Wait for Me (stylized as wait for me.) is the ninth studio album by American electronica musician Moby. It was released on June 29, 2009, by Little Idiot and Mute.

Background

Moby began work on Wait for Me in 2008. He recorded the entirety of the album in his home studio in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York, with a set-up he described as "a bunch of equipment set up in a small bedroom". Discussing the start of the album's recording, Moby said: "I started working on the album about a year ago, and the creative impetus behind the record was hearing a David Lynch speech at BAFTA, in the UK. David was talking about creativity, and to paraphrase, about how creativity in and of itself, and without market pressures, is fine and good. It seems as if too often an artists or musicians or writers creative output is judged by how well it accommodates the marketplace, and how much market share it commands and how much money it generates. In making this record, I wanted to focus on making something that I loved, without really being concerned about how it might be received by the marketplace. As a result, it's a quieter and more melodic and more mournful and more personal record than some of the records I've made in the past." Moby and David Lynch discussed the recording process of the album on Lynch's online channel, David Lynch Foundation Television Beta. Lynch also directed the music video for "Shot in the Back of the Head," the first single from the album. Ken Thomas mixed Wait for Me. According to Moby, "mixing the record with him was really nice, as he's creatively open to trying anything." For example, Moby and Ken Thomas recorded an old broken bakelite radio through some broken old effects pedals, which became the track "Stock Radio."

Release

Moby announced the title, track listing, and release date of Wait for Me on his website on April 14, 2009. The announcement was accompanied by the release of the album's first single, "Shot in the Back of the Head," and its accompanying music video, directed by David Lynch. "Pale Horses" was released as the second single from Wait for Me on June 22, 2009. The following week, Wait for Me was released on June 29. "Mistake" was released as the third single from Wait for Me, on September 14, 2009. Music videos for "Pale Horses" and "Mistake" were also released, both featuring the alien shown on the Wait for Me cover, a new design of the character "Little Idiot," who appeared in earlier Moby videos, including "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?" and "Natural Blues," and also provided the name of Moby's own label, on which the album was released. Wait for Me: Ambient, a remix album consisting of ambient versions of songs from Wait for Me, was released as a digital download on November 2, 2009. Wait for Me was re-released as a deluxe edition on November 23, 2009, featuring the complete Wait for Me original album and two new songs, Wait for Me: Ambient, and a DVD featuring several live performances, an intimate EPK of the album, a section of questions and answers, and five music videos made for the album. Wait for Me. Remixes!, another remix album featuring reworkings of songs from Wait for Me by various producers, was released on May 17, 2010. "One Time We Lived," one of the two new songs on the Wait for Me deluxe edition, was released as a single on November 15, 2009. "Wait for Me" was released as the fifth and final single from the album on May 2, 2010.

Critical reception

At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, Wait for Me received an average score of 65 based on 26 reviews, indicating "generally favourable reviews".

Tour

Moby toured for Wait for Me with a full band, the first time he had used one since 2005. In his journal entry on April 25, 2009, Moby wrote: "the touring for the upcoming album (barring sporadic dj dates) will be with a full band and multiple vocalists, although i might incorporate some elements of the electronic/ambient show, as it enabled me to perform some songs i’d never been able to perform before (like ‘god moving over the face of the waters’, and other instrumental songs from the past)."

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Track listing

Deluxe edition bonus DVD

Personnel

Credits for Wait for Me adapted from album liner notes.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications