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  1. yep, that would be the point
  2. Let's all post some longer, more detailed thoughts about the album before we move on this week!
  3. Feel So Good is a pretty good and fun opener. It is then followed by two tracks that never really connect with me at all and feel quite repetitive to me. Then comes the cool intro of Corner of the Earth which is just a really good intro. The track itself is also a favorite on the album. Nicely chilled out music. Love Foolosophy is also a cool song. I can understand why Sergio likes it. To me it has too much pop shine on it. It's the lack of rawness that I guess is my main issue with the album. It's an issue that I also have with ATYCLB.

    Then comes the second half of the album. Things change for the better. Definitely much better than the first half. Stop Don't Panic has some gritty guitar that I really wanted to hear. Black Crow is much more direct than previous tracks on the album and feels like it has some more emotion and meaning. Main Vein is also a nice one, as is Twenty Zero One, which has some umph in it. It is quite electronic, but also quite gritty and not as polished as other tracks which makes it much cooler to me. Picture Of My Life closes the album in a well done way. It calms things down and has some nice instrumentation.

    Overall this album has the feeling of not really being one for me. It's too electronic with too little grit to connect with me, especially the first half of it. I can however see this being a really good album within its genre and I can understand people liking it. To me most of it is pretty cool background music. The second half of the album is much better than the first one.
  4. Funnily enough, I'm late to the review of my own album choice Well here we go:



    Jamiroquai - A Funk Odyssey



    1. Feel So Good - an outer space intro gets you in the mood with what you're gonna listen for the next 45 minutes. The plane lifts off and so does the album. The fuzzy bass lines on the chorus fascinates me. That funky guitar during the verses... I'm holding heaven in my hands!! It definitely feels so good, and seguing it into...
    2. Little L - ...is the best way to end it. The first time that string section appears on the album - but it won't be the last. My favorite thing about this song, besides Jay's vocal deliver, is the change in the verse order in the chorus. "Why does it have to be like this? / 'Cos you make me love you love you, baby", and then "'Cos you make love you love you, babe / Why does it have to be like this? ". It's subtle and maybe pretty dumb, but I adore it. And the only thing I dislike is how it ends with a fade out instead of a more elaborate ending.
    3. You Give Me Something - When I met you, you were so unique - you had that little think I'd love to keep... We've all felt that some time. Possibly my 2nd favorite on the album. I love it in every possible way. And another subtle change in the chorus that I like: "You know that you, you give me something: something that nobody else can give / nobody else has got". Lovely.
    4. Corner Of The Earth - and there it goes. My favorite Jamiroquai, and one of my favorite songs ever. My love for this song is something I can not fully express with words, just if somebody asks you why you love Bad, Ultraviolet or Streets so much. I'm not comparing those songs to Corner Of The Earth, of course, but you get the point. It was my morning alarm ringtone for a long time. I loved waking up to a song which tells you: love your place on this planet, love what you do, be in contact with the nature, admire its greatness, delight yourself with the smallest things. It's really different instrumentally to the rest of the album with that bossa nova scent, Jay's vocals on the verses don't really sound like him, and the lyrics are delicate, smooth... The crescendo bridge with the horns, and then the sudden stop and BOOM!!, chorus again... Wow, goosebumps. By the way, the famous Arabic-like intro and outtro –which are in a competely different key and slightly dissonant– belongs to an outtake that didn't make it into the album, called Cannabliss I don't smoke and never have, but this song gets me in a mood which I believe is really similar to the one you reach by smoking some weed... Really!
    5. Love Foolosophy - funky R&B at its best. One of their most commercial songs, and well, you can't say it ain't catchy. As I told you, I named my former band (Foolosophy) after this song. Well, it wasn't just me, we hold a vote and the majority of the band chose this, but you get it. Not my favorite on the album, not even close, but damn – you have to recognize when a song is a great song!
    6. Stop Don't Panic - I've never got fully into this one, can't say why. Maybe it's because of the contrast with the preceding greatness or for its industrial sound? Don't know. I can sing it and enjoy it at certain times, but it just doesn't click with me.
    7. Black Crow - who can dislike the beggining of this song? Lovely guitar with a relaxing background... Then the mood changes, the vocals come in and the song "spreads his wings and soars up to another level".
    8. Main Vein - this will make you dance even if you don't want to. I once said it sounds like Jay Kay playing with ABBA, covering a Kool and the Gang song The lyrics don't have anything to do with the amazing groovy music. The verses depict the figths between Jay and his ex-wife. What are you going to do to stop me this time baby?. A simple line that hits you hard: this fights have happened before, but this time I'm determined to end with this - what are you gonna do this time to keep me from doing it?
    9. 2001 - excessive electronic treatment for an otherwise great song. If you can make out the lyrics, they hit you like a truck. Twenty zero one, let me bless you son, help you believe with my semi-automatic gun.
    10. Picture of My Life - And another piece of smooth greatness to end the album. It was expected that I loved the song that ressembles Corner Of The Earth the most, though. But this is great on its own. Acoustic guitar, Latin percussion, backing vocals and some strings - what else do you need to make a song sound great? The final bonus track, "So Good To Feel Real" (present on all album versions), gets you back to the beggining of the album with its "Feels so good" coda. As I said on the review of Nick Cave's album, I love cyclic stories, and I love this one too, of course. I even like its fade-out - which I usually don't!

    Summary: 9'5/10. An almost ideal album. A bit less electronic/industrial production for 2001 and Stop Don't Panic would make it just perfect, but the gems make up for it. I hope you all have enjoyed it
  5. At first I must say I'm not a big fan of them. I don't min them and as background its not bad.
    If I wanted to pick some of their songs I like, it would be Deeper Underground, Supersonic, etc... so more heavier or electronic songs.

    I would devide this album into two halves.

    First half too dance poppy for me... nice groovy bass and guitar, but repetetive. Not bad as background, but nothing special. And it's the same also with Love Foolosophy, the most appriciated song by others.

    Second half is something different.
    It starts with Stop Don't Panic - best song from album (so again totally different than Sergio lol). Great guitar and bass with distorted voice, more electronics... great one.
    Black Crow - nice slow song about fear of war... great lyrics!
    Main Vein - now this is funk! Finally really funky Jay Kay...
    Twenty Zero One - a little bit industrial feel in this electronic track makes it heavy and great! Fits perfectly to the lyrics
    A Picture Of My Life - acoustic song with strings... nice album closer.
    hidden track - back to start... unnecessary, Picture Of my Life closes album much better


    Summary: it's 6/10, but 4/10 first half, 8/10 second half. If whole album was like second half, would be really great.
    I prefer Jay Kay more funky, heavier and elecrtronic. Someone says it's too much electronic, I say "Gimme more electronics, less pop"
    Best songs: Stop Don't Panic, 2001, Black Crow
  6. We're destined not to agree on industrial or heavier songs I'm afraid Nice review anyway!
  7. Jamiroquai - A Funk Odyssey

    Ok, "Feel So Good", isn't a bad way to start the album. You get a sense of what to expect from the rest of the album. There are elements that I don't like in this song though, mainly the "I'll fight for the Moon, Mars, Jupiter..." parts. I do like that distorted bass though that pulses throughout. "Little L" is a song that I am familiar with, it's somewhere in the back of my mind. Very good song, very catchy. "You Give Me Something" tops the previous song and the album continues to get better. I can't say I'm a fan of the introduction to or the ending of "Corner of the Earth" but man, it's such a good song in between. Again, "Foolosophy" continues to strengthen this album. A catchy little number.

    Much has been said already about two contrasting halves of this album. On my first listen, I wasn't that much into the first half, but it really has managed to strike something within me on subsequent listens. The second half of the album on my first listen was the half that I was much more focussed on and enjoyed more. But given the strength of the first half now, it will be difficult for that to remain so.

    "Stop Don't Panic" is a clear change from what we've heard so far, much less dance/pop, much more substance. On first listen, I'd agree with Alvin and rate this highly but now I'm not so sure. Still a really good song though. "Black Crow" has yet to win me over. Low point of the album for me. Main Vein gets us back on track, love the female vocal combination in this one. "Twenty Zero One" is much more electronic than anything we've heard so far. Sounds like something from Wipeout. I think it'd make an excellent instrumental piece. Finally, "Picture of My Life" closes us out in acoustic fashion and as Sergio noted, it resembles "Corner of the Earth" in ways. The two songs aren't close in terms of overall quality though. It's a nice end to the album, but nothing more.

    Overall, it's a very good album. Much better than I had anticipated. The album has grown on me over the past few days and it's been difficult to shake some of those first tracks from my head. For me, the balance has shifted from the second half to the first in terms of being most enjoyable to me. But that's to take nothing away from the second half.

    Top three tracks:
    1. Corner of the Earth
    2. Love Foolosophy
    3. Stop Don't Panic

    Rating: 7.5 out of 10
  8. I will say before I post this next selection that this album has been the biggest surprise for me thus far...wasn't expecting to really fall in love with it - and I should clarify, I'm not "in love" with it - but the entire thing has stayed in full rotation on my playlists...
  9. Next week's selection comes from our user Mr_Trek, who has selected a great 90s rock album for you that is wrongfully overlooked in its genre.

    Black Love - The Afghan Whigs



    1.Crime Scene, Pt. 1
    2. My Enemy
    3. Double Day
    4. Blame, Etc.
    5. Step Into the Light
    6. Going to Town
    7. Honky's Ladder
    8. Night By Candlelight
    9. Bulletproof
    10. Summer's Kiss
    11. Faded

    And, a note from Olof....

    My album of choice for you this week is Black Love by The Afghan Whigs. When I started thinking about which album to choose it didn't take that long for me to realize that I wanted to share a Greg Dulli album with ya'll. It was however harder for me to decide which album. This album as well as a few The Twilight Singers, Dulli's post-Whigs outfit, albums were in the mix. Ultimately I decided to just go with the album I like the most, this one. Black Love is probably my second or third most favorite album of all time. It also has what to me is the best opener/closer combo of any album, Crime Scene Part One and Faded. The album has its origins in what was supposed to be a soundtrack to a Greg Dulli movie that never happened and is quite cinematic. Listening to the album, that movie would probably have been a quite dark, film noir-type crime film.

    Please enjoy....Black Love!
  10. Cool, I've always wanted to try them, so now I've got a chance. Can't wait to listen!

  11. ^ same!


    Nice review of Funk Odissey, Tim No more reviews? Nick Cave and Jamiroquai got only 3 or 4 full reviews, guys, c'mon!
  12. Sergio, I'll write a full one for you- swore I did before but it's clear now that I never posted my thoughts!

    Also Afghan Whigs retweeted me about this album last night
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U2start is run by fans for fans. Help us reduce personal costs. Consider to make a donation to support us.
U2start is run by fans for fans. Help us reduce personal costs. Consider to make a donation to support us.
U2start is run by fans for fans. Help us reduce personal costs. Consider to make a donation to support us.