Lordy, Don't Leave Me All By Myself

In This World by Moby entered the UK Top 40 on 16th November 2002 at #35, spent another week at #60 then vanished from the countdown altogether. 

 

There's a sense of irony and inevitability, matching the song's lyrical and video's narrative theme. The latter depicts a group of aliens who set off from their home planet to make contact with the denizens of planet Earth. On arrival, they discover that they are miniscule compared to the animals and humans populating the planet and as a result are completely ignored. Eventually, they give up and return home. 

 

Moby's lyrics are so sparse that they arguably cannot be considered social commentary but there is something there to interpret about our individual search for meaning and relevance in our blip of existence on this crazy spinning rock.

A close family member is very ill right now and life is being measured in units of time, which is hard to process and it's bringing some of these thoughts and feelings to the fore. 

 

This song popped up on a random shuffle and the timing has gifted the song with a fresh meaning and relevance. Back in 2002, it was just another single from 18, the follow up to Moby's ridiculously successful album Play, which was marking a slow but steady decline in his chart fortunes. 

 

In This World was one of six singles lifted from 18, but the third and last to dent the UK Top 40. It's a good song but a little too reminiscent of the music from Play to have made much of an impression at the time.

 

What Moby has always been good at though is working with a range of female singers who lift what might otherwise be quite ordinary songs to a higher level. In This World is a good example, presented here in four versions, each with a different lead and imbuing the song with their own character and resonance.

 

The post leads off with the 2002 single version, as with the original album version, credited with the voice of Jennifer Price. However, the song itself samples Lord Don't Leave Me, a 1956 song by The Famous Davis Sisters - you can listen to the original here.

 

Performed live, In This World is stripped of much of the musical accompaniment from the studio version, which added momentum but inevitably dates the song. This happened very early on, as evidenced by this performance at Glastonbury in June 2003, just over a year after 18 had been released.

 

The singer with Mony's touring band from 2000 onwards was Diane Charlemagne, a consummate vocalist who sadly passed in 2015. Simple acoustic guitar, synth and violin throughout, but it's all about the voice. Wonderful.

Fast forward to March 2014 and a concert at The Fonda Theatre in Florida. The singer is Mindy Jones, who has frequently collaborated with Moby and here delivers a nuanced and measured performance. 

 

Last May, Moby released his 21st album, Resound NYC, revisiting songs from his back catalogue, orchestral arrangements with a range of guest vocalists. Surprisingly, the beats are back in this version which return some heft to the song, though somewhat at the expense of Marisha Wallace's otherwise sterling attempt. Not that I'd have been able to tell, but apparently that's Nicole Scherzinger providing harmony.

The Famous Davis Sisters' lead is unassailable, but for me it's the live version with Diane Charlemagne all the way.