With all due respect to other reviewers, this collection of Moby songs is, in fact, a perfect accompaniment to the Play album. Elektra is not responsible for the quality of Moby's work during his 5 years with the label, and yet they've done a remarkable job of pulling together an album with the same appeal as Play. Is it crass marketing? Of course, but Moby will get plenty of royalties and mass exposure from this hot seller, so everybody wins. If the album favors Moby's excellent ambient work over his uneven techno tracks, that's all for the better as well.

The album is beautifully sequenced: it starts off with the laid-back First Cool Hive, leaps into the propulsive Go, relaxes back into the folksy female vocals of Into The Blue, and then drifts into the ambient Now I Let It Go. Move (You Make Me Feel So Good) provides a quick wake-up call, followed by the funky grooves of I Like To Score, the thumping Anthem, and the graceful piano of Hymn. Feeling So Real energetically kicks off the second half of the album before giving way to the grandeur of God Moving Over The Face Of The Waters. This is followed by the long, eloquent ambience of Alone, and the short, bittersweet strains of Novio (precursor to the well- known Porcelain). The ambient trend continues with the delicate The Rain Falls And The Sky Shudders, but is briefly interrupted by the haunting female vocals of When It's Cold I'd Like To Die. The final two tracks, Living and Grace, provide a long, dreamy chill-out.

If you like the Play album, and are looking for other Moby Songs to try out, then this aptly-named collection is for you. Very highly recommended.

"Songs" basically summarizes the New York DJ's efforts from 1993 to 1998, allowing listeners who are new to his music, or who might have first heard of his work through his 1999 VERY GOOD album album "Play", a chance to get exposed to his earlier work.

I would like to cover each of the songs real briefly, so it can be made evident how eclectic an artist Moby is:
1) First Cool Hive: You have heard it. Sounds a lot like some of the "Play" songs.
2) Go: first written by Moby in conjunction with David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti (long time scorer for Lynch's movies), has certain elements from Twin Peaks 'Laura Palmer's Theme.
3) Into The Blue: sweet Mimi Goese's voice accompanies Moby's music. Song #14 has Mimi Goese as well, and both rank among the best of the album.
4) Now I Let it Go: like a celtic melody, very quiet an soothing. I let it go as well...
5) Move (You Make Me Feel So Good): very dance-oriented tune. Most likely you've heard it on some disco floor.
6) I Like To Score: a very funky down-tempo guitar-driven tune, very contagious, very hard not to tap on the floor to it if your listening to it while sitting.
7) Anthem: a trance tune with some Gregorian chants/Opera voiced over.
8) Hymn: very sweet, piano-drive tune, very "Play"-like as well.
9) Feeling So Real: a very 'pop' techno tune. Not one of my favorites from the album, in all honesty.
10) God Moving Over The Face Of The Waters: one of Moby's most beautiful compositions. You've heard it, I'm sure. If you haven't you need to.
11) Alone: just feels like walking on your own through the middle of the desert... at night... a 10+ minute epic.
12) Novio: (boyfriend, in Spanish) another beautiful Moby tune, revisiting the Gregorian chants theme.
13) The Rain Falls & The Sky Shudders: one of those songs to sit down an listen to on a rainy afternoon. Actually has the sound of the rain in the background.
14) When It's Cold I'd Like To Die: Mimi Goese interpreting yet another beautiful tune with Moby's music.
15) Living: very optimistic tune with a guitar leading it into
16) Grace: Moby's closing statement for this compilation album says it all. Incredible song. Not hard to find some Brian Eno-like influences in it.

Whether your musical preferences are along the lines of dance music, new age, Gregorian chants, or just about anything, this album deserves room in your collection. It carries incredibly beautiful as well as vey contagious songs, that will make you respect Moby (as I now do), and most likely expand your collection to contain all his albums.

Once upon a time, Moby was underground. He was a DJ and a producer of techno tracks. He wasn't a rock star, he didn't appear in ads for Calvin Klein, and no one knew who Jewel was. While "Play" was an undeniably slick pop record, it all but ignores any historical context of where Moby has come from. "Songs" does little to call attention that either, with its seemingly random smattering of tracks from various Elektra releases, and unacquainted listeners may find the occasional techno track to not only be distracting, but will wonder why they are there in the first place.

"Go," "Feeling So Real," "Move" and "Anthem" all pop up over the course of this disc, but they feel more like a historical obligation rather than relevant in context. Since the disc on the whole disregards the majority of Moby's career contextually, there's not really any reason to include these tracks either, other than for their commercial and club success. ("Go" is in itself an artifact, dating much earlier than the rest of these tracks, despite its more recent appearance on "I Like to Score".)

On the upside, "Songs" is actually a quite good selection of tracks. The release includes some of his most elegant and "composed" tracks from his career, a move which may seem somewhat self-indulgent, but is ultimately rewarding. It is curious that there is the absence of the orchestral rendition of "God Moving Over the Faces of the Waters" (as it appeared on the Heat soundtrack, released by WEA as well). Another positive aspect of the compilation is its complete lack of any of the awful rock influence of "Animal Rights." Safely, the label has included only the select ambient pieces from that album.

All in all it's a decent collection of tracks but somewhat misleading in regards to the majority of Moby's techno-laden career. It appears that he is trying almost too hard to deny his history and where he's come from, and while "Songs" is good on its own merits, it's a shame he's running so hard.

I like this compilation. Don't get me wrong however it is more than apparent that Elektra Records (Moby's old label) was trying to cash in on the success of "Play". Moby didn't jump ship to V2, he got dropped by Elektra because his music was viewed as not being commercially viable. Egg on their faces. A lot of the songs on this album is found off Moby's classic "Everything is Wrong" cd which made him a name in the world of techno music. I particularly love the haunting melodies of "God Moving Over the Face of the Waters" and "When It's Cold I'd Like to Die". People who are only aware of "Play" might be surprised to hear that Moby's earlier music is different than they might have expected. what vocals there are are more delicate and fragile, in the Sarah Brightman sort of fashion. There is a more ambient texture to the music than the gospel and pop sounds on "Play". Now while this is a good compilation, I would strongly recommend going with "Everything is Wrong" over this cd while this comp is just another way for Elektra to earn an extra buck.

Greatest hits packages can either be insightful or inane, and this falls so far towards the latter it isn't funny. New fans of Moby looking for anything in the vein of Play will probably be disappointed, fans of the old school beats will already have the discs and anyone hooked on his ambient work will also be out of luck. The lack of new, undiscovered material makes this a waste of time for anyone interested in learning more about Moby.

Did you love Play? Hunt down the singles for the range of B-sides ("Whispering Wind," "Memory Gospel," "Sunday" and "Sunspot" can be found on domestic and import releases) along with the multitude of remixes on the Play singles. None of this material is represented on this disc.

Does his ambient work strike you? The hit-or-miss Ambient (again, not represented here) might be a more worthwhile purchase. If you really want something challenging and dreamy, search for the Alt.hymn.quiet.version EP, a thirty-plus minute beatless, airy (and sometime ominous) reworking of the song.

Want Moby with guitars? Shell out the money for Animal Rights, don't settle for the few tracks this album will offer you. Do you really want to pay that much for "That's when I reach for my revolver?"

Want Moby old-school beats? Go the source material of albums and EP's, you'll be so much happier.

All in all, this is the sort of disc that will be given to as a present by people who mean well, but don't know anything about the album per se. Spend the cash you'd waste on this to get a few EP's or an album you don't have from his collection. There are plenty of import releases with bonus CD's that are more insightful and exciting than this.