I had been warned. I had read the reviews of the new Moby album. They all said "don't bother with it - it's just like the last one". But did I listen? Nooo....

You see, I liked Play. A lot. Oh, I know it was overplayed and overexposed, but it once sounded like a true original, before every track conjured up mental images of Nissan, Renault, Rover and Volkswagen. And Maxwell House, Galaxy, Thorntons, Adidas, Rolling Rock, Victoria's Secrets and Learn Direct. And Sky football and Match Of The Day... All these commercials meant Play was somehow not an album anymore, but a collection of advertising theme tunes.

I figured I wouldn't mind that 18 sounded like Play. If it ain't broke, etc. I believed I would welcome another similarly-themed album. I was looking forward to new songs from the man who wrote "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad". But I hadn't realised just how closely this one stuck to its predecessor's template. The two albums are virtually identical. If you own one, you really don't need the other.

The same poignant piano tinklings. The same melancholy synth washes. Exactly the same. All of the tunes are utterly predictable - you know exactly where they are going to go, what lies around the next key change. In fact, listening to this brand new album, you can't help but conjure up mental images of Nissan, etc.

Don't bother with the new Moby album. After all, he didn't.

By the way, you do know that Moby has a blog, don't you?