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- By date
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It's certainly not the most bracing thing he's ever done, but it's hardly disposable pop dreck.
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Filter14 tracks that go from anthemic to soothing and sleepy, while never once crossing any kind of line--or even looking at one. [#15, p.94]
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Entertainment WeeklyReveal[s] just how ordinary his synth-pop has grown. [25 Mar 2005, p.71]
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Los Angeles TimesThe irony is that even though the sound itself is more "natural" than on most of Moby's previous work, the essence feels less organic and more calculated. [20 Mar 2005]
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The slower stuff vagues out, and the bonus disc of ambient instrumentals ought to come with a controlled substance, but elegant relationship songs such as the torchy "Forever" suggest this talented softy has found a sensible way to come down from a multiplatinum high.
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BlenderSinging on nearly every song, the techno star gets more up-close-and-personal here--a ballsy move for someone the Lord didn't heap with vocal gifts, but one that pays off. [Apr 2005, p.124]
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Impeccably made, hedonistic, lovelorn, catchy, compelling. But spiritual, messianic, visionary? Not by a long shot.
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MojoA slightly muted, at times infuriatingly uneven, but ultimately rewarding collection. [Apr 2005, p.89]
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Q MagazineWhen it works... he is as heroically spirit-raising and stomach-tighteningly emotional as he was on Play.... Yet, when Moby plods, it's as if the world is burning with boredom. [Apr 2005, p.121]
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Hotel is more focused than 18, but suffers a bit for it's dogged humility and raw emotionalism.
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A few moody moments work, but this CD should come with a warning sticker that reads vacant.
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Hotel is aptly titled: it's ultimately a clinical, generic experience.
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Uncut[A] fruitless bid to affect euphoria. [Apr 2005, p.97]
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Apart from the lovely ambient instrumentals that open and close it, the album is all valley and no peaks.
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A very dull record.
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UrbThe frustrating saving grace is a bonus disc of fluid, pain-killing Brian Eno pastiche. [Jun 2005, p.75]
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His music has lost a large degree of the vitality that it once held.
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Bland and instantly forgettable.
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An album that finds Moby half-remembering ideas for songs that are hard not to forget.
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The lyrics seem ripped from a teenager's journal, and his regular-guy vocals can't make them compelling.
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If Moby has accomplished anything with Hotel, it's that he may have become the rare musical artist equally despised by both of modern music criticism's warring camps.
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Alternative PressHotel is all vacancy. [Apr 2005, p.128]
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More than ever, the focus here is on Moby as a singer and songwriter, which is strange, because he is not very good at either job.
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Of all the glaring sonic crimes, it’s Moby’s nonexistent voice that most solidifies Hotel’s future infamy.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 33 out of 64
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Mixed: 11 out of 64
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Negative: 20 out of 64
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Mar 31, 2013
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Dec 29, 2015
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MikeMar 27, 2007The worst moby album to date.