Innocents is the eleventh studio album by American electronica musician Moby, released in October 2013 by record labels Little Idiot and Mute. The album features collaborations on seven of the album's twelve tracks.
Background
For Record Store Day 2013, Moby released a 7-inch record called "The Lonely Night" which featured former Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan. An accompanying video was created by Colin Rich, of which Moby stated: "I'm really excited to have an experimental music video from this great video artist, and I feel like the slow, rich, and languorous desert visuals fit the song perfectly." The track was subsequently released as a download with remixes by Photek, Gregor Tresher, Freescha and Moby himself.
In July, Moby announced that he would be releasing a new studio album titled Innocents.
Recording and content
Moby recorded Innocents from between January 2012 and June 2013 in his apartment. The album was produced by Grammy-winner Mark 'Spike' Stent (Muse, Depeche Mode, Björk, U2, Coldplay). The album features several guest performers and vocalists, including Cold Specks's Al Spx (who appears on two tracks), Wayne Coyne (The Flaming Lips), Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stone Age), Damien Jurado, Skylar Grey and Inyang Bassey.
On working with Coyne, Moby stated that "Wayne and I first met in 1995, when The Flaming Lips and I were both opening up for a Red Hot Chili Peppers’ European tour. We became friends, shared a dressing room and the same bad craft services, and watched the Chili Peppers from the side of the stage. I thought of Wayne for this song because the Flaming Lips have evolved in this very open, celebratory band when they play live, and that was the perfect vibe for what I was imagining for 'The Perfect Life'." Of the collaboration with Al Spx, Spx explained that Moby approached her to sing on the new album: "He had heard about me because I'm on Mute in America and the UK. He heard about the record (I Predict a Graceful Expulsion) and asked if I wanted to sing. So I went and I sang. It was a very free, collaborative, creative environment. He was really open to what I was doing and, luckily, he liked what I was doing and it worked really well. I was quite happy to do it and I would probably do it again some day if he asked me."
As with Destroyed, the photographs comprising the album's artwork were all shot by Moby.
Promotion and release
The first official single from the album, "A Case for Shame,", was released on July 1, 2013. A video was released to promote the single. A quieter remix of the song by Moby himself (“Under the Manhattan Bridge Version”) was made available for free download from his official Web site. The previously released track "The Lonely Night" was announced to appear on Innocents.
It was revealed in August that "The Perfect Life", which features Coyne, would be the next single, after a casting call for a music video was announced, calling "for obese Speedo-sporting bikers, nude rollerskating ghosts, and an S&M gimp proficient in rhythmic gymnastics" The video saw a premiere on Rolling Stone's website on September 3.
The third single, "Almost Home", featuring Damien Jurado, was announced through a music video competition. The winner, which was revealed on January 6, would receive $6,000, with a shortlist being chosen by Moby. In the meantime, he filmed a lyric video for the track at the Best Friends Animal Society in Los Angeles. On February 4, the official video for the song, which reportedly cost only $10 to make, premiered on Reddit. With this occasion, Moby took time to answer a multitude of questions from fans.
Innocents was released on October 1, 2013 by record labels Little Idiot and Mute.