Top Jamiroquai Songs

[Maral Mende]

Asof 2017, Jamiroquai had sold more than 26 million albums worldwide. Their third album, Travelling Without Moving (1996), received a Guinness World Record as the best-selling funk album in history. The music video for its second single, "Virtual Insanity", also contributed to the band's success. The song was named Video of the Year at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards and earned the band a Grammy Award in 1998.

Jay Kay was sending songs to record companies, including a hip-hop single released in 1986 under the label StreetSounds.[1][2] During this time, Kay was influenced by Native American and First Nation peoples and their philosophies; this led to the creation of "When You Gonna Learn", a song covering social issues.[1][3] After he had it recorded, Kay fought with his producer, who took out half of the lyrics and produced the song based on what was charting at the time.[1] With the track restored to his preference, the experience helped Kay realise he "wanted a proper live band with a proper live sound".[1] The band would be named "Jamiroquai", a portmanteau of the words "jam" and the name of a Native American confederacy, the Iroquois.[3] He was signed to Acid Jazz Records in 1991 after he sent a demo tape of himself covering a song by the Brand New Heavies.[4][5] Kay gradually gathered band members, including Wallis Buchanan, who played the didgeridoo.[1] Kay's manager scouted keyboardist Toby Smith, who joined the group as Kay's songwriting partner.[1] In 1992, Jamiroquai began their career by performing in the British club scene.[6] They released "When You Gonna Learn" as their debut single, charting outside the UK Top 50 on its initial release.[7] In the following year, Stuart Zender became the band's bassist by audition.[8][9]

After the success of "When You Gonna Learn", the band were offered major-label contracts. Kay signed a one-million-dollar, eight-album record deal with Sony Soho2.[7][10][11] He was the only member under contract, but he would share his royalties with his band members in accordance to their contributions as musicians.[11] Their label for US releases would be under the Work Group.[12][a] The band released their debut album, Emergency on Planet Earth, where it entered the UK albums chart at number 1.[13] Kevin L. Carter of The Philadelphia Inquirer commented that the album "is full of upbeat, multi-hued pop tunes based heavily in acid jazz, '70s fusion, funk and soul, reggae and world music".[14] With it, the band would continue to build upon their acid-jazz sounds in the following years.[13] The album's ecologically charged concept gave Kay press coverage,[15] although Mark Jenkins of The Washington Post found the record's sloganeering "as crude as the music is slick".[16]

The band's original drummer, Nick van Gelder, failed to return from holiday and was replaced by Derrick McKenzie, who recorded with the group in one take for his audition.[17] They issued their second album, The Return of the Space Cowboy, in 1994, and it ranked at number 2 in the UK chart.[18] During its recording, Kay was in a creative block, worsened by his increasing drug use at the time, which resulted in its complex songwriting.[17][19] However, the record was said to have "capture[ed] this first phase of Jamiroquai at their very best", according to Daryl Easlea of BBC Music.[18] Josef Woodard from Entertainment Weekly wrote that its "syncopated grooves and horn-lined riffs" were "played by humans, not samplers".[20]

Released in 1996, Travelling Without Moving reached number 24 in the Billboard 200[21] and number 2 in the UK albums chart.[22] With more than 8 million copies sold worldwide,[23] it has been listed in the Guinness World Records as the best-selling funk album in history since 2001.[24][25] The album's lead single, "Virtual Insanity", gained popularity for its music video, which was heavily played on MTV.[26] Containing symphonic and jungle elements,[27] Kay aimed for a more accessible sound.[28] Ted Kessler of NME saw Travelling Without Moving as an improvement from previous albums,[29] while critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine commented that it did not have "uniform consistenc[ies]" in comparison.[30]

While the group were preparing their fourth album, Synkronized (1999), Zender left Jamiroquai due to internal conflicts with Kay.[31] While Zender had not been involved in the album's songwriting, the group chose to scrap his recorded tracks to avoid lawsuits, and Nick Fyffe was recruited for new sessions.[11][31] This resulted in what was thought to be both a "tighter, more angry collection of songs" for Synkronized,[11] and a change of musical direction from "creating propulsive collections of looooong [sic] tunes, speaking out against injustice".[32] Some of the album's tracks, including "Canned Heat", display a hi-NRG and house style, while slower tempos on others were said to "ease the pressure for [Kay's] more romantic musings".[33] The album reached number 1 in the UK albums chart and number 28 in the US Billboard 200.[23][34] A year prior to Synkronized, "Deeper Underground" was released as a single for the Godzilla soundtrack and reached number one in the UK singles chart.[23]

Rock Dust Light Star was released in 2010 under Mercury Records, where it charted at number 7 in the UK.[22] Kay considered the album as "a real band record" that "capture[s] the flow of our live performances".[48] Critics have seen this as a return to their organic funk and soul style,[49][50] as it forgoes "the electro textures that followed the band into the new millennium", according to Luke Winkie of MusicOMH.[51] It also has a sound Thomas H. Green of The Telegraph described as "Californian Seventies funk rock".[52]

Kay announced on the back notes of their 2021 re-released single, "Everybody's Going To The Moon", that the band were working on a new album.[58] On 19 March 2024, Kay announced that recording sessions for the new album were underway.[59]

Jamiroquai's music is generally termed acid jazz,[62] funk,[63] disco,[64] soul,[15] house,[65] and R&B.[27] Their sound has been described by J. D. Considine as having an "anything-goes attitude, an approach that leaves the band open to anything".[66] Tom Moon wrote that the band "embrac[es] old-school funk, Philly-soul strings, the crisp keyboard sounds of the '70s and even hints of jazz fusion", blending these with "agitated, aggressive dance rhythms to create an easygoing feel that looks both backward and forward".[67] Ben Sisario facetiously commented that Jay Kay and Toby Smith as songwriters, "studied Innervisions-era [Stevie] Wonder carefully, and just about everything the group has recorded sounds like it could in fact have been played by [Wonder] himself."[68]

Kay is the primary songwriter of Jamiroquai. When composing, he sings melodies and beats for band members to transcribe to their instrumentation.[1] The band relies on analog sounds, such as running keyboards through vintage effects pedals "to get the warmth and the clarity of those instruments".[67] Parry Gettelman of the Orlando Sentinel described Kay's vocals as "not identifiably male or female, black or white".[69] Other writers said Toby Smith's keyboard arrangements were "psychedelic and soulful",[33] and compared Stuart Zender's bass playing to the work of Marcus Miller.[70] Wallis Buchanan on didgeridoo was met with either praise or annoyance from critics.[29][66][68][71]

Jamiroquai's lyrics have touched on socially charged themes. With Emergency on Planet Earth (1993), it revolves around environmental awareness and speaks out against war.[10][15] The Return of the Space Cowboy (1994) contains themes of homelessness, Native American rights, youth protests, and slavery.[15][17][77] "Virtual Insanity" from Travelling Without Moving (1996) is about the prevalence of technology and the replication and simulation of life.[67] The lyrics of Automaton (2017) allude to dystopian films and compromised relationships within a digital landscape.[53]

While critics said the group tended towards 1970s funk and soul archetypes in their performances, Kay's presence received praise, with critics noting his strong vocals and energetic dance moves on stage.[74][81][82][83][84] Robert Hilburn said Kay "establish[es] a rapport with the audience" and has a "disarming sense of humor".[74][85] Helen Brown of The Telegraph was more critical, writing of a 2011 concert that there was no "deeply personal emotion" in its set list or in Kay's vocals, and "much of the material is exhilarating in the moment, forgettable thereafter".[86]

With their visual style being described as "sci-fi and futuristic",[87] Jamiroquai's music video of "Virtual Insanity" made them "icons of the music-video format", according to Spencer Kornhaber from The Atlantic.[88] It was directed by Jonathan Glazer, and depicted Kay "perform[ing] in a room where the floors, walls and furniture all moved simultaneously."[89]

Kay has worn elaborate headgear, some he designed himself.[74][90] He said that the headgear give him a spiritual power described by the Iroquois as "orenda".[10] The illuminating helmet that appears in the music video for "Automaton" was designed by Moritz Waldemeyer for Kay to control its lights and movements and to portray him as an endangered species.[91] Kay also often wears Native American head-dresses, which has met with criticism by Indian Country Today, commenting he had worn sacred regalia of the First Nations.[92] As of October 2023, he was still wearing them while performing.[93]

"Miraculously, Jamiroquai managed to survive the acid-jazz crash of the early 90's, when kids traded mellow sounds like the Brand New Heavies, Young Disciples and Guru for the bed-of-nails wails of Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam."

As a prominent component of the London-based funk and acid-jazz movement of the 1990s,[72] writer Kenneth Prouty said: "few acid jazz groups have reached the level of visibility in the pop music mainstream as London-born Jamiroquai".[26] The success of the 1996 single "Virtual Insanity" led to the climax of "1970s soul and funk that early acid jazz artists had initiated".[26] The band were also credited for popularising the didgeridoo.[94] Artists who mention the group as an influence include Chance the Rapper,[95] SZA,[96] Kamaal Williams,[97] the Internet,[98] Calvin Harris,[99] and Tyler, the Creator.[100] According to Tony Farsides of The Guardian, "Jamiroquai's musical prowess goes largely ignored. Whilst the band have received plaudits from American heavyweights such as Quincy Jones and Maurice White of Earth, Wind And Fire, Jamiroquai fight to be taken seriously in the UK."[101] Writing for the same newspaper, Ian Gittins said the group "have long been shunned by music's tastemakers for a perceived naffness, and have shown their utter disregard for this critical snobbery by getting bigger and bigger".[84] Sisario gave a negative review of the band's discography in The Rolling Stone Album Guide in 2004, finding much of their material to be identical.[68]

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