Animal Rights (album)

Background

Moby's decision to make a punk rock–influenced album partly stemmed from his disillusionment with the music media's failure to take his electronic works seriously. He had prior rock experience as a member of Vatican Commandos and Ultra Vivid Scene in the 1980s. The album was recorded between summer 1995 and spring 1996 in Manhattan, New York, with Alan Moulder. As Moby changed direction, electronic music began gaining recognition through artists like The Chemical Brothers and The Prodigy.

Release

The first single, a cover of Mission of Burma's 1981 song "That's When I Reach for My Revolver", was released on August 26, 1996, and peaked at number 50 on the UK Singles Chart. Animal Rights was released in the United Kingdom on September 23, 1996, charting at number 38 on the UK Albums Chart. Initial UK copies included a 49-minute bonus CD called Little Idiot, consisting of drum-free ambient tracks and featuring reworkings of album tracks.

A second single, "Come On Baby", was released on November 4, 1996, but failed to chart. The album was released in the United States on February 11, 1997, with a different tracklisting; it did not chart on the Billboard 200 but reached number 31 on the Heatseekers Albums chart. Moby toured as the opening act for Soundgarden on their Down on the Upside tour, where audiences were largely unreceptive, and also undertook a separate promotional tour playing to roughly 50 people a night.

Critical reception

Animal Rights received generally negative reviews upon release. While most critics praised his attempt at diversifying, Salon's Douglas Wolk wrote that the album "finds Moby falling on his nose", and Rolling Stone's Lorraine Ali felt he had "decided to push an agenda instead of boundaries". However, James Oldham of NME called it "a brave, turbulent and consistently exhilarating record", and Robert Christgau of The Village Voice said the two discs "enrich and play off each other with the flow and coherence Everything Is Wrong lacks". Moby added an entreaty to the credits page asking listeners to hear the album in its entirety at least once.

Legacy

According to Moby's manager Eric Härle, Animal Rights nearly ended Moby's career, leaving audiences cold, music media uninterested, and his existing fan base alienated, causing confusion about his artistic identity. Moby admitted to Rolling Stone that the album's failure and negative reception from Soundgarden's fanbase led him to consider quitting music, but he continued after Terence Trent D'Arby, Axl Rose, and Bono personally told him they enjoyed it.

By 2002, it had sold 100,000 copies worldwide. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic ranked it as "one of the classic failed albums", while Drowned in Sound's Mark Reed, in a 2002 retrospective, called it "one of the most underbought, underrated, unusual albums a major recording artist has ever produced". Moby has since named Animal Rights as his favorite of his albums.

Did You Know?

• The cover photograph shows Moby at two weeks old, held by his grandfather.
• The album's liner notes include an essay on the course of basic rights over history and one outlining Moby's disregard for the Christian Coalition.
• The bonus CD Little Idiot features a drawing of Moby's character 'Little Idiot', who later appeared on various music videos and single and album covers.