Hotel

1	Hotel Intro 1:55
2	Raining Again 3:46
3	Beautiful 3:11
4	Lift Me Up 3:19
5	Where You End 3:22
6	Temptation 4:55
7	Spiders 3:45
8	Dream About Me 3:21
9	Very 3:42
10	I Like It 3:46
11	Love Should 3:51
12	Slipping Away 3:39
13	Forever 3:39
14	Homeward Angel 5:50
15	[Untitled Track] 7:52

Barnes & Noble

While it might be stretching things to call Hotel a "back to basics" album, it's certainly the most organic sonic mass in Moby's universe. For starters, the techno titan largely dispenses with the carefully structured vocal samples that usually top off his compositions, taking the mic himself on some songs and calling upon chanteuse Laura Dawn for a handful of others. Her alternately breathy and beckoning delivery adds a particularly sensual tone to the postcoital bask "I Like It" as well as a slowed-down, radically revamped cover of New Order's "Temptation." Moby proves to be no slouch in the vocal department, either, channeling ghosts of glam-rock past on "Spiders," the disc's most guitar-intensive track. Thanks to both the songwriting and the sequencing, Hotel has a nice, natural ebb and flow, with high-energy rave-ups like "Lift Me Up" -- probably the disc's most obvious homage to Moby's early days on the club scene -- building up loads of tension, while more introspective cuts like "Homeward Angel" allow for a laconic release. Those who are hooked on the sort of ambient soundscapes that usually punctuate Moby's releases will find plenty to luxuriate in on Hotel's bonus disc, an 11-song collection of instrumental pieces that occasionally jostle the synapses (the opening "Swear"), but mostly bring the non-noise in a most bucolic way. David Sprague

All Music Guide

Hotel rarely shows, in any shape or form, traceable inspiration from the new wave and post-punk era Moby advertised as being in full effect. The first half contains simple modern rock songs that tend to be anthemic and soul-searching in nature. Lead single "Beautiful" is one exception, a tongue-in-cheek thing Moby has imagined being sung by vacant celebrity couples. No matter how affable, vegan, liberal, bespectacled, or vertically challenged he is, the real irony is that a millionaire and former love interest of Natalie Portman has made a song of this kind (see also: Aerosmith's "Eat the Rich"). A very gentle version of New Order's "Temptation" turns out to be the album's deepest connection to post-punk; it's telling that Moby opted to leave the vocals to Laura Dawn, since he's less a singer than Bernard Sumner. This begins the non-rock portion of the program, which fans of Play and 18 might find easier to enjoy. A bonus disc containing an hour's worth of ambient techno is good enough for separate release. Andy Kellman

Rolling Stone

Hotel may be his most personal and streamlined album yet. Christian Hoard