Animal Rights (album)

Untitled

This article is about the album Animal Rights. For the rights movement, see Animal rights.

Animal Rights is an album by Moby, released on September 23, 1996 (see 1996 in music).

The album was poorly received upon its first release. Moby had earlier made his reputation with techno music, but Animal Rights found him embracing punk rock and ambient music.

While most praised his attempt at diversifying, Animal Rights is generally perceived as containing derivative rhythms and techno hooks poorly disguised as alternative rock riffs (salon.com writer Douglas Wolk, for instance, opines that the album "finds Moby falling on his nose so hard it's a wonder the cartilage hasn't been driven into his brain," and concludes that "maybe somebody should try to convince Moby that guitars are actually made out of dead animals," while Rolling Stone decides that "this time around, he has decided to push an agenda instead of boundaries"). Stephen Thomas Erlewine suggests that Animal Rights "ranks as one of the classic failed albums, right alongside Sinéad O'Connor 's big-band Am I Not Your Girl."

Seeming to expect its critical reception, Moby added the following entreaty to the bottom of the credits page: "please listen to animal rights in its entirety at least once."

The album's liner notes contain various pictures (the cover photographs features Moby at two weeks old, being held by his grandfather), an essay on the course of basic rights over history, an essay outlining Moby's disregard for the Christian Coalition, and a page with various "last minute maxims," such as "cruelty is unacceptable" and "you can't expect people to worry about the world when they can't feed themselves or their children."

On the Billboard Heatseekers chart, Animal Rights peaked at #31.

Track listing

All songs by Moby except "That's When I Reach for My Revolver," by Clint Conley of Mission of Burma.

UK: Mute / Stumm 150

Released September 23 1996

1. "Now I Let It Go" – 2:08
2. "Come on Baby" – 4:39
3. "Someone to Love" – 2:51
4. "Heavy Flow" – 1:54
5. "You" – 2:33
6. "My Love Will Never Die" – 4:32
7. "Soft" – 3:57
8. "Say It's All Mine" – 6:04
9. "That's When I Reach for My Revolver" – 3:55
10. "Face It" – 10:01
11. "Living" – 6:59
12. "Love Song for My Mom" – 3:40

US: Elektra / 62031

Released February 11 1997.

1. "Dead Sun" – 3:40
2. "Someone to Love" – 3:09
3. "Heavy Flow" – 1:55
4. "You" – 2:33
5. "Now I Let It Go" – 2:09
6. "Come on Baby" – 4:30
7. "Soft" – 3:54
8. "Anima" – 2:25
9. "Say It's All Mine" – 6:04
10. "That's When I Reach for My Revolver" – 3:55
11. "Alone" – 10:45
12. "Face It" – 10:00
13. "Old" – 3:06
14. "Living" – 6:58
15. "Love Song for My Mom" – 3:38
16. "A Season in Hell" – 3:57

Singles

The album's first single, "That's When I Reach for My Revolver," was subject to some controversy. The original version by Mission of Burma read in part, "Tonight the sky is empty/But that is nothing new/Its dead eyes look upon us/And they tell me we're nothing but slaves." Moby changed the lyrics, whether intentionally or not; his most noticeable change was in the third line above, replacing it with "Instead they look upon us." The result was that he replaced a statement of agnosticism with a baffling non sequitur, though the change went generally unnoticed.

Controversy erupted when both the BBC and MTV asked Moby to change the lyrics to the song's title line "That's When I Reach For My Revolver" - Moby rerecorded the song as "That's When I Realize It's Over" so it would air. Fans of the original were outraged; Moby defended himself, saying he didn't consider the change in lyrics to be very important. Oddly, one of the album's "last minute maxims" is "freedom of speech is absolute and inviolate."

The album featured a second single, "Come on Baby," which came out in early November 1996. Released on a myriad of formats, the double CD in a rubber sleeve is considered by many to be one of the better Moby rarities. Apart from the usual remixes, the single also featured a "Death Metal" version of the Devo classic "Whip It".

Bonus Disc

Fans in the UK who were early enough to the record shops were treated to a 49 minute bonus CD called Little Idiot (LCDStumm150). Comprised entirely of drum-free ambient tracks, it was the second in a line of ambient bonus CDs (following from Underwater, which came with Everything Is Wrong). Little Idiot included reworkings of tracks from Animal Rights.

1. "Degenerate" – 3:25
2. "Dead City" – 4:53
3. "Walnut" – 3:06
4. "Old" – 5:06
5. "A Season in Hell" – 4:01
6. "Love Song for My Mom" – 3:43
7. "The Blue Terror of Lawns" – 3:22
8. "Dead Sun" – 3:44
9. "Reject" – 18:28

Personnel

• Moby - Bass, Guitar, Percussion, Drums, Keyboards, Producer, Engineer, Art Direction, Design, Mixing, Photography
• Alan Moulder - Engineer, Mixing
• Hahn Rowe - Violin
• Alli - Art Direction