albums and tracks

There are few artists as wilful and free-thinking as Moby. He's delivered everything from blistering techno to raw punk across his two decades of music and while it may not have all been totally successful, it's always been on his own terms.

As if to prove that point, his latest collection Wait For Me takes things back to the basics of making music.

Produced in his bedroom studio, it features friends on guest vocals and is released on Moby's own label. It is, quite simply, as close as you can get to a cottage industry album from a global megastar.

Thankfully, the means of production are not the only thing homespun, as the tunes that fill the album are as handcrafted and tender as anything he's done since becoming the lord of ambient with the release of his all-conquering Play back in 1999.

Inspired by a David Lynch speech about creativity, Wait For Me is made up of the soothing, orchestral gentility that's become Moby's stock in trade.

Moby says he made the album to be listened to as a complete work and it is indeed at its best when these instructions are heeded.

While there are delicious moments - the cracked beauty of 'Walk With Me', the broken push of 'Mistake', the womb-warm finale of 'Isolate' and the tender beauty of the title track all stand out - it is when the 16 tracks are interwoven, swaddling and surrounding you in a single sitting that the magic truly happens.

It's a beguiling and thoroughly enjoyable effect that shows why Moby is such a phenomenon. Always his own man and forever thoughtful, in Wait For Me, he has again proved himself the master of moving, melancholic and mercurial music.

Chris Long