Following the release of two albums, Moby and Ambient, on Instinct, Moby signed to Mute and Elektra and began work on what he felt was his first "legitimate" album, seeking to create a record that encompassed his various musical influences. Moby has described Everything Is Wrong as "a record that almost served as a lifeboat for the songs I cared the most about", noting that he attempted to cover as many musical styles as possible not "out of trying to be eclectic, but just because I was in love with all of these genres and I felt like this may be my only chance to make a record." Moby recorded and mixed the album himself in his apartment on Mott Street in Manhattan, New York, using inexpensive recording equipment. Everything Is Wrong features guest vocal contributions from Rozz Morehead, whom Moby had met while performing on the British television programTop of the Pops, and Mimi Goese, whose work with the bandHugo Largo he admired, and who he later found out lived just a block away from him.
Content
Moby titled the album Everything Is Wrong and wrote its extensive accompanying liner notes as a means of expressing some ideas that he felt were important to him, later reflecting, "At the time, I was — and am still — a vegan and an animal rights activist, really militant in all my beliefs. So I would wake up really angry every day, and sleep angry every night because I thought the world was in terrible shape, and I thought, 'What small thing can I do to express my beliefs that the world is in such terrible shape?' And that’s where the title of the album came from." Inside the album's booklet, Moby provides two personal essays, quotes from notable figures, and facts that he has collected regarding subjects such as vegetarianism, environmentalism, and animal experiments.
Critical reception
Everything Is Wrong was released to positive reviews from music critics. Spins Barry Walters praised its diverse range of musical styles compared to most other "one-dimensional" electronic albums and dubbed it "a hugely passionate album held together by its intensity". Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune felt that Moby "explodes the boundaries of the genre" with an album "as moving as it is adventurous", while Lorraine Ali of the Los Angeles Times wrote that Everything Is Wrong "swoops from agony to ecstasy, leaping from the glittery heights of disco divadom to the rampaging ugliness of speed-metal to the refined feel of classical—while always remaining consistently Moby." In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau remarked: "Where in concert he subsumes rockist guitar and classical pretensions in grand, joyous rhythmic release, on album his distant dreams remain tangents." Everything Is Wrong was voted the third best album of 1995 in The Village Voices year-end Pazz & Jop critics' poll. By 2002, the album had sold over 180,000 copies in the United States.
"God Moving Over the Face of the Waters" is featured in the closing moments of the 1995 film Heat. "First Cool Hive" is featured in the final scene of the 1996 filmScream. "When It's Cold I'd Like to Die" is featured in The Sopranos, at the end of the episode "Join the Club". Additionally, the song was featured in season 1 of Stranger Things.
Track listing
Personnel
Credits for Everything Is Wrong adapted from album liner notes.
A two-disc remix album entitled Everything Is Wrong: Non-Stop DJ Mix was released in January 1996 by Mute. The album was mixed by Moby from various remixes that were commissioned by the label.
