Jamiroquai: Synkronized : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Synkronized, the new Jamiroquai album, won't overwhelm you with surprises. The first single, "Canned Heat," is a frothy disco retread, complete with a swirling string section, and "Planet Home" lifts a distorted bass line straight from the P-Funk songbook. Singer Jay Kay's vocals are not foregrounded as prominently as on the band's platinum Travelling Without Moving (1997), but he's still riding high on the soul train, liberally borrowing tone, phrasing and lyric ideas from Seventies idols like Stevie Wonder and Curtis Mayfield. For some folks, those qualities make Jamiroquai dismissible. But Synkronized is fifty minutes of sleek, sexy fun, a party album delivered with something like conviction. It's not exactly irresistible, but, really, what's the point of resisting it? (RS 816-817)

ANTHONY DeCURTIS