Synkronized is the fourth studio album released by English funk and acid jazz band Jamiroquai. It was released on 8 June 1999 on Work Group in the United States, and on 14 June 1999 in the United Kingdom under S2 Records. While the group recorded the album, bassist Stuart Zender left Jamiroquai, and Nick Fyffe was hired as a replacement. The album contains funk, acid jazz and disco elements.
The album reached number one in the UK Albums Chart and number 28 in the US Billboard 200. The UK version of the album includes the bonus track "Deeper Underground", which was released as a single the previous year and became Jamiroquai's only number-one single in the UK.
Album information
Nick Fyffe (pictured 2012) joined the group as their new bassist.
The album's recording sessions began at Jay Kay'sBuckinghamshire home studio, Chillington, in 1998. About 9 tracks[1] were recorded, but the band's bassist, Stuart Zender, left partway through the recording in late 1998. Jay Kay hired a replacement, Nick Fyffe, and the album was re-recorded. The revised album was finished and released within 6 months.[1]Synkronized is the band's last album to feature didgeridoo player Wallis Buchanan.[2]
The opening track, "Canned Heat", has "svelte Chic Organisation strings, a percolating bassline and a stomping four-on-the-floor rhythm".[3] The second track, "Planet Home", is a "straight, bass-driven funk" track that has techno influences from "ghostly ambient harmonies to bone-shaking synth bass," and an "out-of-nowhere Latin hustle breakdown".[4][5] The next track, "Black Capricorn Day", has a "driving funk groove with sassy horn interjections" which tend to "stutte[r] like a record on a turntable", with its lyrics about being depressed.[4][6] "Falling" is a "bass driven" acid-jazz ballad track,[7][8] which is followed by "Destitute Illusion", an instrumental track "swamped in layer upon layer of antique analogue synthesizers", and has the "scratching of DJ D-Zire".[3][8]
The seventh track, "Supersonic", has a "didgeridoo and dobro drone against electronic percussion and a squiggling synth bass, all of which builds to an hallucinogenic mid-song samba break."[4] The "breezy" track "Butterfly" has "a wobbly bassline that rises up and swamps the chorus."[7][3] "Where Do We Go from Here?" was described [by whom?] as the point of change within the group's sound, using rocks with a leap-frogging blues piano and tangy bongos. The final song on the album, "King for a Day", has "dramatic piano and sympathetic strings", with its lyrics referencing Zender's departure.[9][10]
Release
Synkronized was first released on 8 June 1999 on the Work Group label in the United States,[11] then on 14 June in the United Kingdom on Sony Soho Square.[12] The album reached number 28 in the US Billboard 200, where it sold 310,000 shipments.[13] The album peaked at number 2 in the UK chart.[14] In Japan, it reached number 2,[15] and in the year end charts there it ranked number 32 in 1999.[16] It peaked at number 2 in the French SNEP Album charts and number 30 in the year end chart in 1999.[17][18] In Switzerland, it reached number 2 in the Swiss Albums Charts,[19] and number 25 in the year end chart in 1999.[20] It ranked number 1 in the German Media Control Albums Chart,[21] and it ranked at number 23 in the German year end charts.[22] In Belgium, it ranked 4 in the Ultratop Flanders chart and nymber 6 in the Wallonia chart.[23][24] In their year end charts, the album ranked at 42 and 36 respectively.[25][26] In the Netherlands, in peaked at 6 in the album chart,[27] and number 50 in the year end chart in 1999.[28] In the Australian ARIA Albums chart,[29] it ranked at 1 and 63 at the end of the year.[30] The album was certified platinum in the UK, Switzerland and France.[31][32][33] In Japan, it had a quadruple platinum certification.[34] The album was certified gold in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Australia.[35][36][37][38] It was Platinum in Europe by the IFPI denoting sales of 1,000,000 copies.[39] The album overall sold 3,000,000 copies worldwide.[40]
"Deeper Underground" was the first single to be released on 13 July 1998, where it topped the UK Singles Chart. It remains as their only single to do so.[41][42] "Canned Heat" was released on 24 May 1999 and was the group's second number one on the US Billboard Dance Club Songs Chart.[43][44] It also ranked at number 4 in the UK.[45] "Supersonic", released 13 September 1999, is the group's third US Dance Club number 1, also ranking at number 22 in the UK.[44][46][47] "King For A Day" is the last song to be released, where it peaked at number 20 in the UK.[48][49]
Tony Farsides of The Guardian remarked that Synkronized's "hard and nervy uptempo disco feel reflects the frantic atmosphere surrounding its creation." Farsides called it "Jamiroquai's best record to date. It is more consistent than its three predecessors. The new album's key innovation occurs sonically, with the addition of a harder digital edge to Jamiroquai's trusty jazz-funk."[58]Rolling Stone gave the album 3 out of five stars, claiming "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?"[55]Spin gave the album the same rating, claiming "...redirects the band's British tendency toward smoothed-out old black jams....soaring strings, gyrating congas, hell-bent wah-wah's, and an undeniably live rhythm section that'll hustle your muscles and make you freak to the beat..."[56]Entertainment Weekly claimed "Imagine if [Stevie] Wonder had made a disco album in 1977!....Synkronized is a hat trick done with the sharpest chapeau in the store."[52]College Music Journal claimed "This incessantly upbeat expedition travels into the regions of Travolta-era disco...feverish funk...and instrumental iridescence...keeping your ears tuned to their funktastic audio adventures."[11]Q magazine claimed the album was one of the "50 Best Albums of 1999".[59]
Prasad Bidaye of Exclaim! called the album, "Jamiroquai's most sophisticated production… The songs don't come anywhere close to the smooth balance of funk and environmentalism in their earlier material, but their philosophy of pre-millennial escapism makes this one of the most energetic recordings Jamiroquai has released in years."[60] Edna Gundersen of USA Today wrote that "while the band's fourth album does boast a few jamming grooves, especially the brassy Black Capricorn Day, most of the tracks are to funk what Pop Tarts are to soul food."[61] Writing for Las Vegas Review-Journal, Tom Moon wrote that "the liquid, slippery grooves are paramount, though they're sometimes buried under mountains of strings and arrangements that are a tad too busy. He also said that "Canned Heat" and several other tracks are thinly veiled rewrites of "Virtual Insanity" and the other radio songs from Traveling Without Moving."[62] In his consumer guide for The Village Voice, critic Robert Christgau gave the album a C− rating in his annual "Turkey Shoot",[57] indicating "a bad record of some general import".[63]
Kay said in a 2001 Billboard interview that he was dissatisfied with Synkronized, "I never really locked into that album, lyrically. I wasn't there. I listen to it now, and I shake my head."[40]
Track listing
All tracks are written by Jay Kay and Toby Smith, except where noted.
"ジャミロクワイ-リリース-ORICON STYLE-ミュージック"[Highest position and charting weeks of Synkronized by Jamiroquai]. oricon.co.jp (in Japanese). Oricon Style. Archived from the original on 4 March 2014. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
"1999年 アルバム年間TOP100"[Oricon Year-end Albums Chart of 1999] (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 8 January 2008. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Omnibus Press. p.1987. ISBN978-0857125958. Archived from the original on 11 September 2021. Retrieved 13 December 2021– via Google Books.
Browne, David (11 June 1999). "Synkronized". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 15 December 2020. Retrieved 5 December 2020.
Simpson, Dave (4 June 1999). "Jamiroquai: Synkronized (S2)". The Guardian.
DeCurtis, Anthony (8 July 1999). "Jamiroquai: Synkronized". Rolling Stone. No.816–817. Archived from the original on 29 June 2007. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
Walters, Barry (August 1999). "Jamiroquai: Synkronized". Spin. 15 (8): 154–56. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
Christgau, Robert (15 October 2000). "CG 90s: Key to Icons". Robert Christgau. Archived from the original on 28 January 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
Synkronized (liner notes). Jamiroquai. Epic Records. 1999. S2 494517 2.{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
Synkronized (liner notes). Jamiroquai. Epic Records. 1999. ESCA 8006.{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
Synkronized (liner notes). Jamiroquai. Sony Soho Square. 1999. 494517 9.{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
Synkronized (liner notes). Jamiroquai. Sony Soho Square. 1999. OK 69973.{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
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