Anyone else quietly excited about their new album?

For me, they have become a little too commercial and all the focus is on Jay Kay now like he's some new "pop" star. They used to be more like an underground politically minded funk band and I kind of missed that about them in their last two albums.

Still, they were the first band that I really dug back in High School. They were the band that got me into Funk (which eventually lead me to Prince ) so I'm still looking forward to this in a sentimental way.

Anyone heard the new album yet and have any comments? I've only heard "Feels Just Like It Should" on the radio and it doesn't really interest me too much yet.

I'm waiting for my Japanese import copy to arrive next week.According to rumour,it is being delayed here in the States until the fall.I heard three songs in their entirety,and I checked out sound samples of the other tracks.It appears to be a strong,jam-packed album."Seven Days In Sunny June" is currently my favorite song right now.

I have downloades the album while I'am waiting for the cd to come out.

I think it's their best album since Travelling Without Moving.
Three songs are really great: Dynamite, Seven Days In Sunny June and Time Wont Wait.
The only songs I don't like is Electric Mistress and World That He Wants.

I have to say though while it's a great album they seemed to have moved away a bit from the political and now more sound like a pop funk-disco band. Still think its a great album though

For shizzle i'm anticipating this album.There are so few bands/artists out there that i give a shit about.

novamonkey said:

I'm glad that they're sticking to a pop/funk/disco sound.I know there are many fans who prefer the sound of the first two albums,but I love the retro-disco sound of the last few albums.

I am looking foward to checking out their album.Hopefully, they will keep it funkin.

Hotlegs said:

have you heard any of the songs yet?



[Edited 6/17/05 3:51am]

fyi, a review in the Independent (British newspaper this morning):

3 stars (out of a possible 5)

Another British newspaper (the Guardian) gave the same rating, but the review was only a couple of sentences so not worth posting here:


"Review By Andy Gill
17 June 2005

The relentless attempt to represent "grime" as a force in club culture continues apace, but any dispassionate assessment would have to conclude that it is no more likely to significantly affect the mainstream than previous spiky urban strains such as jungle/ drum'n'bass and garage/two-step. The real sound of the UK dancefloor remains exactly where it was five, 10, 15 years ago - with the well-crafted, easy-on-the-ear retro-funk of Jamiroquai, whose first album in four years will doubtless emulate its multi-platinum predecessor A Funk Odyssey in assuming residency atop the album charts.

It's not hard to see why: as a punter, you know what you're getting. There's something comfortingly familiar about the band's sound, which is as amenable here as it was years ago in the hands of Stevie Wonder and Earth, Wind & Fire, if not quite as brimful of inspiration. The bulk of the band's energies has clearly been expended not on modernising its formula with tricky beats and hip-hop attitude, but on polishing further the basics of meticulous technique, hooky refrains and slick production on which its reputation was established.

Recorded live in the studio, then nipped, tucked and toughened up by digital tweaking, Dynamite is as smooth and muscular as a Chippendale's chest, and about as slippery too, the strutting bass and slick rhythm guitar locking together on tracks like "Starchild" and "Electric Mistress" (even the titles have been imported from the Seventies). Which is not to say Jay Kay & co have been entirely static. In particular, "Love Blind" and "Feels Just Like It Should" have a fatter, dirtier sound than usual - more rock-funk than funk-rock, almost.

Lyrically, it's much the same mix of sexual intrigue and political complaint as before, with the sardonic "Give Hate a Chance" and "World That He Wants", a heavily orchestrated piano ballad about George Bush ("This is the world he wants/ Pray for the brave and the young/ It won't bring them back again"), balanced by the more personal regret of "Talulah", in which Kay's attitude is betrayed by his pronunciation of her name as "tell-you-lie". "I thought the sparks would fly, and we would break apart," he muses, yearning after the ex who dumped him - but his real regret seems to be that he was beaten to the punch.

Elsewhere, "Black Devil Car" is the mandatory car-song, its big rock-riff refrain carrying dodgy lines like "She had the greenest eyes/ And with those endless thighs/ I put my hands to some misdemeanours". Absurdly un-PC, but no more than we should expect. Indeed, while songwriters from Chuck Berry to Prince have employed the car as a metaphor for sex, Kay is the only one whose love songs, you suspect, are actually coded expressions of devotion to his four-wheeled mistresses."

thanks for posting that review

I just saw the video for "Feels just like it should"...actually, it's in pretty heavy rotation here.

Not bad...for Jamiroquai!!

DavidEye said:

more than welcome.

i'm looking forward to picking this up - never miss a Jamiroquai album. I possibly fall into the category of people feeling his first two albums more, in the sense that i can put Emergency on Planet Earth or ROTSC on and listen to it continually & love every track. Travelling without moving was brilliant with a couple of weak tracks, for me. When it got to Synkronised / Funk Odyssey I felt like half the albums' tracks were brilliant - just killers - and half weren't quite up to the same standard.


But like i say, i'll be picking this up pronto.