August, 1996. You just got off of work and are driving down the club filled and horn honking streets of Los Angeles. Bars and clubs are bumping the newest releases, people dancing to exhaustion, and sports cars racing through the streets. The record store is open, and in the window is Jamiroquai’s hyped-up album, Travelling without Moving.
Jamiroquai (pronounced as Jam-ear-o-ku-why), is a English Funk and Jazz band based out of London, England, and was founded by singer and frontman Jason Luis “Jay Kay” Cheetham, who was soon joined by Drummer Derrick Mckenzie, Bassist Paul Turner, Guitarist Rob Harris, Percussionist Sola Akingbola, and Keyboardist Matt Johnson.
With the British music scene of Acid funk and Jazz exploding in clubs, Cheetham decided to send in multiple different songs to record labels around London, eventually getting picked up by Acid Jazz records in 1991 and playing in clubs.
After releasing 1992’s “Emergency On Planet Earth” and 1994’s “Return of the Space Cowboy”, Jamiroquai decided to up the ante of the music lottery and went all in on the work of “Traveling Without Moving”.
With its release on August 28th, 1996, Jamiroquai finally found success in the US, reaching number one on top 40 on all of the billboard charts. Making its way deep into the clubs and parties across the country.
While the success was large to many fans already, many who had never heard of the band don’t know any songs to start with. Here’s a list for the three you should listen to.
Track 5 – “Alright”
With “Alright”, it’s described as a “bittersweet gem sounding like a fairy-lit disco”. Reaching #78 on the BB Hot 100, it’s understandable to see why. Chestnut wanted to write a song that’s an addition to “Cosmic Girl”, which would describe how if they both went to one of their houses, everything would be alright. This is said directly within the chorus, “Yeah yeah! / Alright (right now?) / We’ll spend the night together / Wake up and live forever / Yeah yeah!”. While the song is clever on how it’s a sequel and it’s one of their funkiest songs on Travelling without Moving, it just feels repeated again and again, kind of bores you out after a while. 7/10.
Track 2 – “Cosmic Girl”
A love song for his then girlfriend, Cheethum wrote it in the style of a classic disco song. Its first four beats of each measure are considered similar to George Gershwin’s song, “I Got Rhythm”. The song references Cheethum’s girlfriend, explaining how she is out of this world with her beauty and personality, and that it’s hard to find her, “Do I have to go star-trekking / ‘Cause it’s you I should be checking / So she laser beamed me with her cosmic eyes.” A very funky and space-filled lyrical masterpiece, a little too much synth though. It seems to kind of wander off the metronome, and the ending kinda makes you wanna just stand there, not really wanting to dance. 9/10.
Track 1 – “Virtual Insanity”
“Virtual Insanity” is their most famous track next to “Space Cowboy” and “Canned Heat”. The song explains how humanity is on the brink of danger by its technological advancements. Cheethum expresses his distress with it, and even how it feels they governed because of it, “Futures made of virtual insanity, now / Always seem to be governed by this love we have / For useless twisting of our new technology.” While this song was released in 1996, its meaning fits so much better today than back then, with the inclusion of social media and news articles. The addition of recent discoveries of Artificial Intelligence today also makes the track standout like a sore thumb. 10/10
With the funk meter turned up to 11, Jamiroquai really set and stone their place into the 1990’s. While today they’re just another one of those bands that is heard on the radio every now and then, it’s still a band that deserves its love. And even IF the band is well into their middle age, they still will make you want to dance and jump.
