• Record Label: Mute
  • Release Date: May 17, 2011
Metascore
61

Generally favorable reviews - based on 23 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 23
  2. Negative: 2 out of 23
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  1. Uncut
    May 23, 2011
    80
    Destroyed is up there with his career peaks. [Jun 2011, p.91]
  2. Mojo
    May 18, 2011
    80
    Darkly neurotic, it captures the on-the-road loneliness and sense of dislocation perfectly. [Jun 2011, p.97]
  3. May 16, 2011
    75
    Ditch the first 20 minutes and open the album with the stunning, nearly seven-minute "The Violent Bear It Away," which is tucked away toward Destroyed's end, and here's a career-defining work.
  4. May 16, 2011
    73
    The album would truly shine overall if it didn't contain too many songs that are less songs and more experiments in sound. That's not to say this is a major problem, but instrumental, orchestral arrangements seem strange when they come 12 songs through a 15-track LP.
  5. Under The Radar
    Jun 8, 2011
    70
    As with the majority of his work, the most notable tracks are all instrumental. [May 2011, p.89]
  6. May 17, 2011
    70
    The guy's not a bad water-treader. Destroyed follows the understated elegance of 2009's Wait for Me even deeper into Ambient land; written on tour during sleepless nights in hotel rooms around the world.
  7. May 16, 2011
    70
    All in all, Destroyed feels like both a return to the darkness from which Moby emerged in the first place, and perhaps his most year zero offering to date.
  8. Q Magazine
    Jun 20, 2011
    60
    He'll never repeat Play's monumental success, of course, but he's building a might back catalogue. [July 2011, p. 116]
  9. May 18, 2011
    60
    It's a jumbled mess that's partly aggravating in its derivative nature. Not coincidentally, you live up to the album's title by its end. Still, like any long, tiring trip, it's the moments that count. Moby continues to excel in that.
  10. May 17, 2011
    60
    Latecomers, as well as longtime fans whose favorite Moby material remains the Mimi Goese collaborations on Everything Is Wrong, should have no problem soaking it up.
  11. May 16, 2011
    60
    Pitched somewhere between his two most famous albums, Play and 18, it's hardly groundbreaking but is enjoyable none the less.
  12. May 16, 2011
    60
    Bearing in mind that music about touring is of more interest to the artist than to listeners, it's still easy to appreciate swathes of Destroyed.
  13. 60
    It's a soothing, chillsome experience, though some tracks do strangle themselves in repetitive accretions.
  14. May 17, 2011
    58
    Destroyed is slower than 2008's bright, clubby throwback Last Night and livelier than 2009's oft-despondent Wait For Me, but it's more like the latter, if only because none of the hooks stick.
  15. Jun 6, 2011
    50
    The majority of the album is the future of all dinnerparties, the dinnerparty that never ends, a spooling aeon of trite politeness, as your dry android host projects his Facebook photos into your retina for eternity.
  16. Jun 2, 2011
    50
    Despite a fairly catastrophic mid-album dip in quality, there are enough of the big soaring numbers, and a smattering of new ideas to see him through. So it's just like most other Moby albums really.
  17. Entertainment Weekly
    May 24, 2011
    50
    Groovy but tepid. [20 May 2011, p.72]
  18. May 19, 2011
    50
    A grandiose, instrumental finale, they're a reminder of the divinity that Moby was once capable of.
  19. May 17, 2011
    50
    All the songs are encased behind such stylish glass that it's hard to feel much of anything while listening to Destroyed, much less identification with the plight of the nomadic musician.
  20. May 16, 2011
    50
    Destroyed is an album created in the middle of the night for the middle of the night. Disappointment awaits those seeking anything more.
  21. May 16, 2011
    40
    Mostly, though, Destroyed is about as appetizing as a warmed-over deli tray.
  22. May 16, 2011
    38
    There is no scrape, no tension, no noisy bullshit, and Destroyed is eminently un-replayable as a result.
  23. May 16, 2011
    30
    The motion is uniform, the form is monotonous, the experience disquieting but benign. Destroyed is more distracted than coolly distanced, a satellite unmoored by Ground Control.
User Score
7.3

Generally favorable reviews- based on 16 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 16
  2. Negative: 0 out of 16
  1. May 12, 2012
    7
    Okay, I stumbed upon this album 2 years after its release, as I often to do with music which I don't think I'll like, have never heard, andOkay, I stumbed upon this album 2 years after its release, as I often to do with music which I don't think I'll like, have never heard, and anyway have something better to listen to. Then at the record store, Reckless Records in Chicago, there it was staring at me and saying "This is a good album, and you haven't enjoyed Play that much, even as much as Hotel. So I have in, paid the 8.99 (used price!), and I'm glad I did. This album can be played when I want some beautiful sounds, the kind which I don't already have. So good on Moby to forge ahead and to make this fine album and I give it a "7." Full Review »
  2. Jun 2, 2011
    9
    This is a good album. It need proper listening to... end to end which I think is the intention. Really timeless. You an get lost in it.This is a good album. It need proper listening to... end to end which I think is the intention. Really timeless. You an get lost in it. Grown, intelligent up stuff. Right up there with his best. Lacrimae is my favourite at the moment. Full Review »