Hotel (album)

Hotel
Studio album by Moby
Released	March 14, 2005
Recorded	2004
Genre	Alternative rock electronica downtempo trip hop
Length	57:08 (disc one) 67:53 (disc two)
Label	V2 Mute
Producer	Moby
Moby chronology
18 B Sides + DVD (2003) Hotel (2005) Go - The Very Best of Moby (2007)
Alternate cover
Hotel: Ambient 2014 reissue cover
Singles from Hotel
"Lift Me Up" Released: February 28, 2005 "Raining Again" Released: May 23, 2005 "Spiders" Released: May 30, 2005 "Dream About Me" Released: August 8, 2005 "Beautiful" Released: September 12, 2005 "Slipping Away" Released: January 23, 2006

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	47/100[1]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Blender	[3]
Entertainment Weekly	B−[4]
The Guardian	[5]
Los Angeles Times	[6]
Mojo	[7]
Pitchfork Media	2.4/10[8]
Q	[9]
Rolling Stone	[10]
Uncut	[11]

Hotel is the seventh studio album by American electronica musician Moby, first released internationally on March 14, 2005 and then on March 22, 2005 in the United States. Hotel was recorded under the Pacha label and mixed at Moby's apartment, Electric Lady Studios, and Loho Studios in Manhattan, New York City. Initial quantities of the album came with a second CD of ambient music entitled Hotel: Ambient.

The album was a departure from Moby's previous two electronica- and dance-driven albums (Play and 18), incorporating a more alternative rock-based approach, and is the first Moby album since 1993's Ambient to not contain any vocal samples. The album received a mixed critical reception. Despite this, it reached number 8 in the UK^[12] and debuted straight at number 1 in some European countries^[13][14] and went on to earn gold and platinum awards in over twenty countries, with global sales of over 2 million copies.^[15]

On December 16, 2014, Hotel: Ambient was reissued as a standalone release with additional tracks.

Background

The album name Hotel was explained in one of Moby's journal entries. The artist was fascinated by the nature of hotels, where humans spend often significant portions of their lives, but have all traces of their tenancy removed for the next guests.^[16]

Moby is responsible for playing the instruments on all the tracks, except for drums. Laura Dawn provides additional vocals. The first UK single was "Lift Me Up", released on February 28, 2005. The second UK single, "Spiders", was released on May 23, 2005 to coincide with Moby's UK tour. The album includes a ballad cover of New Order's "Temptation". Worldwide, the album has sold over 2 million copies.

As with Moby's previous albums, Play and 18, there was a Hotel DVD featuring the videos for the singles, a live concert, and a sequel to Moby's home movie and tour diary series, Give an Idiot a Camcorder.

Moby's opinion in retrospect

In recent years, Moby has stated in several interviews that Hotel is his least favourite of all of the albums he has made. In his interview on Q, Moby said that although the production was "very slick and very professional", he was dissatisfied with the final product once it was done.^[17]

"I like some of the songs, but I produce it in such a generic way, that I was really kinda disappointed with myself as a producer and as a musician."

— Moby, (Q interview, 2009)

In his Q&A with The Arts Deck, he felt that while he was making the album, he was more focused on the fame aspect after the unexpected success with Play and wanted to produce an album that had the potential to be commercially successful.^[18]

"It's the only time in my life I've ever done that. I recorded it in a big studio with a really successful engineer [Brian Sperber] and ended up with a very slick, polished anodyne record that I just don't like very much. Some of the songs are nice but I'm disappointed I made such a conventional generic record."

— Moby, (The Arts Deck Q&A, 2011)

Track listing

Disc one: Hotel

Disc two: Hotel:Ambient (all versions excluding iTunes)

B-Sides 2005

References

External links

• Hotel at Metacritic