Emergency on Planet Earth

I feel like this album overstayed its welcome a little. Still really good, but I don't think it was exceptional.

I'm not sure if 'Travelling Without Moving' is on this list, but that's the one you need to hear before you die. Not this one.

Jamiroquai was my first musical love, so this is a real nostalgia fest for me.
The album’s not perfect, gets a little bit lost in the funk, but I defying anyone to not dance even a little while listening to this.

I didn’t expect to like this very much but it’s actually pretty good.

i wish i could downvote comments on this page.

great album

At times, this sounds like Herbie Hancock’s 𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘏𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 being repurposed for an aerobics class. There’s plenty of movement, but I’m not convinced we’re getting anywhere. The musicians certainly sound busy; whether I’m enjoying myself is a separate question.

I kept wondering: is this jazz-funk? Soul? Am I actually enjoying it, or just nodding along out of politeness? A few passages catch my attention, but I keep losing track of the songs while the grooves carry on perfectly happily without me.

And no, I’m not buying the Stevie Wonder comparisons. Jay or Kay — whichever it is — can clearly sing, but I’m missing the warmth and character that make Stevie’s voice so appealing to me. There may be an emergency on planet Earth, but my main concern here is how long we’re going to stay on this particular bassline.

Boy, howdy.

A white bloke from Stretford, Manchester, channelling Stevie Wonder, whilst invoking the French colonial name of the Haudenosaunee people and wearing the War Bonnets belonging to the Plains Nations.

Did this white boy use his millions to support Indigenous land rights or communities?

YOU'LL NEVER GUESS!

Pretty cool.

So you're a British lad from Lancashire.

You form a band.

You name it after an Anerican First Nation.

Your band plays black American funk based largely on Stevie Wonder, Earth Wing & Fire and Motown.

Your band includes an Australian Aboriginal instrument and you have it played by a Jamaican musician.

You dress for the stage in First Nation feathered head dresses

You're kind of a poster boy for cultural colonialism.

It's all very slick and polished, but when it's really easy to listen to Talking Book and Head Hunters and George Clinton and Marvin and Tammy then you have to ask "Why?"

Some fun songs - veri smol 3

Il y a un truc fascinant avec le cynisme, c'est que plus le temps passe et plus il a tendance à vous donner raison sur l’état du monde, tout en vous rendant totalement impardonnable sur le plan de la patience humaine.

Prenez par exemple Jay Kay et sa bande de joyeux lurons à couvre-chefs démesurés. Et bien en 1993, lorsque ce satané Emergency On Planet Earth a déboulé dans les bacs pour saturer les ondes européennes, j’étais déjà là à lever les yeux au ciel. A l’époque, jeune con que j’étais, tout ce cirque me passait royalement au-dessus de la tête. Il faut dire que voir un jeune blanc-bec londonien fringué comme un chaman de fête foraine venir nous expliquer, sur fond de cocottes de guitare clinquantes et de souffles de didgeridoo, que la terre brûle et qu’il faut sauver les baleines, cela me laissait froid comme un marbre d’église. Trente-trois piges plus tard, le jeune con est devenu un vieux con parfaitement assumé, et mon constat n’a pas bougé d’un iota : sur le plan strictement musical, rien là-dedans ne parvient à me faire bander.

On nous a vendu Jamiroquai comme le messie d’un acid-jazz miraculeux, le pont doré entre l’héritage incandescent de Stevie Wonder et l’hédonisme frénétique des clubs londoniens du début des années 90. Oui peut être, mais quand on commence à regarder derrière le vernis rétro et les cuivres rutilants, qu’est-ce qui reste réellement pour l'oreille ? Une mixture indigeste à force de vouloir bouffer à tous les râteliers. C’est trop funk pour les amateurs de finesse, trop jazz pour ceux qui cherchent la sueur brute du rock, et désespérément pas assez couillu pour espérer rivaliser avec la moindre production de Sly Stone ou de George Clinton. C’est de la virtuosité propre sur elle, enregistrée à la va-vite sous la pression d’un mirobolant contrat de huit albums chez Sony qui avait flairé le bon filon pour tous les branchés en mal de groove propre. Tout est poli, lustré, calibré pour faire dodeliner du chef les cadres dynamiques en fin de semaine, mais ça manque cruellement de ce quelque chose qui fait qu’un disque vous arrache le cœur ou vous prend aux tripes.

Pourtant, au milieu de cet étalage de basse slappée et de minauderies vocales où Jay Kay s'écoute chanter avec une autosatisfaction qui confine au sublime, il faut bien concéder une chose : le bougre avait vu juste avant tout le monde sur le naufrage global et c’est le seul véritable mérite que je consens aujourd’hui à lui reconnaître. Quand il hurlait à l’urgence écologique et dénonçait les massacres géopolitiques dans le sillage de la guerre du Golfe, on pouvait ricaner devant la posture du boy-scout écolo. Sauf que trois décennies plus tard, la flotte est empoisonnée, le thermomètre explose, et l'humanité continue de foncer dans le mur en klaxonnant à tout rompre. Le message de détresse d’Emergency On Planet Earth est devenu une oraison funèbre d'une terrifiante banalité, et le pire, c’est que dans trente-trois ans, si notre carcasse ou ce qu’il en reste traîne encore quelque part, ce constat d’apocalypse imminente sera encore et toujours la réalité du quotidien.

Le paradoxe ultime de cette fable, c'est l'hypocrisie béante qui sépare le prédicateur de son sermon. Entendre ce type s’égosiller contre la société de consommation et l’agonie de la biosphère prêterait presque à sourire jaune quand on sait ce que le personnage est devenu par la suite : un collectionneur compulsif de supercars avalant du sans-plomb à la tonne dans son garage de nabab. Dès ce premier opus, la posture sentait déjà un peu le sapin marketing, la révolte de salon soigneusement emballée pour squatter les programmations branchées sans jamais risquer de froisser un actionnaire. Le sermon était impeccable sur le papier, mais l'incarnation sonnait terriblement creux, diluée dans une esthétique de boîte de nuit proprette où l'indignation servait surtout de faire-valoir rythmique pour pistes de danse enfumées.

Musicalement, la sentence du temps est sans appel : le disque a très mal vieilli. Les arrangements de cordes et les velléités symphoniques tentent désespérément de donner une épaisseur solennelle à ce qui n'est, au fond, qu'une longue jam-session trop bavarde. Chaque montée en puissance finit par s'enliser dans une démonstration technique stérile, où les musiciens s'écoutent surtout jouer, laissant ainsi l'album s'éparpiller en volutes inoffensives et en nous laissant totalement sur notre faim.

C’est cette amère ironie qui me pousse à lâcher un misérable deux sur cinq, uniquement pour saluer la justesse d’une alerte que personne n’a voulu écouter. Pour le reste, la musique peut bien continuer de tourner en rond dans son bocal de nostalgie seventies stérilisée : mes oreilles, elles, ont déjà quitté la piste depuis bien longtemps.

Virtual Insanity is a banger, unfortunately it isn't on this album. This one has other stuff not as good as that song but kind of the same? What do you want me to say

Man!! Crazy to me that Jamiroquai is getting cultural appropriation thrown at them. And I’m a black man. I feel like they full heartedly appreciate the funk and jazz that inspired this music and at no moment does it feel like they’re stealing or trying to hide the roots of where this music stems from. They’re putting their own spin on too. When was the last time you heard a funk record with didgeridoo all over it?

Idk, I could be wrong. But what Jamiroquai does on this record feels authentic to me. And beyond that, there is just some solid grooves all over this album. I was going to give this a 4.5, but bumping it to a 5.

If Earth, Wind & Fire took some acid but somehow became more boring - & more British - this is what you'd get. Not e'en remotely in the same breath as Stevie Wonder, tho Jay Kay goes for that sort of chorus on 'Too Young to Die,' Jamiroquai aren't disgraceful funksters (they mean well, have good intentions, etc.) - they're actually just too (fill in the blank) to get down. I'm trying to avoid the unproductive phrase 'too white,' but the crew leaves me w/ little alternative. I'll try to elaborate. A moving, not just a grooving, kind of music, funk should have what you may term 'emotional depth.' That's a pretty ghastly expression, but when art doesn't have it, you miss what you would otherwise consider cliché. This doesn't have it. & it's shit. Q.E.D.

The offspring spawn of an unholy union between Steve Urkell and a bad Stevie Wonder cover band …

Obviously, Jay Kay is a knobhead, but I figured maybe the debut record might have some redeeming factors given the benefit of time. Kicking off with some didgeredoo instantly dispelled me of this notion.

Lots of turgid cod-hippy lyrics, and then we get into things like the ad libbing in If I Like It I Do It, which is diabolical.

So much competent but boring funk that adds nothjng to the canon. Good bassline in We're Too Young To Die. Otherwise a total waste of time.

It’s a 10.

I’m just glowing after listening to this. Yes, Jay Kay sounds like Stevie Wonder. Yes, Jay Kay is a white man doing so, as are most of Jamiroquai. I will let other people succinctly describe how much cultural appropriation is present here & how to balance that with paying tribute to & being inspired by black artists. It’s not something I feel smart enough to tackle, nor something I necessarily want to mentally cope with. You know why? Because this album fucking rules, that’s why, & so does Jamiroquai. Stuff like “Virtual Insanity”, “Canned Heat”, “Love Foolosophy”, “Seven Days in Sunny June” and a whole lot more have been in my rotation for years. Despite that, I’ve never heard a full Jamiroquai album, and that’s a mistake that I feel like a fucking moron for never addressing until now.

This is excellent stuff from top to bottom here. The instrumental work is a slick update of the ‘70s soul/jazz sound with a bit of ‘90s flair, and for 1993 in particular, these guys feel well ahead of that updated curve that would become a bit more prominent by the early 2000s & especially so once Bruno Mars came into his own in the 2010s. Yes, it’s all derivative of that era to a degree, but what makes Jamiroquai’s sound work is the electronica elements thrown in & integrated almost seamlessly. Moog synths as far as the ear can hear underline a good chunk of these tracks, working almost like a pseudo wall of sound for the strings, guitars, drums, and ESPECIALLY the bass work, which feels underrated in relationship to the rest of the groove here. Obviously, Jay Kay’s voice is the anchor that puts it all together, but his voice wouldn’t be as compelling as it is without the strength of the lyrics here. Yeah, being anti-war & pro-environment isn’t new ground for anybody, especially by 1993, but tapping into those frustrations in a way that’s pointed as class warfare worth fighting against to ensure both personal freedom & economic / environmental change happen… that’s slightly newer ground. Stevie Wonder said that love was in need of love in 1976. Jay Kay, in 1993, was actively calling for revolution. It’s different forms of tact, and while I’m personally more inclined towards Stevie’s choice to seek peaceful solutions & appealing to the human spirit, I can’t say Jay Kay’s approach is unappealing. It’s just more forceful, really.

That force applies to the instrumentals here in spades – when this album is bumping a bassline & pulsing its synths & percussion, it’s just insanely infectious. Combine that with Jay’s voice & the overall push for change that’s so present through this album, it’s just one that has you locked in to every second of it for practically its whole runtime. The only track that might feel a little filler-y is “Blow Your Mind”, but that’s just because the back half goes a touch long. I don’t think there’s a skip here at all, and every moment is filled with something to keep the listener engaged. This is a tightly designed album from front to back, flowing with a purpose from track to track, including bookending the album with that didgeridoo, and it do be didgering, to be clear. A bit silly, sure, but given that there’s not a harmonica here, perhaps the didgeridoo is just Jamiroquai’s own harmonica.

Ultimately, I just think it’s a fantastic album. I could keep typing about every track here, but I think that once the string stabs at the start of “Too Young to Die” hit, this album needs no further description. It’s just an audio journey worth listening to before you die, and I feel like a moron for not having done so until now. I gotta find more album cuts from these guys. This is an easy, easy 10 for me.

Some great funk/soul worship here. This definitely surprised me. I've always written this band off because of the ridiculous hats their singer seems to define himself with. This might be my new secret shame. I still hate the didgeridoo being worked in so often. Feels like a novelty at that point.

The 90s produced a lot of faded photocopies of older sounds, especially in the UK. In guitar music Britpop was the 60s and 70s, in funk and soul we had this lot and the Brand New Heavies trying to resurrect 70s sounds. I'd rather have the Brand New Heavies cos at least you don't have to listen to Jay Kay and ponder his many non musical crimes. Being an ungentlemanly ex of Winona Ryder, repeatedly endangering the lives of people using the A9 by driving like a knob, storming the US Capitol building, etc

Well, what can I say.
Jamiroquai is my childhood, and I’m not exaggerating when I say they are the most important band in my life. And my favorite band of all time. Always have been, most likely always will be.

Now, let’s talk about Emergency on Planet Earth – what a masterpiece. Wonderful, sensational, perfect. An album absolutely dripping with musical perfection from start to finish. Jamiroquai's debut record, and already pure genius back then. Starting with "When You Gonna Learn", which opens the album with a didgeridoo, leading the way into an acid jazz miracle. Beautiful, bouncy violins introduce us to the sounds of "Too Young To Die", as Jay Kay guides us with his voice through instruments that stroke and caress our ears and brains. "Hooked Up" takes us into a world of groove and great drumming, and the same goes for "If I Like It, I Do It", which brings a bit of aggression to the acid jazz sound. This funk story then takes us to the instrumental track "Music of the Mind", which perfectly describes how it sounds with its title alone. Simply the perfection of instrumental acid jazz. Next up is the title track, "Emergency on Planet Earth". Starting with a brilliant funk guitar, the riff leads the listener into what is likely the best track on the album (though every single one of them is downright genius and deserves 5/5 stars). "Whatever It Is, I Just Can’t Stop" once again showcases the great groove of this album. "Blow Your Mind", much like "Music of the Mind", is a feast for the mind (pun intended). It takes the perfect instrumental sections of "Music of the Mind" and works even better combined with Jay Kay’s vocals, creating something of a funk ballad for the album. And then, the epic finale, "Revolution 1993" – a over-10-minute masterpiece with an incredibly fast, parade-like, marching rhythm. Thumping drums, aggression, speed, but also funk-acid jazz touches create a majestic finale for this masterpiece. Jamiroquai closes their debut album with the outro "Didgin' Out", played on the didgeridoo.

Well, what more is there to say.
Jamiroquai are geniuses. Yes, it’s the whole band, not just the singer, get that through your empty heads. And to the people talking about some fucking cultural appropriation… guys, this is cultural appreciation. A GOOD ONE. Jamiroquai have their own sound, their own groove, their own voice. They sound like nobody else, and even if you hear influences from more famous artists – so what? Every musician was inspired by someone else, that’s just logical. Saying that Jay Kay is white and can't play black music is more racist than Jay Kay and anyone in the band could ever be. By the way, several black musicians played on this album. What's your point???

Jamiroquai are musical geniuses, and Emergency on Planet Earth is a masterpiece.