Jamiroquai - Synkronized [UK Import]

Synkronized is Jay Kay's 1999 disco-funk victory lap, Jamiroquai's glossy, groove-heavy fourth album, arriving here as a UK import pressing.

It came together under pressure. Recording began in 1998 at Jay Kay's studio in Buckinghamshire, but when bassist Stuart Zender left late that year the band rebuilt the record with Nick Fyffe stepping in, finishing it in around six months. The finished album went to number one in the UK and kept the band firmly on dancefloors as the decade closed.

"Canned Heat" is the obvious entry point, a strutting disco stomper that refuses to sit still, and "Supersonic" pushes even harder into four-on-the-floor territory. "Black Capricorn Day" leans back toward the band's acid jazz roots, while "King for a Day" offers a reflective, soulful counterweight to all that motion.

Produced by Al Stone and Jay Kay, the album trades some of the looser jamming of earlier records for tighter, sleeker grooves, with shimmering strings, choppy rhythm guitar and bass lines aimed squarely at the hips. Jay Kay's voice glides over the top with that familiar mix of cheek and falsetto.

On vinyl those grooves get the room they deserve, and the record stands as one of the purest distillations of Jamiroquai's late-90s swagger.