It was just barely two weeks ago, when a confirmed performance by Jamiroquai marked their return. Things then moved really quickly. A new album was also announced and a few days ago, a brand new song and video was released, the deep and serious “Automaton”.
The last original Jamiroquai studio album was released a good 7 years ago. The group has only released re-issues of some of their albums around their 20th anniversary in 2013 and there have been talks off a new album ever since, but good things come with good time.
“Automaton” is the lead single and title track off their upcoming album, due for release on March 31st 2017. The album will feature 12 new tracks, but the title track already reveals a slight change in sound.
Jamiroquai have always been known to create funky music with a retro reference to the 70s, but this time they’ve moved ahead in their retro references. With heavier synth sound effects and overall digitalization, it makes it sound like Jamiroquai have met Daft Punk.
Of course, the futuristic electronic sound is very much intended due to the topic of the song and it took me a whole 2 seconds to get used to it. Initially, it may sound a little bit messy, but once you get, you get it into it and as I said, it only takes you a moment to find the intention.
Lyrically, the song is very much a warning to the human race. Very much like other songs of theirs have also been. Jamiroquai is trying to trigger us into thinking about things, the way of the world today.
In the first run down of the catchy chorus, there’s also a hint to Billy Idol’s “Eyes Without Face”. That’s about the only recognizable thing in the song. The rest is fully original and, at times, sounds like it could be a great soundtrack to a new Transformers movie.
The conclusion of it all, is that the track is everything you would expect from a Jamiroquai return. They kept everything they stand for, society consciousness, environmental awareness and funk, and updated it to compete with new artists like The Weeknd. Good going.
