Travelling Without Moving
Travelling Without Moving is the third studio album by English funk and acid jazz band Jamiroquai, released on 28 August 1996 in Japan, then on 9 September 1996 in the United Kingdom under Sony Soho Square. Front-man Jay Kay intended for the album to have a more universal style, revolving around "cars, life and love".[1] Critics have generally praised the album for being more focused and refined than the band's previous work, while others panned its lyrics and found the album too derivative. Its visual concept of sports cars received backlash from press, as it contradicted Kay's environmental beliefs.
Travelling Without Moving
28 August 1996
- Great Linford Manor
- (Milton Keynes, England)
67:22
- Sony Soho Square (UK)
- Work (US)
- Jason Kay
- Al Stone
The album was Jamiroquai's American breakthrough. It marked the band's first entry in the US Billboard 200 chart at number 24. In the UK, it peaked at number two. Its singles "Virtual Insanity", "Cosmic Girl" and "Alright" entered the top-ten in the UK singles chart. In the US, "Alright" entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 78, while "Cosmic Girl" and "High Times" were in the top-ten in the Dance Club Songs charts. The music video for "Virtual Insanity" contributed to the album's success. Travelling Without Moving sold over 8 million copies worldwide, holding the Guinness World Records as the best-selling funk album in history. The album was reissued in 2013 in remastered form with bonus material.
Background[edit]
After experiencing a stressful period while recording The Return of the Space Cowboy, Kay sought to make the next album more focused and universal. He also did not want to remain as a semi-underground act "that stuck to its little niche and sold one and a half million albums every time. I wanted to breakout and be something bigger, more international."[2] Speaking of the album's general mood, Kay said: "[With Emergency on Planet Earth], people weren't cheering in the streets or anything, and [The Return of the Space Cowboy] was quite sad. With [Travelling Without Moving], I decided it was important to show people we could enjoy ourselves. That's why it's cars, life and love".[1] Kay booked the band into the residential studio Great Linford Manor so that they could work at their own pace.[2][3]
Composition[edit]
The first song composed for the album was "Virtual Insanity". It was recorded as a rough demo and was not fully realised until the album's final recording stage.[2] The song has a piano opening with "buoyant keyboards and soaring strings."[4][5] Its lyrics are about the prevalence of technology and the replication and simulation of life.[1] The second track "Cosmic Girl" is a disco song with "spacey" lyrics, based on rhythmic "looped beats" "to give it an off-center, otherworldly" sound.[6] For the next track "Use The Force" the group channels "that real vintage football vibe",[2] filled with horns, wah-wah guitar and a rippling barrage of Latin percussion".[7] The fourth track "Everyday" is described "as seductive as any Maxwell ballad" and has "over aching strings and a come-hither bass line".[8] The fifth song, "Alright", was described as an "easy-going disco-funk" track.[7]
"High Times", a song with "razor-edged funky guitars",[9] references Kay's drug use during the recording of The Return of the Space Cowboy: "'High Times' was admitting the truth of the matter, of where I'd been and how lucky I was to be coming out of the other side."[2] This is followed by the reggae track, "Drifting Along".[9] The tracks "Didjerama" and "Didjital Vibrations" are instrumental tracks containing ambient didgeridoo.[10][7] The title track is next on the album and samples Kay's purple Lamborghini in the intro.[11] It features a "driving groove" and after two minutes, it "transitions into a bassline-paced, heavy workout".[12] The album ends with the dance track, "You Are My Love", and the soul ballad, "Spend A Lifetime".[13][7]
Legacy[edit]
The high album sales of Travelling Without Moving earned the band a Guinness World Record for the best-selling funk album in history.[82] Paul Sexton of Billboard magazine credits this period of Jamiroquai as their American breakthrough: "Long a European success story for the Sony S2 label, the group once accused of being a mere Stevie Wonder soundalike has grown into its own style and added a substantial American audience in the process."[83] However, the band were unable to replicate their success in America since then.[84] The music video of "Virtual Insanity" was described as "one of the most famous music videos ever", making them "icons of the music-video format", according to Spencer Kornhaber from The Atlantic.[85] The song also led to the climax of "1970s soul and funk that early acid jazz artists had initiated", according to writer Kennith Prouty.[52] The Lamborghini Diablo SE30 was also considered a "Nineties icon" in part of the "Cosmic Girl" music video, according to The Daily Telegraph.[56]