I consider seeing Moby live at the Tasmanian Falls Festival in 2009, as one of the best moments in my life. Whereas I can not say I experienced the same reaction listening to his ninth studio album Destroyed. In saying this though, I have to acknowledge that a festival and a record have two very different aims. The Falls Festival is a celebration of a new year, and Destroyed is a sonic gallery of Moby's isolated experiences throughout his last world tour.

The arrangement of the tracks takes you through his touring experiences with a roller coaster of emotions that are associated with isolation: disconnectedness, longing for human contact, boredom and sometimes even just plain depression! You experience this level of disconnectedness as you're brought suddenly to the fade out of a track, which on average has been playing for 4.6 minutes.

On the other hand, listeners are also brought into the adrenal rush of being live on stage. This is experienced in more upbeat songs such as “Victoria Lucas” and “Sevastopol”. Although the tempo is faster than other tracks, you still feel that sadness which is a theme throughout Destroyed. Although Moby recommends that the album be listened to in whole, I wouldn't put this full length record on again for the enjoyment of listening to the entire record in a linear way. “The Broken Places”, “Be The One”, and “The Right Thing” are long and driven by repetitive beats from a synth. The robotic vocals in “After” become boring to listen to, and are dragged out over five minutes.

As you get deeper into the record more instruments are layered into the electronic tracks which drew my levels of interest back in. Songs like “The Violent Bear It Away' had extensive piano solos which were relaxing and easier to listen to compared to the robotic repetition in “After”. With female vocals, “Lie Down In Darkness” was also refreshing to listen to.

I wouldn't recommend Destroyed to anyone who was already having a bad day. If you are going to sit down and listen to the 15 tracks, have a coffee date planned with a good friend who can make you laugh afterwards.

Review Score: 6/10