Hey, I’m over here, still alive too.

Let’s talk about some music. Specifically two albums from the same artist, released in the same year, but under different names.

The year is 1996. INDEPENDENCE DAY ruled the movie theatres, Fettes Brot released with JEIN maybe the ultimate German Hip Hop anthem, Nintendo entered the next console generation with the N64 and Moby nearly ended his career with a punk rock album.

When his third album EVERYTHING IS WRONG came out, he already was a bit of a household name, thanks to tracks like GO or NEXT IT THE E. But this album was his big commercial breakthrough. Especially here in Germany, where he was signed to the popular Low Spirit label, that was instrumental in bringing Techno to the mainstream (for better or worse, but that’s a different topic). Suddenly Moby was a bit of a popstar, gave interviews even outside of VIVA and Raveline and played liveshows, that were part him jumping around to playbacks of his hits, part bits and pieces played with instruments and singers. Sounds silly, was a little bit silly, but in retrospect it must be said that it laid the groundwork for club acts like The Prodigy, Daft Punk or the Chemical Brothers getting accepted as actual festival headliners. And thankfully later on Moby and the rest stepped up their live show game.

But I digress.

My point is: EVERYTHING IS WRONG might not have been the most influential dance music album of the 90s, but it was and still is a banger, that established Moby’s place in the music industry and was one of those albums that made critics realize that rave music might be more than just simple „boom boom“ and „stolen“ melodies with chipmunk voices.

The problem: Although EVERYTHING IS WRONG was already quite varied in its musical offerings, Moby was still seen as a Techno act. Today we don’t care if he does something else. We know that this is just how he rolls. But at this time it was not just risky for him to try something completely different, it was generally frowned upon when musicians strayed too far away from their genre. (In a way it still is, but I feel like audiences are generally now sophisticated enough to not downright reject any musical detour.)

So releasing a punk rock album at this point in his career, was probably not the smartest move.

As far as I know, ANIMAL RIGHTS is to this day still his worst selling album. Not sure if it’s still his least popular though. There has been a bit of a critical re-evaluation of it in recent years, probably also triggered by the now established fact that Moby does whatever the fuck Moby wants. But on release? Oh boy, did ANIMAL RIGHTS got mollywhopped by fans and critics!

In a way it’s understandable. This is really not an album for everybody. It’s loud, it’s minimalistic yet noisy, it’s sad, it’s angry, did I mention how loud and noisy it is? And not even in the way his Techno output could be loud and noisy. His fans would’ve probably accepted a Gabber album more than what they got with this. Even I, who already appreciated Moby’s willingness to be different, bought the album when it came out, listened to it once or twice, then not again for a long time.

Who the hell was this for? His fans at that time were ravers! They wouldn’t suddenly convert into headbangers! Maybe for the critics? But let’s be honest, both Techno and Punk Rock aren’t exactly the most critically acclaimed genres. If he did it for himself, he should’ve known that this was a risky release. Looking back at it it’s really no surprise that ANIMAL RIGHTS bombed the way it did.

But it’s also not a surprise that the record had a bit of a resurgence later on. According to Moby, people like Bono or Axl Rose were among its early fans and since then its reputation has only grown. Let’s be honest, the only real crime of ANIMAL RIGHTS was that it was different. Because it’s not bad. Not at all!

It is still not one of my all-time favourite Moby albums, but even I learned to like it. Although I have to be in a certain mood to listen to it from the beginning to the end. Still, I would put it above his equally (and lyricswise even more) loud and angry, although more polished THESE SYSTEMS ARE FAILING and MORE FAST SONGS ABOUT THE APOCALYPSE. There is some great stuff on it, like the 10 minutes long FACE IT or the Mission Of Burma cover THAT’S WHEN I REACH FOR MY REVOLVER. The pretty chill instrumental LIVING would fit right on one of his post-PLAY releases, both in terms of sound and quality. Yes, ANIMAL RIGHTS is good. Maybe not a misunderstood masterpiece, but definitely misunderstood.

What makes this album a real headscratcher though, is that in the same year Moby released another album, that totally sounds like him, but wasn’t wearing his name. THE END OF EVERYTHING was released under the monicker Voodoo Child. The first Voodoo Child release came out in 1990, therefore even predates any of Moby’s Moby hits. It was quite usual back then for one artist to relase a whole bunch of stuff under different names (Just ask Josh Wink), so that’s not exactly an eyebrow raiser. According to Discogs, he used this name for „Hard House and Techno releases“, but the stuff I know from this alias doesn’t fit the description. Especially THE END OF EVERYTHING is more a Chill Out and Ambient album.

You don’t have to know who is behind Voodoo Child to think within the first minute „Hey, this sounds like Moby!“ Specifically if you are one of those people, who always buy the limited editions of his albums, that have an Ambient bonus CD. Which, btw, ANIMAL RIGHTS also had. And I can imagine the superfans, who went straight to the 2 disc limited edition of that one, were happier with the Ambient disc called LITTLE IDIOT.

They surely would’ve loved THE END OF EVERYTHING, but I guess without Moby’s name attached to it and the possibility to read online who was behind it, the first Voodoo Child longplayer failed to get much attention. And unlike ANIMAL RIGHTS, I doubt that it will get much of a critical re-evaluation. No no, I’m not saying that it’s bad. It’s a really good album to unwind. But even by 1996 Moby standards it’s not too innovative. Indeed a bit B-side/bonus disc material. Even more so in 2025. But, as I have to point out again, good! Let’s be honest though, there isn’t one standout track on it. In my opinion, the only other Voodoo Child album, 2004s BABY MONKEY, the more memorable one.

So 29 years ago, the status of Moby was…odd. ANIMAL RIGHTS was hated, hated, hated, hated! THE END OF EVERYTHING came and went and most people didn’t even know who Voodoo Child was. By his own admission this was a pretty hard time for him. He went almost over night from „acclaimed and successful dance music artist“ to „hasbeen who doesn’t know what he wants“. Obviously he came back bigger than ever three years later with the popcultural phenomenon that was PLAY, but one can’t help and wonder if things had played out differently, if his follow-up to EVERYTHING IS WRONG would’ve been THE END OF EVERYTHING, while ANIMAL RIGHTS would’ve been the anonymous side project.

I like, but don’t love, both. If you made me pick only one of those two, I would clearly pick THE END OF EVERYTHING, but I have to give ANIMAL RIGHTS points for aging well and being a brave, although not really smart, career choice.