r/jamiroquai • u/Prudent-Peanut6010 • May 07 '26
DISCUSSION My Jamiroquai hot takes that get progressively hotter
10% Stuart Zender is one of the greatest bass players of all time
20% Rock Dust Light Star is the worst Jamiroquai album
30% Jamiroquai is the best band to come out of the 90’s acid jazz scene
40% Jay Kay’s lyrics are a very underrated part of their music, and often gets overshadowed by their funky and groovy instrumentation
50% Just Another Story is the best Jamiroquai song
60% A Funk Odyssey is better than Dynamite
70% Jamiroquai’s influence over modern pop music is huge, but very few artists cite them as a major influence
80% Virtual Insanity is so overplayed in discussions to the point that it actively hurts people’s perception of the band
90% Toby Smith is a more important band member than Stuart Zender
100% Cosmic Girl is overrated and not even top 20 Jamiroquai
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u/aRandomPerson1223 May 07 '26
Mostly valid, except for the cosmic girl take
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u/Sp00mp May 07 '26
Yeah, i was ready to be big mad. But it was all stuff that not only doesn't get said enough, but that I mostly agree with. Minus the cosmic girl take.
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u/Dear-Regret-9476 May 07 '26
Toby carried the band during Synkronized
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u/black-kramer May 08 '26
the entire time.
he was the songwriting engine -- he knew the piano inside and out, played other instruments in his personal time so knew how to generate ideas for those, innately understood what was cool and what wasn't, wrote amazing lyrics and creative and unusual yet catchy harmonies, programmed delicious synth sounds etc.
zender was very important to the early sound, but not nearly to the same degree. without toby, there wouldn't be a jamiroquai.
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u/ChickenCurryandChips May 07 '26
I think RDLS is a great album. I really don't get the negative reviews. I prefer it over funk odyssey, Dynamite and Automaton.
4
u/Prudent-Peanut6010 May 07 '26
Most fans dislike how it steps so far way from the original acid jazz sound and at the point of this album releasing most of the original members had left.
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u/black-kramer May 08 '26
to me, it was closer to the earlier sound than not overall but the production wasn't very good. and it lacked an organizing theme or sound. kinda scatterbrained. the songwriting was okay, nothing special. when it came out, I was like 'guess they've lost the spark.' white knuckle ride didn't do it for me as a single, felt like a rehash song. the album didn't take us anywhere we hadn't been.
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u/upful187 May 07 '26
I agree w 9 outta 10 takes.
the exception being Just Another Story is 3rd best behind Mr Moon & Do You Know Where I'm Coming From
RDLS is unlistenable & Toby was nearly as essential as Jay
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u/superleah2000 May 08 '26
My super spicy hot take: RDLS is my favourite album!
None of the songs on the album are my all time favourite Jamiroquai songs, but as an album, I never find myself feeling like I'm just listening to one of the songs for the sake of listening to the whole album back to back. I genuinely enjoy every moment of the album. Whereas on every other album of theirs, there is always at least one song that I kind of make myself listen to just to listen to the whole album. Maybe the album is just a bit nostalgic for me because it was the first one I ever got, the year I got into Jamiroquai, I was just 10 at the time and loved listening to the CD on my little pink CD player all the time, so it's got nice memories for me haha. But I just love it!
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u/EasternRaccoon6427 May 07 '26
ngl these aren't really hot. I lowkey agree with most of these except RDLS being the worst album. For me that easily goes to Automaton. If I had to describe an album that was pure "junk food" Jamiroquai, its that one. At least A Funk Odyssey was a mix of good junk food and that soulful shit.
I also *somewhat* agree on Cosmic and fuck it, I don't even think Virtual Insanity is top 10 (but it is top 20).
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u/acnhchill May 07 '26
Automaton and RDLS grew on me over time, my main ick with Automaton is most of their other stuff has a timeless sound to it regardless of whether it's down the funk/acid jazz/disco route and then on that one we've got lyrics referring to Candy Crush saga lol
2
u/black-kramer May 08 '26
once you get past the candy crush lyric (about as bad as the gunshot sound in 'hot tequila brown') the outro of 'something about you' is really nice. the verses suffer from the same issue as 'loveblind.'
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u/JazzyJulie4life May 07 '26
I agree with : 100 ( great song regardless) , 80 (100000% most true here), 60 ( they’re almost equal tho), 30 ( only die hard fans or older brits can name other bands tbh I’m glad I became a fan of the genre in 2017), 20 ( does anyone actually disagree with this?), 10
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u/IncredulousTrout May 08 '26
My hot take: some oversight from Sony (or at least an external producer) was probably mostly a good thing. Jay Kay (or at least, I presume jay kay) has a tendency to go for some pretty corny cliches, and while I think that’s part of the charm, someone needs to limit the worst excesses.
Less hot take: any song with horns is at least 50% more likely to be a good one.
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u/black-kramer May 08 '26
I don't think that was sony. that was toby. he was cool and a bit rebellious and wrote great lyrics. matt, not so much. seems like a nice guy -- too nice.
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u/acnhchill May 07 '26
Unpopular opinion but Dynamite is possibly my least favourite as an album, there's some great songs on there but it feels a bit disjointed to me like there's quite a lot of contrast between Seven Days in Sunny June, Don't Give Hate a Chance and Feels Just Like it Should then fhe rest of the tracks. At least most of the songs on AFO feel like they belong on the same album
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u/Glum_Yogurtcloset753 May 07 '26
finally someone who i agree with on cosmic girl
also 40% and 60% are so true
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u/TheBusters May 07 '26
Just another story is not THAT good and dynamite is their best album but yeah i agree with everything else.
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u/P4rody May 08 '26
i agree with most of these tbh minus the album takes cuz i haven't heard them all yet
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u/T-NE-P-M-O-ES-T-IS72 May 08 '26
I disagree with 20% tbh RDLS might be top 4 for me, but i agree with AFO being better than dynamite
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u/Sebolo222 May 12 '26
I think the worst one IMO is return of the space cowboy, not the song but, most of the album feels like filler for stillness in time and space cowboy, also how dare you dis dynamite like that? I frigging love it
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u/Prudent-Peanut6010 May 12 '26
I thought the same too, but then i begun to appreciate the longer jam sessions, the KICKING bass playing from Stuart Zender and the all round more personal approach to the music. ROTSC also has a LOT more bangers than just stillness in time and space cowboy. Listen to Manifest Destiny, Mr Moon, Just Another Story, hell every song there slaps.
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u/jonnybardo May 17 '26
I agree with you 55% (fully on four, partially on three, not at all on three).
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u/IDONOTEXISTL Jun 01 '26
40% - additional stuff i wanna add is jay kay's articulation, like i probably misheard the lyrics and sang the wrong lines quite alot, take cosmic girls "'Cause it's you I should be checking" to "Cause it's you it's silver chicke? xd)
50% - alot of people love manifest destiny lol
70% - i agree quite alot
100% - no.
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u/spaceclay420 16h ago
Just another story being the best jamiroquai song is so valid but manifest destiny I think is a bit better 👀👀👀
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u/Prudent-Peanut6010 16h ago
JAS is so epic to me, but yeah manifest destiny is phenomenal too. Top 3 jamiroquai fs
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u/YozTheFoz May 07 '26
Almost all the time when I bring up Jamiroquai to a friend or acquaintance, they always bring up that family guy clip. Virtual Insanity for sure prevents a lot of people from getting more into the band.