Book Review: Then It Fell Apart – Moby

Thanks to Net Galley, Moby and the Publisher for the pre-release ARC copy for review!

Then It Fell Apart is the second autobiography by musician Moby and it picks up after his first release “Porcelain.”  I read “Porcelain” when it came out, being a huge music fan and a big fan of Moby.  I don’t believe you need to read the first one to follow along, but I’d highly recommend you do, simply to enjoy where Moby came from, his musical start and just how hard he had to work to reach any sort of level of stardom.

Then It Fell Apart follows up as Moby is struggling with the failure of his 1996 release “Animal Rights.”  The album itself was a blast of punk energy and guitars and for many people who knew Moby as an electronic DJ, the musical output was jarring for many.

So Moby returns to his roots and puts together the album “Play.”  While most casual fans will know it for the multi-million selling album that had every song optioned in some form or another, it was actually a failure upon launch.

From here the book bounces back and forth between 1999 to roughly 2008 and Moby’s younger, formative years.  It’s another fascinating look into an eclectic artist’s life and just what influenced him to arrive where he did.

The stories he shares fall along a sliding chart from sweet, sappy and joyful, to cringe-worthy and awful.  One of the sweetest stories within was his sharing of the dinner he had with David Bowie, Iman, Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson.  It was great reading how much Moby worshipped and idolized Bowie, but how he treated him like an equal and gifted him with a fantastic musical instrument.  Moby doesn’t pull punches on his self-reflection and throughout he frequently states how he didn’t care as long as he had his fame, his money and people were talking about him, he was happy.  He goes into great detail discussing just how selfish he was during this time, but how inside he kept telling himself he was happy because other celebrities knew who he was, he was getting and taking copious amounts of drugs and people were coming to watch his shows.

Then the album “18” was released in 2002 and the sales were good, but not great.  Then “Hotel” came out in 2005 and the world had moved on.  While he still had some hit singles, he was no longer the headliner and was struggling internally with what was happening.

It’s a fascinating insight into the “celebrity” mind of Moby, especially now when you follow him on any of his social media accounts and see just how active he is with social issues and how much charitable work he does.

Overall, I really did enjoy the book.  My biggest criticism of it directly relates to the stories told.  Many of them felt unresolved and unfinished.  Two specific examples would be his time with Vinnie Paul and Dimebag Darrell from Pantera and his feud with Eminem.  With the Pantera brothers he discusses how much he loved Pantera and meeting them was a dream.  He hangs out with them and Tommy Lee for a fun night and then that’s it.  The story ends and we move on.  Maybe it’ll be discussed in a third release, but I felt cheated as a reader that he didn’t discuss Dimebag’s horrific death and if it affected him performing live at all.  Vinnie Paul has since passed on later in 2018, so I don’t believe Moby would’ve been able to write about that based on the timeline, but reading that story now, I thought it would’ve sufficed to have a bit of a follow-up on their time together.

The same can be said with his feud with Eminem.  I remember how big of a deal this was.  I remember Eminem having a temper tantrum at the MTV Video Awards and punching Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.  Moby goes into a bit of detail regarding it and how he suddenly realized Eminem was dead serious about it and how some Hip-Hop and Rap musicians distanced themselves from Moby.  Moby even mentions that Eminem drew a detailed picture of himself choking Moby.  Then the story ends and we move on.  I wanted to know what happened.  Was it discussed behind the scenes?  Did Moby and Eminem ever talk about it?  Why didn’t Moby contact authorities about the picture?  If anything it could’ve bumped some of his album sales back then.  Moby does mention later on that old-school New York Hip-Hop musicians kept supporting him, but that’s it, a single paragraph a few chapters later.  I just wished for more resolution for some of the stories, but that’s me personally, and the stories themselves were entertaining.

My last little criticism, and this is because I’m such a massive music and Moby fan – not enough stories/back ground on actually making the albums.  I would’ve loved to hear some of the inspirations behind some of Moby’s biggest and most loved songs.

To wrap this up, criticisms aside, I think this was a really well done follow-up, but also a solid stand-alone autobiography.  Made me appreciate just how hard the struggle can be for even the most established musicians.  I think people will really enjoy this release, and from the way it ended, I’ll be looking forward to a third entry.

4/5