Then It Fell Apart

by Moby Narrated by Moby

Overview

What do you do when you realise you have everything you think you've ever wanted but still feel completely empty? What do you do when it all starts to fall apart? The second volume of Moby's extraordinary life story is a journey into the dark heart of fame and the demons that lurk just beneath the bling and bluster of the celebrity lifestyle. In summer 1999, Moby released the album that defined the millennium, PLAY. Like generation-defining albums before it, PLAY was ubiquitous, and catapulted Moby to superstardom. Suddenly he was hanging out with David Bowie and Lou Reed, Christina Ricci and Madonna, taking esctasy for breakfast (most days), drinking litres of vodka (every day), and sleeping with super models (infrequently). It was a diet that couldn't last. And then it fell apart. The second volume of Moby's memoir is a classic about the banality of fame. It is shocking, riotously entertaining, extreme, and unforgiving. It is unedifying, but you can never tear your eyes away from the page.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Reviews for Porcelain: “Riveting.”—Rolling Stone
“Rock memoirs rarely live up to expectations, but… Porcelain is an exception. It ranks with Kim Gordon's Girl in a Band and a handful of others in recent years as a particularly incisive look at not just a life in music, but at the cultural and social circumstances that helped shape it. It is by turns self-deprecating, hilarious and moving.”—Chicago Tribune


"This well-written memoir of a man’s search for contentment astutely reveals the sharp rises and the steep descents of fame."
—Publishers Weekly

"Filled with fascinating characters and memorable meetings with celebrities and politicians."
— Library Journal

"Moby’s writing shines brightest in descriptions of the music he loves. A salacious cautionary tale as well as a nostalgic trip through a memorable time in music."
—Booklist

“A celebrity-filled chronicle of the debauchery and desperation that led to [Moby’s sobriety.]”
—New York Post

“A wildly entertaining journey through the life of a musician whose unassuming exterior belies a wildness to rival any rock ‘n roll memoir you’ve ever read."
—LA Daily News

” Moby is most unsparing with himself. He has no axes to grind, but he’s brutal when characterizing his narcissistic-rocker phase.... His wit is sharp but light, and the memoir isn’t stuffed with references to obscure things no one’s ever heard of."
—SFWeekly

"A must-read."
—Kirkus Reviews

"[THEN IT FELL APART includes] stories that are humorous, heartfelt, heartbreaking, and above all else, revealing…. The level of honesty Moby poured into each page fills the book with memorable moments from cover to cover.”
—Consequence of Sound

"Can't put it down. Honest, heartbreaking and really funny."
— Adam McKay, co-writer of Anchorman, Talledega Nights and founder of the website Funny or Die

"Just three years after his first memoir, Porcelain, Moby is back with an even more revealing book, tracing his dark journey through fame. Tales about David Bowie, Madonna and ex-flames Natalie Portman and Christina Ricci abound."
—Entertainment Weekly

"Charming and funny and very, very revealing."
—John Waters, filmmaker and author of Mr. Know-It-All

Kirkus Reviews

2019-02-14

The bittersweet continuing saga of Moby's life and career in music.

Resuming where his debut memoir, Porcelain (2016), left off, the author chronicles his days following the 1999 debut of "Play," an album he recorded in his cramped Manhattan loft that the defeated musician considered a "flawed and poorly mixed swan song." His career progressed despite an album tour clouded by addictive indulgences, but it was enlivened by encounters with Natalie Portman, Richard Branson, Mick Jagger, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, and Madonna. Folded into a narrative that frequently dips back to a childhood forever altered by his father's suicide is the saga of an often melancholic, pensive, lonely man eager for human connection and commercial success. Moby offers moving tales of his "bucolic incarceration" at summer camp, losing his virginity, and the joys of learning the guitar, forming his own band, and DJ-ing in the 1980s. As his fame grew and subsequent albums flourished, so did his desire to release himself from the anxieties of stardom and from the grips of a music industry in which feeling worthless could become all-consuming. At one point, he writes, "I laid down…sobbing and apologizing to God and my dead mom for being such a disappointment." Though dalliances with women, booze, and drugs, however soul-destroying, tempered his inner malaise, Moby writes of continually fooling himself with the "basic math" of a life equation that never added up to true contentment: "If you added wealth and fame and awards and sex and alcohol, that had to guarantee I would never again be a sad, scared boy from the suburbs." The narrative plays out with the same episodic flow and emotional turbulence as Porcelain, and fans of the musician will feel his palpable sorrow in his moments of self-pitying misery. But they will also acknowledge his pride and elation when, after years of abusing alcohol to numb his psychic pain, the author fully embraced a substance abuse recovery program to heal inside and out.

A must-read for Moby followers and surely a cathartic and revelatory writing experience for the author.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170345359
Publisher:	Faber and Faber
Publication date:	04/30/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged

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