Dynamite – Funk with Matt Johnson on the kit

Sony BMG, Matt Johnson on the kit

Dynamite reached UK shops on 20 June 2005 (Japan a few days earlier) as Jamiroquai’s sixth studio album on Sony BMG and Epic. It followed A Funk Odyssey (2001) and was the first full album with keyboardist Matt Johnson, who had joined in 2002. Jay Kay and Mike Spencer produced. Sessions ran from 2003 into 2005 at Jam Studios in London and at Kay’s Chillington facilities. Nick Fyffe had left before recording; there was no official bassist on the credit sheet, with Paul Turner arriving after the album was finished.

Lead single Feels Just Like It Should hit UK No. 8 and later topped the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart in the US. Joseph Kahn directed the video in Los Angeles, with Kay playing multiple characters in a street-level special-effects piece. Second single Seven Days in Sunny June peaked at UK No. 14 and found a second life in film and TV placements. (Don’t) Give Hate a Chance followed as the third single, a more openly political cut that still kept the band’s rhythm.

Across twelve tracks the band mixes funk, soft rock, and club programming. Rob Harris’s guitar sits forward. Derrick McKenzie’s drums stay crisp, and Kay still sings the hooks in falsetto. Black Devil Car and Hot Tequila Brown keep the old dancefloor tempo. Time Won’t Wait closes on a longer, more reflective pace. Compared with the acid-jazz debut years, Dynamite is brighter and built for mid-2000s radio formats, and the groove stays.

UK chart peaks put the album inside the Top 3, with strong European sales keeping Sony’s investment justified. Guest players and backing vocalists (including Bridgette Blades and Alexandra Brown on several cuts) thicken the choruses without turning the band into an anonymous pop act. Kay’s car obsession still surfaces in titles and videos; the difference in 2005 is how tightly Spencer locks the low end for club systems.