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Supersonic1
Joined: 16 Apr 2004
Posts: 773
Location: Rio Rancho, New Mexico, USA
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 Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2005 05:57 |
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Here's my review, track by track:
Feels Just Like It Should
Good work by Rob on this one, glad to hear Derrick live again. I wish Sola's bit wasn't buried in the mix, and it's never a good sign to have your singer boosted by a vocoder. Weakest first single in the band's history, but it's definitely tolerable.
Dynamite
The slappiest bass since Stuart Zender on TWM, looks like Jay finally found some elastic players. Matt also does a good job setting up the atmosphere, which is sleek, stealthy, and straight-forward, no twists. I see a parallel to this and Little L from AFO. Great, great tune.
Seven Days
Matt is the man of the match here, he does fantastic. The lyrics are some of the best on the album, complete with beach-ready melody and vibes. JMQ's best shot for an international smash.
Electric Mistress
Not as strong as the Capitol radio edit indicated. It'll go over well in the clubs, but for me, it doesn't really go anywhere in terms of song structure (then again, it's techno, so I guess I'm asking too much). Less tolerable than FJLIS. Leave the techno to the professionals, Jay.
Starchild
Very spiritual...a simultaneous embrace of God and an attack against TV evangelists. Right or wrong, these people have gained a rep to be money-grubbing, and this is what Jay goes after. A fantastic effort for everyone, you truly have the "band" feel, something that's been missing in some recent tracks.
Loveblind
Packs a bit of a punch, but it takes repeated listenings to have it grow on you. Some of the most absurd lyrics ever sung by Jay Kay, I shook my head at "You got the shake/I got the fries". Fortunately, the slow-down break saves the song, very nice touch. Nice scratchings, if a little brief, by the DJ. A possible single, but I think it'd only do modest work on the charts.
Talulah
JMQ in smooth jazz mode...beautiful string arrangement, I like the sound of the backup singers. Another song with a great band feel to it. Great ballad.
Don't Give Hate A Chance
I really like the background parts on this one, and it's great to see Jay back in his social warrior side, it's the side that made him famous really. The chorus is really space-like to me...it's a good track, not the best, but definitely not the worst.
World That He Wants
The vocals, piano, and strings make for a devastating effect here...the first time I heard this, I had a lump in my throat. I'm a political moderate and I support my country's troops, but in my eyes, the war in Iraq has spun out of control. This song really hit me. One of the most haunting anti-war screeds in a long time.
Black Devil Car
Finally, the big experiment...can rock work in the Jamiroquai repetoire? The answer: F--K YEAH! A truly fun song, props to Rob for letting it rip.
Hot Tequila Brown
Like Electric Mistress, it doesn't go anywhere...I know it's meant to be important, since it's based off of Jay's fight with cocaine abuse, but this feels dull. The drum machine doesn't help...a live beat would have helped this one...arguably, the weakest track on the album. A point for creativity, though, on the shotgun sound effect.
Time Won't Wait
The best track on the album in terms of melody, lyrics, and all-around work by the band. In my opinion, it's too disco-flavored to make a single, but I think this will become a major live staple. The strings and horns here are awesome.
Overall: The band's best work since Travelling Without Moving. 
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"...I feel that Jamiroquai needs to be taken to another stage now. It really does. Otherwise, I have to be honest, I can see a situation where...there is a possibility that you become lost in the annals of acid jazz history." -- Jason Kay |
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jamirokaki
Expert
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Posts: 3472
Location: basque country
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| Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2005 10:24 |
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WORLD THAT HE WANTS
the version we have heard started hearing only from left speaker and later turns into stereo...well, on the japanese album the first you heard is the right one and later on stereo....what on european abum? (i still didn't get it)
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Dye
Correspondent & Expert
Joined: 16 Nov 2003
Posts: 5146
Location: Planet Home; Buenos Aires, Argentina
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| Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2005 17:12 |
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Hello Jamirotalkers,
The new album came out, and the reviews start to appear! Here's the ones I found so far:
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Album: Jamiroquai 3/5
Dynamite, SONY BMG
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. |
3 stars out of 5... I was expecting something more than that!!
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Jay Kay serves up another slice of disco psychedelia, with words courtesy of the random lyric generator.
printer friendly
Sounds just like it should
CD OF THE WEEK
FIONA SHEPHERD
JAMIROQUAI: DYNAMITE ***
SONY/BMG, £12.99
IT HAS BECOME so easy to knock Jamiroquai frontman Jay Kay that there is a tendency to switch to autopilot on contact with a new piece of work by the cat in the hat. And why not, since he appears to have conducted his whole career on autopilot, coasting along very comfortably for 15 years with scant variation on the second-hand Stevie Wonder sound, and living fast and loose on the considerable returns of this creatively stunted approach.
But what few people seem to appreciate is that it takes a lot of work to copy a master. Kay is like a skilled, painstaking forger. While longevity should never automatically be taken as a marker of ongoing quality - because how would that explain the commercial tenacity of UB40 and The Beautiful South? - Kay has stayed on top for so long now that there has to be something to his funk pastiche. And that something is sheer catchy danceability.
The man may come across as an idiot boy racer at times, but he knows how to sprinkle the dance floor dust across his recordings. Dynamite is his sixth album of the same old same old and, while it can never be as fresh to the ears as his debut, it is in no way inferior as a collection of finger-popping songs.
Feels Just Like it Should is a good chunky single to lead off with. Its heavy space funk represents only the slightest tweaking of the Jamiroquai sound, in that it doesn't conspicuously sound like a rip-off of Stevie Wonder.
Instead, Kay turns his attention to sort of music once produced by the exquisite disco-funk troupe Earth, Wind & Fire on a number of occasions. The heady title track is so authentically retro it sounds like it was recorded in the mid-1970s, complete with typical disco lyrics about chemistry on the dance floor/in the bedroom.
Dynamite contains abundant variations on this theme. There is more dance floor chemistry with a slightly rockier edge on Love Blind, an electro-funk diversion with Electric Mistress and a more laid-back atmosphere on Seven Days, about a thwarted summer fling. Starchild - a very 1970s funk title - is another mirror ball moment, souped up with strings. The lyrics are nonsense but, as with all good disco tracks, it's all about the feel.
The album is awash with drivel for lyrics. I'm personally quite happy not to grasp the meaning of "don't shoot me down/I'm hot tequila brown". "Her name was Gina/you shoulda seen her" is another choice epithet, this one from a song which revels in its own brainlessness. Black Devil Car is not Kay's defence of all those speeding incidents in his flotilla of sleek sports cars, but enjoyable male fantasy nonsense about loving laydeez who have the potential to overtake crazy Kay, and other thinly disguised sexual metaphors.
In the past, Kay has not shied away from bringing politics to the dance floor, albeit in a simplistic fashion. Given the way the world has turned in the four years since Jamiroquai's last album, it is surprising that he avoids political comment here, preferring to shut up and dance. For a moment, it sounds like Give Hate a Chance may be the first ever full-on sparkling disco groover about negative energy but - relax, love and peace divas - they're all singing "don't give hate a chance". World that he Wants, a portrait of domestic tribulation, is the only attempt to tackle something weightier than cars and girls and even then it's really just an accurate pastiche of a socially conscious Stevie ballad.
By the time the album winds up with Time Won't Wait, Kay has abandoned all efforts to disguise the blatant forgery. With lines such as "you just won't stop the funk" spewing out of the random disco lyrics generator, it is bereft of original thought.
However, one palpable plus about this whole album is the immaculate production work by Kay himself and Mike Spencer, who have clearly served a bunch of decent but unremarkable songs particularly well. The lovely, leisurely Talulah could have become cluttered with all the embellishing touches of flute, sax, pizzicato strings and fluttering female backing vocals. Instead, its relaxed, sunny whole is reminiscent of jazz funk maestro Donald Byrd or the soothing sounds of Nuyorican Soul.
If there is any prolonged sunshine ahead, this will be a great album to lounge around with for a bit of vacuous escapism. But, as there is an actual Stevie Wonder album coming out in a couple of weeks, it might be worth hanging back to hear who does the better impersonation of the registered Stevie Wonder sound. |
D! (dyego) |
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monisum
Joined: 30 Jun 2004
Posts: 1327
Location: Germany
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| Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2005 19:05 |
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Thank you Diego for finding that reviews 
Sometimes I think, you are connected with internet right through your brain, you don't need a computer anymore 
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Dye
Correspondent & Expert
Joined: 16 Nov 2003
Posts: 5146
Location: Planet Home; Buenos Aires, Argentina
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| Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2005 17:41 |
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More online reviews!
| monisum wrote: |
Thank you Diego for finding that reviews
Sometimes I think, you are connected with internet right through your brain, you don't need a computer anymore |
the best part is that I don't have internet at home! Alright, I found more:
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Telegraph
Jamiroquai
Dynamite
Sony BMG, £12.99
Jamie Lidell
Multiply
Warp, £11.99
The love affair between skinny white English blokes and vintage black American R&B gets no less passionate as time goes by. Those of us who dismissed Jason Kay as a talented copyist and poster boy of the trendy acid jazz movement when he burst on to the scene in 1993 can only listen to Jamiroquai's fabulous sixth album and weep with embarrassment. True, he still sings like the young Stevie Wonder at times and yes, his songs are generally stronger on groove and mood than original melody. But this sort of carping is no way to greet a record whose opening track, Feels Just Like It Should, packs more infectious swagger and sonic invention into four and a half minutes than most contemporary R&B artists manage across their entire careers.
Jason Kay of Jamiroquai
A fuzzed vocoder vocal supplies a ghostly introduction to a mid-tempo feelgood funk riff which swiftly evolves into a riot of parping synths, splintered guitar, and outrageously cooing girls. JK's languid falsetto lead says next to nothing and sounds like the sexiest come-on since Prince begged for that Kiss. If the rest of Dynamite doesn't quite recapture these erotic heights, it never loses its grip or its capacity to surprise. The chiming bells and random piano notes interrupting Electric Mistress, and the arpeggiating guitar that floats around the verse of Black Devil Car, evidence a growing harmonic sophistication which prevents Jamiroquai's impeccable pop savvy from descending into slickness. On the production side, every one of the 13 tracks here sounds gorgeous and impossibly roomy. The smattering of applause that concludes the final cut, Time Won't Wait, is probably supposed to be ironic, but you still want to join in anyway.
If Jamiroquai take their main bearings from 1970s funk, Jamie Lidell aims to cover all bases from 1960s soul onwards. On the title track of his second album, the swampy pleader Multiply, Lidell sounds like Huntingdon's answer to Otis Redding. Elsewhere, and notably on the multi-layered vocal treat A Little Bit More, he recalls the more playful and knowing approach of Prince.
Anybody expecting to hear Lidell mashing and looping his voice on this record the way he does in his mesmerising live performances may initially be disappointed: his interest in experimental laptop electronica takes a back seat here. But it's good for once to hear him constructing elegant tunes such as What's the Use? And Newme (sic) rather than gleefully pulling them to pieces.
With such a strong and versatile set of pipes, the role of devoted follower suits him just as well as that of mad scientist. Robert Sandall |
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The London Line
Album Reviews
Rhodri Marsden
Thursday 16 June 2005
Jamiroquai / Dynamite (Sony)
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Diehard fans seem to be lining up to throw themselves onto electrified railway tracks after hearing new single Feels Just Like It Should, with its brooding synthesizers and dark atmospherics. So quick - let them know that the majority of this album still features that familiar electric piano/funk bassline sound, continuing Jay Kay's 12-year tribute to the genius of Stevie Wonder. Despite being a loathsome individual, Jay Kay's mastery of his craft is undeniable, with sterling vocal performances and three or four tunes that could easily find their way onto The Very Best of Earth, Wind & Fire. |
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FORTH ONE
Jamiroquai
Dynamite
This album is destined for success. Written in the Scottish Highlands, Grammy Award winning Jay Kay's writing has returned to it's fromer glory on new LP, Dynamite.
First single 'Feels Just like it Should' is a great opener to this selection of stylish tunes. However, hits like 'Give Hate a Chance' and 'Black Devil Car' will ensure radio and club play lists are kept busy for the next few months. All of the Jay Kay trade marks are present on Dynamite; the funky baselines, disco beats and jazz inspired vocals. An arena tour is already booked for this album, get your tickets fast as its bound to be a sellout.
Richie Jeffrey |
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monisum
Joined: 30 Jun 2004
Posts: 1327
Location: Germany
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| Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2005 20:04 |
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Really some great reviews. 
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Dye
Correspondent & Expert
Joined: 16 Nov 2003
Posts: 5146
Location: Planet Home; Buenos Aires, Argentina
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| Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 18:21 |
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Hello there,
One more from MusicOMH.com
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Jamiroquai - Dynamite (Sony BMG)
UK release date: 20 June 2005
The cat in the never more outlandish hat is back. Jay Kay, he of the lavish cars and the speeding fines, has been called unkinder names than cat of course. But whatever critics say, Jamiroquai sell and people dance.
Dynamite is the band's first album since 2001 and is a welcome return of Jamiroquai's trademark blend of '80s funk and pop sensibilities - familiar, yet refreshingly different to so much of their current competition.
Lead single Feels Just Like It Should does exactly what it says on the tin - it feels and moves like a classic Jamiroquai track, calling to mind Deeper Underground but offering memorable hooks too.
The title track is a misnomer - weighing in at five minutes, much of that time is taken up by countless repetitions of the title. Indulgence perhaps, tedious arguably, but explosive it assuredly isn't.
The rest of the record splits between mid-tempo funkadelic toe-tappers in the vein of Starchild and acid jazz throwbacks like Talulah (dedicated to Miss Bankhead? Surely not...). The latter is as close as we get to a torch song from Jamiroquai and, with its flutes and languid tempo, acts as a punctuation mark in the middle of the album, with only World That He Wants slowing things down further.
The tempo is ramped up again for Give Hate A Chance, which features the kind of bubblegum noises last aired by Scissor Sisters, but of course Jay Kay's gang patented them long ago. The lyrics are largely superfluous, and attention tends to divert to the fast-paced bass notes instead of listening to what Hatboy is emoting about.
Further on, Black Devil Car plays like a parody of Jay Kay's petrolhead tendencies and suggests there's a humour somewhere under that headgear. It's an obvious follow-up single, but so slick it could've been polished.
An attempt at pushing envelopes, at least vocally, might suggest that Jamiroquai have surprises left in them yet. But Dynamite is ultimately the tried-and-tested Jamiroquai mix of techno sounds and fretless bass and funky guitar perfected some time ago.
What it is not is inventive. Like that other oft-derided pop stalwart Simply Red's last album, there's no suggestion that anything new is being tried, boundaries pushed, interesting avenues pursued. Jay Kay, like Mick Hucknall, is a man who knows what his public like and, on the evidence of Dynamite, he's only too happy to continue supplying it.
Dynamite is a slickly produced return from Hatboy, and feels... just like it should, really, without inspiring love or hate. Bubbly, weightless pop from a band showing no signs of winding their dance moves down.
- Michael Hubbard |
D! (dyego) |
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GoodVibeZone
Joined: 16 Jan 2005
Posts: 139
Location: England
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| Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 18:54 |
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I read one on the BBC's Teletext. (Those of you in the UK, i think it was page 591)
Anyways he gave it great review! if i get chance i write it up on here
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I never know what to do 'til im there with you... |
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FRA
Jamily Coach & Correspondent
Joined: 07 Aug 2004
Posts: 5477
Location: London don
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| Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 21:58 |
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JAMIROQUAI
20.06.2005.
Budapest
Petőfi Csarnok Szabadtéri Színpad
It’s thirteen years since Jamiroquai main man Jay Kay signed his unprecedented eight album deal with Sony’s S2 label. While much is made of the short-sightedness of British record companies, it’s only fair to credit Sony (now Sony/BMG) for the gamble. Back in 1992 Kay was a skinny white kid with a skateboard, a passion for vintage rare groove and a bizarre ‘Buffalo’ hat. Over twenty million albums, four world tours and 141 weeks on the UK singles chart later, it’s safe to say the gamble paid off.
From poster boy of the early nineties acid jazz revolution to international music icon, a lot has changed for Kay in those thirteen years.
Thanks to five albums of consistently on-point, danceable grooves and mercilessly unshakable melodies - not to mention an undisputed reputation as an electrifying live act - Kay’s as recognisable in France, Spain, Italy, South America, South Africa, Australia and Japan as he is to anyone who’s ever picked up a UK tabloid. While in America his status as one of the UK’s most respected exports is backed by an ever growing grass roots following, five MTV awards and a Grammy. Much to his amusement, of late Kay’s also become something of a style icon, as confirmed by his collection of Elle and GQ style awards.
With all that and a genuine rockstar lifestyle – the Buckinghamshire Manor; the garage full of fast cars - it would be understandable if the singer who signed his historic record deal while living in a squat in Ealing, west London, had spent the four years since Jamiroquai’s last album, 2001’s chart-topping ‘A Funk Odyssey’, enjoying the fruits of his success. But then complacency is one thing Kay will never be accused of.
“I’ve still got so much to prove,” he says of why he’s spent the best part of two years writing, recording and honing sixth album, ‘Dynamite’. “You’ve always got something to prove in this game. But the bottom line is I still love it. I love the thrill of seeing a track come together, and with this album we’ve been sitting with tracks, meticulously going through them, changing things, getting it right.”
Written and recorded in Spain, Italy, Costa Rica, Scotland, New York, Los Angeles and his own purpose built Buckinghamshire studio, ‘Dynamite’ is both a consolidation of thirteen years of Jamiroquai’s trademarked sci-fi sound and a cocky, two fingers to anyone who thinks that at 35, Kay might be resting on his country pile.
Single ‘Feels Just Like It Should’ for one is a ramped-up, high-octane snarl; Jamiroquai’s organic funk put through a digital grinder and pinned to a filthy groove. “Yeah, it’s really filthy. And that bass groove came from me pissing about as a human beatbox. You hear it and think what the fuck’s this? If you haven’t had an album out in four years you want to have an impact, and this says it, I’m back with a vengeance.”
‘Black Devil Car’ - ‘Cosmic Girl’ with guitars and a dirty mind – and the title track’s chic disco reinforce the larger than life, feelgood vibe, while the sweetly swaying ‘Seven Days In Sunny June’ is pure Jamiroquai romance, only with extra sunshine.
“It’s bigger,” says Kay of the new album’s frenetic pulse. “We recorded the whole album live, then digitally edged it, tightened it up, gave it a harder sound. But I also wanted to maximise the groove, to keep the verses sparse and the choruses big. ‘Dynamite’’s a groove and I wanted to nail it.”
As for inspiration, much of it came from time spent recording in America. “We went over there to get the best backing singers, best strings, best horns. And you know, just being in LA, watching life go by, all the beautiful ladies who lunch, that’s what ‘Dynamite’’s about. And mixing in New York, it just made me feel like I was back in the game.”
Yet while ‘Dynamite’ is undoubtedly an album of free-single-and-lovin’-it high-times, the presence of some of Kay’s most barbed lyrics to date, confirm it as a shot of much needed positivity for what he describes as “a really funked-up time for the world”.
It’s fitting that, in the year that the British government assumes the presidency of the G8 - with the promise of putting third world poverty and climate change at the top of the agenda - and with war raging on the nightly news, one of Britain’s biggest stars should be back, prodding the collective conscience.
From day one Kay’s had an opinion and he hasn’t been afraid to share it. Sadly his impassioned sleeve notes to Jamiroquai’s aptly titled 1993 No.1 debut, ‘Emergency On Planet Earth’ still ring true. Third world poverty; climate change; wars initiated by power hungry dictators; it’s all there.
Likewise, 1994’s ‘Return Of The Space Cowboy’, with its dark, inner-city social commentary is as raw as ever. Meanwhile, the album which took Jamiroquai global, 1997’s ‘Travelling Without Moving’, came with a worryingly prophetic warning of the dangers of biogenetic engineering. Not only was Grammy winning single ‘Virtual Insanity’ released on the day Dolly the Sheep was born, its concerns mirror those currently consuming the debate on human cloning and ‘donor’ babies.
After two deeply personal albums, 1999’s ‘Synkronized’ and 2001’s multi-platinum ‘A Funk Odyssey’, ‘Dynamite’ sees Kay re-entering the fray in typically forthright style. ‘The World He Wants’ is a half-time reflection on where the ‘leader’ of the free world is taking it; ‘Star Child’ questions the mindset of a world where TV evangelists are seen as moral guardians and thumping floor-filler ‘Give Hate A Chance’ is “an anthemic, DJ ready, sign of our times.”
“As the human race we aim to do nothing but kill and maim each other,” says Kay. “All we do is hate, hate, hate. And a lot of it seems to be done in the name of religion, which is what ‘Give Hate A Chance’ and ‘Star Child’ are about. We hate each other for all sorts of reasons: different religion, different colour, different way of thinking. It’s hate, hate, hate and I just think when is it going to end?”
For all the tabloid headlines, rockstar trappings and hats, it’d be a mistake to ever dismiss or underestimate Jay Kay. As his indisputable track record shows, he’s many things, but he’s no fool. And while his opinions, and fearless attitude when expressing them, might regularly set him up as a easy target for jaded cynics, even they will freely admit that music, and life, would be a good deal duller without him.
So prepare yourself for a vintage Jamiroquai year. With a string of turbo charged future hits, a meaner, leaner sound and Kay’s social conscience spoiling for a fight, ‘Dynamite’ time and again affirms his assertion: Jamiroquai is indeed, “back with a vengeance”.
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www.jamitaly.altervista.org |
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Dye
Correspondent & Expert
Joined: 16 Nov 2003
Posts: 5146
Location: Planet Home; Buenos Aires, Argentina
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| Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2005 16:13 |
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Wasn't that in the biographies of the Official Site? 
Here I found more!
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JAMIROQUAI – FEELS JUST LIKE IT SHOULD:
The logo and hat remains the same but it seems that the music has changed. Jamiroquai’s comeback single, Feels Just Like It Should, doesn’t actually do as its title suggests.
Featuring a gritty, more dirty beat than usual, the single reveals a much darker and more sinister side to Jay K that can only be a good thing. Its chunky bassline and striking synths suggest it will go down a storm on the dance circuit, while also winning the artist a few more admirers than usual. If the forthcoming album, Dynamite, is half as good as this, then Jamiroquai fans should be in for a treat. This really is a pleasant |
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The Observer
Jamiroquai, Dynamite
Put any prejudice aside, says Ben Thompson: no one else can fashion funk quite like Jay Kay
Sunday June 19, 2005
It's early 1992. Britpop is only the vaguest stirring in Brett Anderson's fevered loins, and the music that's really happening is acid jazz. Watching the precocious figurehead of this supremely nebulous musical 'upsurge' dazzle an intimidatingly suave and cosmopolitan crowd with his fancy footwork and ecofriendly recycling of old Stevie Wonder and Roy Ayers B-sides, the only question-mark hanging over Jay Kay's future is whether he can ever win over a broader fanbase, beyond the self-styled clubland hipster elite that seems to be his natural constituency.
A few years later, as chirpy TV chef Jamie Oliver visits him at his Buckinghamshire mansion to prepare a televised Sunday roast, the answer to this question would seem to be 'Not half'. But now he's three-quarters of the way through what might yet turn out to be that rarest of pop phenomena (an eight-album deal that actually involves the making of eight albums), perhaps the time has finally come to drain the acid bath of critical disdain in which Jay Kay's reputation has marinated for so long.
OK, he's stayed true to the same basic heritage-funk ingredients for the past 13 years, but so have Prince and George Clinton, and no one holds that against them. Once personal prejudices are set aside, it becomes impossible not to admit that both the vocoder-lubricated fluidity of 'Feels Just Like it Should' and the tasty Jeremy Clarkson codraunch of 'Black Devil Car' are every bit as good as anything on the last N*E*R*D album. And if the sumptuous anti-George Bush piano ballad 'World That He Wants' had been credited to Rufus Wainwright rather than Jay Kay, everyone would be hailing it as a work of agit-prop genius.
Burn it: 'World That He Wants'; 'Feels Just Like it Should'; 'Black Devil Car' |
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Jamiroquai
Dynamite
(Sony)
Now a global brand - 20 million sales and counting - Jay Kay is showing signs of corporate fatigue. The big idea on his sixth album is simply to make his funk harder and edgier. It works on the monster opener, 'Feels Just like it Should', but all his huff and puff can't disguise the second-hand quality of 'Dynamite' (try singing along to Kool and the Gang's 'Ladies Night') or 'Star Child' (a retread of Stevie's 'Superstition'). Thematically, he's similarly spent. The one time ecowarrior is now the laughable pop god in a 'Black Devil Car', with only the moving, anti-Bush 'World That He Wants' to show what he's capable of. |
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Jamiroquai are something of an enigma in the British music scene, being able to disappear for what seems like years, only to re-emerge with their distinctive sound intact and their hooks as catchy as they’ve ever been. Okay, so the line-up might change but it’s Jay Kay’s style and vision that keeps them at the top of their game.
There is little bad to say about Dynamite: lead single "Feels Just Like It Should" harks back to "Deeper Underground" with its electro fuzz and unmissable funk--a storming start to the album that sits at ease with the following title track, contemporary disco soul and very much the classic Jamiroquai sound. There are few risks taken on Dynamite: almost every song is something that they’ve tried before but the appeal has never been about groundbreaking ideas, just good, honest retro with enough modern-day edge to keep it current.
So, halfway through the rumoured ten-album deal and Jay Kay is still going strong--immune to criticism that his song vocabulary is limited, thankfully he remains true to his style and uncompromising in his pursuit of high quality pop music. --David Trueman
Album Description
Dynamite represents the sixth full-length studio album effort from London-bred futuro soul/funk outfit Jamiroquai. The new album marks the first recording from the group in over four years, their last being 2001's A Funk Odyssey. The album includes the first single, "Feels Just Like It Should". |
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Jamiroquai 'Dynamite'
Friday 17 June, 2005
Jamiroquai return almost four years after the release of Funk Odyssey with their eagerly anticipated sixth album.
Dynamite by name and dynamite in sound, this album includes the hard-edged funk of the single Feels Just Like It Should on which the bassline is comprised of Jay Kay's own voice through a vocoder. It also boasts a few discofied, potential floor-fillers, such as the title track and the somewhat childishly titled Give Hate A Chance.
Although it often seems that Jay is reluctant to drop the tempo these days, some of Jamiroquai's slower material shouldn't be overlooked and the laid-back summery Seven Days In Sunny June (his titles do need work) is an example of their more melodic side.
There's a nod towards rock on a couple of tracks, most notably Black Devil Car which veers close to that Lenny Kravitz funky rock territory and, aptly enough, is a good song to drive to (not too fast though, eh, Jay?).
Jamiroquai have sold over 20 million albums worldwide and they can expect to shift a few more as Dynamite will no doubt blow up big time. |
D! (dyego) |
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phunkynassau
Joined: 01 Feb 2003
Posts: 35
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| Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2005 13:01 |
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Just found another review on the BBC Nottingham site.
[quote]
June 2005
Jamiroquai - Dynamite
Jamiroquai album sleeve
Return of the hit
Who needs to change when you produce quality.
Jenna Bachelor
First things first - where's Jamiroquai's little mascot, that drawing that's adorned most of his / their preceding albums?
Maybe Jay Kay is saying that on this occasion Dynamite is more about himself than the band. It's his image that graces the CD cover.
He's certainly gone through a few group members but he shouldn't ignore the contribution made by his fellow musicians.
Like his tabloid exploits for punching paparazzi or buying flash cars, you know what to expect from a Jamiroquai album.
It might be a few years since Synkronized the but song remains pretty much the same.
Dynamite gives us all the influences from the previous Jamiroquai output and really there's nothing wrong with that.
Put it this way, when the sun shines and you're cruising down the road there's nothing to beat cranking up the volume on a track like Time Won't Wait.
When it comes to funk few can beat Jay Kay.
The single, Feels Just Like It Should, is the closest he comes on this CD to changing the groove.
If you were at all concerned the large hatted one was going rock fear not.
His is still the sound of Stevie Wonder at his Talking Book best. Mr Wonder has a new CD due soon. Chances are it won't be a patch on this and it does bode the question why not a Jay Kay / Stevie collaboration?
Non-fans will say they've heard it all before but if you love the Jamiroquai sound you'll relish Dynamite.
It might just blow your mind.
i-Pod: Time Won't Wait
Label: Sony / BMG
Rating: 4/5
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Such a shame Time Won't Wait isn't on the European release... |
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Brookie
Joined: 17 May 2005
Posts: 18
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| Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2005 08:04 |
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A lukewarm review by Cameron Adams in todays Melbourne Herald Sun:
New single FJLIS is Jamiroquai's biggest diversion from his trademark coffee-table disco funk since the primal Deeper Underground.
Yet beyond that, Dynamite is Jamiroquai on autopilot. There's no killer single a la Little L, Virtual Insanity or Canned Heat, but plenty of imitations of them.
Even the titles (Starchild, Black Devil Car) sound familiar, while the disco-by-numbers (wah wah guitar, bubbling bas, dancing strings, obligatory space references in the lyrics) must bore even Jay Kay by now.
At Least SDISJ mines a more chilled groove and Electric Mistress is a dose of mayhem to add the one thing Dynamite otherwise lacks: surprise.
Verdict: Two and a half stars (out of five)
In a Word: Recycled
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You're my magic star, don't fly too far from me..... |
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FunkEducation
Joined: 15 Jul 2004
Posts: 3309
Location: Maracay, Venezuela
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| Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2005 14:38 |
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killer single a la Little L???????????????????????????????
Space Cowboy was a killer single, when you gonna learn was a killer single, high times was a killer single.... not Little L...
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This is FunkEducation, supporting the 1992-1998 Jamiroquai!!
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Melo D
Joined: 26 Mar 2005
Posts: 39
Location: Portugal
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| Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 13:39 |
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those singles you referred Edgar were not killer singles in terms of sales cause they never made it past the 15th place in the charts, but musically speaking my fave single of all times is space cowboy! 
Little L made it to 5th place and provoked large album sales!
Peace and Funk
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Sure gotta look, Got to keep you on my hook
Pussy-cat eyes I'm diggin' you, Girl you've got the look! You're Dynamite! |
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FunkEducation
Joined: 15 Jul 2004
Posts: 3309
Location: Maracay, Venezuela
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| Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 14:22 |
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| Melo D wrote: |
those singles you referred Edgar were not killer singles in terms of sales cause they never made it past the 15th place in the charts, but musically speaking my fave single of all times is space cowboy!
Little L made it to 5th place and provoked large album sales!
Peace and Funk |
ohhh i was speaking musically... you're right! 
heheh
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This is FunkEducation, supporting the 1992-1998 Jamiroquai!!
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