Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 09/20/2005
Not unlike one of its lead singer
Jay Kay's much publicized Lamborghinis, the U.K.
funk band
Jamiroquai is primarily a vehicle for its frontman's various fetishes. Which is another way of saying that
Kay loves
disco and fancy retro sneakers and he wears both well. He has done so ever since he hippie-danced his way out of the
acid jazz ghetto of the early '90s with
Jamiroquai's revelatory debut album,
Emergency on Planet Earth. That album featured
Kay's bright and soulful vocals against '70s-style
funk and drew obvious comparisons to
Stevie Wonder,
Earth, Wind & Fire, and sundry other icons of vintage
R&B. Not too much has changed in the years since and 2005's
Dynamite finds
Kay and Co. delving once again into various '70s- and '80s-inspired
dance sounds. Similar to 2001's dazzlingly slick
Funk Odyssey,
Dynamite reveals
Kay as a dancefloor eclectic, inclined to grab as much from
Chic and
Parliament as
Kajagoogoo,
the Police, and
Terry Callier. Keeping to this grab bag aesthetic,
Kay makes the most of his experimentation with some "vocal bass synthetics" on the hard
funk title track. Also engaging is the melancholy
soul-
folk of
"Seven Days in Sunny June" and the similarly
quiet storm-ready
ballad "Talullah." On the funky side of things,
"Starchild" finds
Kay proclaiming the coming of a
disco superman while
"Time Won't Wait" is an infectious
Off the Wall-era
Michael Jackson boogie fest with
Kay urging people to make their dreams come true over a bed of pulsating
disco beats. The
Jamiroquai faithful would accept nothing less.
~Matt Collar, All Music Guide
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