Moby - I Like to Score (1997)

 1) Novio; 2) James Bond Theme (Moby’s Re-Version); 3) Go (1997 Mix); 4) Ah-Ah (1997 Mix); 5) I Like to Score; 6) Oil 1; 7) New Dawn Fades; 8) God Moving Over the Face of the Waters (Alternative Mix); 9) First Cool Hive (Alternative Mix); 10) Nash; 11) Love Theme; 12) Grace

An uneven collection of soundtrack discards, where the best songs are ones that had already been released on earlier albums.

  
Key tracks: "James Bond Theme (Moby's Re-Version)", "New Dawn Fades", "First Cool Hive (Alt. Mix)"

Despite his oft-cinematic soundscapes, so far Moby hasn’t found himself scoring films yet. He was, however, a frequent sight on various soundtrack releases at one point. Even just by the late 90s and before Play his “appears on” credits had become a long, expansive list. An odds and sods compilation like I Like to Score is thus, in theory, the kind of quick cash grab that actually has a decent purpose for fans, pulling together songs scattered across a multitude of releases for easy sourcing.

I Like to Score is understandably a big old mixed bag. Most of these songs were taken from “music inspired by” types of soundtrack CDs and are thus more like ordinary one-off tracks rather than anything particularly score-like - and understandably the styles and sounds vary greatly, given the period on display mostly consists of his dance years but the studio album right prior was the distorted angst oddity Animal Rights. A good chunk is familiar from Moby’s past albums, presented here with minor mixing and editing tweaks: even “Go” is here though it was never part of any soundtrack, but its Twin Peaks sample and the chance to reissue one of Moby’s early hit singles must have been enough for the label to include it. And what do you know, they’re also the album’s best songs: “Go”, “First Cool Hive” and “God Moving Over the Face of the Waters” all rank among Moby’s best songs of the 90s and the remixing is barely noticable so none of their original charm has been lost. Even “Ah-Ah”, which was just another song on Moby’s debut, still jumps out here.

Given the nature of the compilation the incohesiveness is perfectly understandable, but coupled with the wildly varying quality it really doesn’t make the album more than a curio at best. Pairing random key early tracks with novelties like “I Like to Score” and “New Dawn Fades” (the former a short take on porn funk, the latter a full-on Animal Rights-’d up take on Joy Division) is only going to make the latter pale in comparison, and the wild mood and style swings make it a difficult album to actually ever want to listen to. Moby’s take on the iconic James Bond theme sums up 90s action move soundtracks perfectly and isn’t half bad, but hilariously feels completely like a fish out of water simply because of how obviously it stands out among all the soundtrack compilation filler around it. And, well, filler it largely is. Decent filler with occasional flashes of goodness (“Love Theme” in particular), but clearly nothing that Moby felt he would waste by placing it on some random soundtrack somewhere.

The back cover pre-assumptively states “Music from films Vol. 1” - a sequel hasn’t happened, despite Moby scoring a legitimate movie hit by licensing “Extreme Ways” for the Bourne trilogy some years after this compilation. Really, I Like to Score is less about its film connection and acts more like an outtakes collection to mop up some loose ends before Moby would switch gears in his musical career with the release of Play. Even for a fan, this is far from being as interesting as you’d initially think and it’s completely clear that most of this album’s merits fall to the songs that the film directors heard on Moby’s albums and found them so strong they felt they had to license them for their movies. Those songs also work better on their original albums than here. But if it’s completionism that you’re after, this fits the bill just fine.

Rating: 5/10