while play was a stunningly diverse and successful melange of electronica sub-genres, 18 merely attempts to put a patent on the more familiar aspects of moby's work. every track on the album feels tired and unfurnished, as if influenced only by mere contractual obligations to release another cd. whether it's the trite r & b and gospel samples on "another woman" and "one of these mornings" or the failed minimalist compositions of songs like "great escape" and "fireworks," i couldn't help feeling infuriated at the entire project. all the songs feel so importunately sluggish and commercial, as though the artist knew corporate sponsors were gawking at the opportunity to make their commercials 'hipper.' it's even more of a disappointment because moby is the most prominent electronica polymath but one would never know that by listening to 18 since every song sounds familiarly like the previous one.

there are those who believe that moby's work overall is merely an insipid leftover of electronica. not only is this uninformative, but also tends to come from those who fail to see the great diversity in moby's works until recently. unfortunately 18 only affirms the skeptics' intuitions. the flatness in sound is, at the very least, jarring and fails to match the lush, ethereal, honest, and diverse sound scape found on his previous work.