A Funk Odyssey is the fifth studio album by English funk band Jamiroquai. The album was released on 3 September 2001 in the United Kingdom by Sony Soho Square and 11 September 2001 by Epic Records in the United States.

Background

Combining elements of funk, disco and electronica, the release of the album represented the peak of international commercial success for Jamiroquai, and in the ensuing world tour the group became a household name in many countries. The sleeve art of A Funk Odyssey features lead vocalist Jay Kay posed in front of a series of lasers in the shape of the Buffalo Man logo, making it the first Jamiroquai album not to prominently feature the logo on its cover. In a 2001 interview with Billboard magazine, Kay said he wrote the deliberately simple first single "Little L" in 25 minutes, "It would have been so easy to overthink and overwrite that song, because it's so incredibly simple. But that would've killed it." He described the fourth single, "Corner of the Earth", as a "spiritual song" that "speaks for anyone who's in a place or a moment where they're happy." For the tenth track, "Picture of My Life", Kay said, "I cried throughout the process of writing [the song]. It was an act of looking at some major personal issues and understanding their lingering effects."

Reception

Initial critical response to A Funk Odyssey was generally mixed to positive. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 58, based on 13 reviews. Q magazine gave the album 4 out of 5 stars, claiming "A certified thoroughbred. This time, there's a bankable chorus or barbed sentiment for every mirror-ball moment....demonstrating that no-one does sci-fi boogie quite as well as he does sci-fi boogie." They also listed it as one of the best 50 albums of 2001. CMJ described the album as "The perfect mixtape to snap your fingers to on your way to another universe." A.D. Amorosi of The Indianapolis Star wrote that "'Corner of the Earth', with its swirling strings and sunlit happiness, may be Kay's finest moment, matching organic ambience with pure emotion." Tom Moon said that the album recalls the band's interest in "the swooping strings and thumping beats" from Earth Wind & Fire and later disco music, but concludes that "Kay never merely appropriates those devices… he goes back to the future, by Juxtaposing old-school guitars against sizzling house beats."

Track listing

Personnel

Jamiroquai

Additional personnel

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end chart

Certifications and sales