Everything Was Beautiful, and Nothing Hurt

Moby - Everything Was Beautiful, and Nothing Hurt
Critic Score
Based on 22 reviews
2018 Ratings: #611 / 890
User Score
Based on 118 ratings
2018 Rank: #642
Liked by 4 people
March 2, 2018 / Release Date
LP / Format
Mute / Label
Downtempo / Genre
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CRITIC REVIEWS

80
The Telegraph
Despite its relentlessly downbeat content ... Moby’s music is just too satisfying to be depressing.
80
Sputnikmusic
This is one of Moby’s most cohesive efforts, so if you don’t dig this side of his musical output or look for a wild diversity, you’d be a bit disappointed. Other than this, the record flows surprisingly nice, unveiling a lot of strong material.
80
musicOMH

With this widescreen delivery Moby has made an album at once more profound and more substantial than anything we have heard from him in a long time, and certainly more personally meaningful than Play.

80
PopMatters

Moby captures a mood that is utterly appropriate for early 2018, a mood for late winter, a mood for, say, the near-hopeless first half of The Handmaid's Tale. It is the despondent calm in advance of the determined storm. It is the best thing Moby has done in a long time.

80
AllMusic

Despite the overwhelming melancholy that drenches the album, it remains a gorgeous collection that is mostly indebted to trip-hop and his pre-millennial output, with a few nods to the quieter moments on 2013's Innocents.

75
Under the Radar

This is going to be the background music of every independently owned Vegan restaurant in the world before summer, but Everything Was Beautiful, And Nothing Hurt deserves better than that. Fifteen albums in, Moby still delivers the goods.

75
Northern Transmissions
As he really captures a lot of what made his early work turn heads on this record, it’s refreshing to hear him fusing genres like never before. Though some songs don’t shine nearly as brightly as others, the few that hit the mark remind you why Moby is still held in such high regard.
75
Spectrum Culture

Much like Kurt Vonnegut, from whose work he borrows the title of his fifteenth album, Everything Was Beautiful, and Nothing Hurt, Moby now looks for transcendence amid the chaos and pain inherent to the human condition, using melancholic subject matter to create one of his most mellifluous albums in years.

70
Rolling Stone

Lush and haunting, Everything applies the Moby ideal of soulful vocals and big beats to the not-all-that-farfetched idea of a post-apocalyptic landscape, its slow-burn compositions meticulously echoing the dread and despair that results from being human, with dub beats and Yeats lyrics serving as reminders of pre-Big One existence.

67
Consequence of Sound

Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt is a bitter pill to swallow, but Moby deserves respect for not shying away from the conflicting emotions that he’s been feeling inside ever since the events of November 2016. That he’s turning them into a rapturous piece of art like this instead of venting his spleen in the echo chamber of social media is worthy of praise and attention. Just do yourself the favor of taking this album in moderation.

60
FLOOD Magazine

It’s a bummer, man—albeit a great-sounding bummer.

60
The Independent
With his latest release, Moby is back in his trip-hop comfort zone and looking inwards, and for the most part it suits him.
57
Pitchfork

Rather than funnel more rage, Moby’s latest record, the cloyingly titled Everything Was Beautiful, and Nothing Hurt, collapses into the melancholy that’s left behind when the adrenaline runs out and the world remains terrible.

LouisFunk123
82

This really feels like one of Moby’s most consistent and cohesive albums from front to back. I really enjoy the sound play and more trip-hop approach on this album, and it really feels like Moby is doing what he does best here, in making emotionally vulnerable but striking electronica. Really great despite it running together a little.

JoaoSantos
50

Merry Christmas, everyone! 🎄🎄🎄

jordymusic
50

Despite a few successful ambient parts Everything Was Beautiful, and Nothing Hurt is a repetitive slug which doesn't boast any interesting material, It's acceptable background music but Moby is a shadow of his former self at this point

shortflexcable
86

This is honestly Moby’s best album since Play. I’ve listened to this pretty consistently since it came out in 2018, which is quite a bit of a compliment for a late career album from anybody. Just as vital and emotional as his earlier work and much like the rest of his catalogue, painfully overlooked.

LouisFunk123
82

This really feels like one of Moby’s most consistent and cohesive albums from front to back. I really enjoy the sound play and more trip-hop approach on this album, and it really feels like Moby is doing what he does best here, in making emotionally vulnerable but striking electronica. Really great despite it running together a little.

JoaoSantos
50

Merry Christmas, everyone! 🎄🎄🎄

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Added on: December 11, 2017