Jamiroquai's "Rock Dust Light Star" One Year Later

Funk and disco, R&B’s progeny, are not to be mixed according to some. In truth, these styles rub shoulders often. Those schooled enough on black music will understand the phobic lines drawn in the sand regarding these genres are man made divisions, not musical.

Jason Cheetham, or Jay Kay as he's known, led his group Jamiroquai out of the acid jazz confines of Britain by being dashing enough to mix those previously mentioned genre offshoots of R&B. In the last ten years however, there had been whispers of which elements had factored into their sound.

At the beginning, Jamiroquai was much like their acid jazz cousin The Brand New Heavies: a band. Each band member played an integral role into what shaped classics like Emergency on Planet Earth (1993) and Return of the Space Cowboy (1995). Those records were praised for their spontaneous, organic feel, heavier on jazz and funk. The creamy, dreamy disco strings were kept to just a dollop.

As Jamiroquai evolved, the group remained professional and gifted, but were relegated to elevated session player status. It reflected in Jamiroquai's sound as the group began moving toward complex, concise, elevated structures that owed more to disco than just mere funk improvisations. Granted, closer inspection leads one to see that Jamiroquai (like Earth, Wind & Fire before them), moved on the same track black music did as funk and disco slowly merged during the mid-to-late-‘70’s into a delectable gestalt. The funk didn’t vanish, it just wasn’t the only thing there. Now raucous guitar solos hung alongside glistening electronic flourishes, and those strings became front and center stars.

Released one year ago today, Rock Dust Light Star (2010), their seventh album overall and first on Mercury Records after leaving Epic Records, was met with high expectations from fans and critics. The ingenious craft that went into A Funk Odyssey (2001) and Dynamite (2005) peered at the hybrid of funk and disco, with an electronic edge that was accessorial in nature. Both projects were met with commercial success, but divided Jamiroquai’s fans. Many enjoyed the forward momentum, but the ever loving didgeridoo crew core of fans yearned for a simpler Jamiroquai.

Rock Dust Light Star sought to meet both fans in the middle. Far too late to reverse their musical evolution, Jay Kay leading another savvy pack of session players wanted to bring a more chilled groove to the proceedings. That groove would, ideally, loop the group back to the echoes of their first two records. The title track moves along pleasantly enough, and while not an immediate winner, it snatches the listener with each subsequent spin. Kay still could beguile when it came to his vocal prowess. With that voice, Kay breathed self-contemplation into “Blue Skies” (the “Corner of the Earth” of this LP) and gave finger snappin' wit to “Lifeline.”

The words are grounded, as they've been for awhile, in the fields of unrequited love or otherwise. “All Good in the Hood” figured Kay as the done-wrong lover who warns that “a little tension makes the world go round” when it comes to love being right. He then drastically shifted to the apologist crooner on “Two Completely Different Things,” wearing his Stevie Wonder influence proudly.

When the tempo began reaching for more floorfiller adrenaline, it remained mannered as heard on the lead single “White Knuckle Ride.” "White..." had the requisite “soul sista” backing vocals, the busy violin section, and that heart pounding beat. “She’s a Fast Persuader” proved to be more gratifying to the A Funk Odyssey and Dynamite crowds. Glowing and cheeky, it was a brash nod to the fine art of fellatio; its night-streaked bliss should have been an obvious single.

"Blue Skies"
Directed By: Howard Greenhalgh


Rock Dust Light Star found that Jamiroquai was comfortable enough to switch their own stylistic tempos when it suited them. The peaks of their first two records can’t be compared to Rock Dust Light Star because the fact is that they’ve become that good. Even the low key performances here are slick and accessible, in a good sense. That isn’t a bad thing, as Jamiroquai has made some of the best mainstream music around. Tastefully crafted, contemporary and retro without any of the irony, and bearing the traits to reach eventual classic status. It will be up to fans to accept that they may have started on “Planet Home,” but they’ve travelled to a galaxy of funk-disco composite ectasy far, far away and we’re just along for the ride. Five stars out of five.-QH

[Editor's Note: Rock Dust Light Star is available in all music retailers, in-store or online, that specialize in import materials. For more information on Jamirquai, visit: http://www.jamiroquai.com/-QH]