I'm not Kevin Finnerty

Moby ft. Mimi Goese - 'When It's Cold I'd Like To Die' (Everything is Wrong - 1995)

WARNING - this post contains spoilers for The Sopranos episode “Join the Club” (S6E2) and the sixth series more generally - I don’t know what the statute of limitations on spoilers is, but in case 17 years is not long enough, you can’t say I didn’t warn you.

Moby’s 1995 album, Everything is Wrong, is one that, in a precursor to the successful licensing of every track on his 1999 album Play, has been used for those looking for a moody electronica to soundtrack a scene in their movie or TV show. ‘First Cool Hive’ was used to give the ending of 1996’s Scream an unnerving and slightly creepy edge, and ‘God Moving Over the Face of the Waters’ was used as the soundtrack to the denouement of Michael Mann’s 1995 film, Heat. The album serves up a one-two punch of cinematic soundtracks as ‘God Moving…’ gives way to the final track, ‘When It’s Cold I’d Like to Die’, which has been used more than once on big TV shows.

The song is a ballad, though a cold and emotionless one; icy synths dominate it, and the song was co-written by Mimi Goese, who provides the haunting vocals. In a Spin article in 2015, Moby recalled:

[Mimi Goese] had been in this band called Hugo Largo, and they’d put out a couple of records in the ’80s, and I just thought they’re sort of an overlooked, experimental indie band. They made these records that were just beautiful, and I really loved her voice, so one of my managers said, “Oh, you’re making your album, do you want to have any guest vocalists?” And she was the only person I could think of. We reached out to her, and it turned out she lived a block away from me. She had never really been exposed to dance music or electronic music, but she was really open to it. The two songs that she sings on [Goese also appears on “Into the Blue”] were instrumentals, and I sort of just handed them to her. I had absolutely nothing to do with the lyrics and the vocals, and I love them.

‘Into the Blue’ was released as a single, and the pair even appeared on The BBC’s Later With Jools Holland in May of that year.¹