After his catastrophically bombastic 1997 rock album Animal Rights, Moby seemed to have run out of worthwhile ideas. Wrong. Play is a modest, charming little record built on a few simple ideas, and a winner on its own low-key terms: Moby has made the first electronic blues album. The Christian vegan techno hero (the liner notes, as usual, make sure you don't forget the part about his philosophy) has returned to the trick behind his first hit, "Go," which twisted the "Twin Peaks" theme song into a dance anthem, and he sounds like he's having more fun than he has in years.

The find-the-hot-bit-and-loop-it routine has become a Big Beat staple, Moby finds riffs that fit chords that keep changing, instead of a simple vamp: In "Find My Baby," a single phrase of a field recording of Boy Blue waxing ecstatic becomes verse, chorus and bridge of the same song. Moby's foray into rock has had some unexpected payoffs, too. There's real instrumentation, especially some biting slide guitar, on much of Play, and it serves the groove rather than overpowering it. When Moby samples gospel singers' laments on "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?" and "Natural Blues," it's not to position their lyrical sentiments as irony, but to use their voices as an extension of his own. It's making a joyful noise to the Lord, with the help of mouths that sang for joy long ago, and some friendly machines that keep their memories alive.