Records: Moby's I Like to Score

By Barry "Boom-Boom" Levey

Chances are you think any given James Bond flick is superior to Ralph Bashki's Cool World (although chances are you weren't dumb enough to actually see Ralph Bashki's Cool World). Chances are you'd more accurately hum the Bond theme than a song from the soundtrack of Heat (although chances are you fell asleep somewhere during Heat's second videotape). And chances are you were swept away more by the electronica-heist themes in The Saint than you were by the love theme from Joe's Apartment (although chances are you were laughing too hard at the singing cockroaches to actually hear the love theme from Joe's Apartment).

But now we can remove some very good music from some very bad films. While the movies that dance sensation Moby has chosen to score are not of consistent quality, his skills as a composer and entertainer are as constant as the electronica beat that infuses the greater part of his film-music compilation album, I Like to Score.

Moby's brilliant remake of the Bond theme is the disc's strongest track, but also the only one not actually in a movie (only "inspired by" the new 007 installment). One loves the song all the more, however, for its loving corruption of the original. To a hyper-modern beat, Moby mocks an aged franchise with intermittent bursts of '70s and '80s orchestration to hilarious effect. Add in a ridiculous snippet of dialogue (Bond to captor: "Do you expect me to talk?" Captor to Bond: "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!") and you've invented dance-hall satire.

The song's greatest coup, however, is that for all its insanity, it actually makes you want to kick some breakaway-Russian-republic-ass, preferably while driving a really posh BMW. This is Moby's recipe for all the tracks on the disc: a hefty helping of deprecation tempered by a potent concentration of conviction. The song from Heat mocks angst ballads while milking them for all they're worth. The track from Cool World is impeccable dance fare, yet layered with an almost insulting refrain (I can't tell whether he's saying "Oh oh oh" or "Oy oy oy," but either way I'm gleefully offended). The theme from The Saint uses the film's high-tech vocabulary as a springboard for excessive electronica, creating the disc's most danceable tune.

I Like to Score has its flaws; chief among them is the "mood-swing effect" common to so many compilation albums. Track one makes you suicidal; track two makes you want to crash the party at Toad's; track three makes you hungry for Hawaiian pizza. But as an introduction to the many splendors of Moby, and as a redemption of some of the cinema's more unfortunate mistakes, I Like to Score scores the way I like.

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