suggested that Moby was allowing his sound to slowly with the help of ambient melodies and decreased experimentalism. Well, It's been three years since the last release, and Moby is bored. What else can the man do but return to the dance floor once more?

Last Night takes a decisively nostalgic turn toward '90s club-inspired elements swirled together with the occasional old-school hip-hop rhythm. Thus, the album is starkly eclectic, including songs like "I Love To Move In Here," a chilled, samba-tinged track with occasional shades of old school record scratches and driving beats. Then there's "Hyenas," the heavily sensual mid-tempo track that's carried along by ethereal strings and a breathy half-French vocal track. It's the kind of song that wouldn't seem out of place on the soundtrack of a Quentin Tarantino film.

There are, of course, the ultimate hands-in-the-air moments, such as "Everyday It's 1989" and "Disco Lies," which are replete with searing power vocals and ceaseless string-and-bass beats. Scattered throughout the album's flashier moments are a few down-tempo duds that serve no purpose but to provide a premature comedown in the album's progression. The CD's slowest cuts, including "Live for Tomorrow" and "Mothers of the Night," are well-constructed pieces in their own right, but their existence leads to uneven voids between the album's energized moments. There's an unusually generous portion of moody downtime for an album meant to emulate a night's clubbing experience.

That's not to say that the album feels any less authentic. Instead, it supplies what the standard club experience always has: a few shining, memorable moments amidst the sea of sameness that usually pours from the speakers. Last Night is not meant to be thought of as a collection of unique tracks (only one or two of these songs could actually stand to be played on their own), but rather a collection of music that sounds neither dated nor dull. In this way, Last Night becomes a wonderful experience, incorporating the beats of yesterday into the sounds of tomorrow.

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