A Collection of musings on music, life, and the world as we know it by someone who shouldn't know better.
There's a cold streak living inside us, there's no rainbows...just bullets and bombs...
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There’s no treadmills this time. Jamiroquai, mostly known in the US for the video for “Virtual Insanity” where lead singer Jay Kay dances around a movable room, has been a fixture on the British dance scene for over a decade. In 2005, the collective released Dynamite, which is a seesaw between neo-electrofunk and the classic disco sound they excel with. And this album mostly proves this point – the best moments are when they go totally discofied , like in the anthemic “(Don’t) Give Hate A Chance” and album closer “Time Won’t Wait”, which could have been pulled from any 1979 Salsoul disc. On the other hand, the band stretches on breakbeat jams like leadoff track “Feels Just Like It Should” and rockish toss-off “Black Devil Car” with some success. There’s also some smoother moments on Dynamite, like the nostalgic “Seven Days In Sunny June” and moody interlude “Talullah”, which sounds eerily like a “Quiet Storm” takeoff on George Michael’s “Careless Whisper”. The Eurodisco of collectives like Daft Punk are evident on numbers like “Electric Mistress” and “Loveblind”. And even straight-ahead Kool & The Gang disco is there with “Dynamite” and “Starchild”. Only at the end are there a couple missteps, in the stop-cold “World That He Wants” and the faux-Prince “Hot Tequila Brown”, though neither is totally vapid. Since this is the last album since Jay Kay acrimoniously split from Columbia, only time will tell if Jamiroquai will get the success it deserves in the States. Until then, you’d be well rewarded by seeking out a copy of Dynamite.
Grade: B+ Best Cuts: “Feels Just Like It Should”, “Starchild”, “(Don’t) Give Hate A Chance” Weakest Links: “World That He Wants”, “Hot Tequila Brown”
Dynamite hit #125 on the US and #3 in the UK. "Feels Just Like It Should" hit #1 Dance Club, and #8 in the UK. "Seven Days In Sunny June" made #14 in the UK. "(Don't) Give Hate A Chance" made #27 in the UK.
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