There was an emergency on planet earth and it was all good that the space cowboy returned to save the funk (" LISTEN HERE, SPACE COWBOY. I WANT THIS DARKROOM CLEAN! "). After that, things started to get a little shaky, and now they just suck. Such is the way of Jamiroquai through these years and through these ears. In America, people will remember Jay Kay as "the guy with the puffy hat". In England, they act like as though his shit should be bottled and sprayed to make one's house smell better. I feel the truth falls somewhere in between.

Those who would wretch upon hearing the name Jamiroquai possibly have not heard the first two Jamiroquai albums, Emergency on Planet Earth and The Return of the Space Cowboy. These albums do not sound like "Virtual Insanity"; they are warmer and the backing band's performance is top-notch. These are the albums that made Jamiroquai known as a funk band. Honestly, Jay Kay should feel pretty damn lucky he had such a good band behind him making his songs have the funk that I will say he never had in his singing. Space Cowboy in particular has its high points when JK shuts up.

Traveling Without Moving is a streamlined version of a band that was better when they tried expanding.

The album I bought getting me the free shirt, Synkronized, would have been a solid return to form if all of the bass parts were not replaced with a synth. Stuart Zender really could lay a groove down, and his departure should be noted as the time Jamiroquai started to be complete poo as far as the funk goes.

I suppose though, Jamiroquai was always more of a dance band to begin with, which makes the first two albums all the more impressive. If Jamiroquai were on the radio instead of shit like whatever is hip right now at least it would be slightly more tolerable.

For those who really dig Jamiroquai, as I do their first two albums, I would also recommend 70's Stevie Wonder. Jay Kay has a bunch of debt to Steveland Judkins Hardaway, but then again, a lot popular music since sure does.

I believe Ralph Nader and Jamiroquai are not popular among Americans for the same reason: they are a mirror people don't want to look at and see what they are not. Ralph Nader is a child of the 60's who never gave up the dream. Everyone else decided to sell out to the America their parents were trying to give them all along. Jamiroquai represented the super-clean and slick stoner aesthetic (think adidas and phish tickets, with a concern about the environment that is born more out of a sense of wanting to be cool and seem informed than actual concern) but with the funk background that people talk about all the time but rarely ever listen to on their own. Likewise, time dulled both Nader and Jamiroquai. Jamiroquai always pushed product, but the original band had enough talent to make some tunes. Nader used to write. Both got popular off of unique stuff they did in the past and both sold out to the highest bidder after the spark was gone. Jay Kay fired his band; Nader joined up with the Reform Party.

Jamiroquai never did need to break in America. The brand still being popular in England long after the music died.

This will be the running debate for all of time, but I feel as far as the free shirt archive goes a shirt that comes with something I was going to buy anyway independent of the shirt makes that shirt pragmatically free.

UPDATE: This free shirt is a legacy free shirt. This means that it would NOT be inducted into the free shirt archive these days, but will remain grandfathered.

The sad thing is that this shirt is a little small on me anymore, and I only wear it under another shirt because I like a baggier fit.

UPDATE: I have lost weight. This shirt now fits me and I wear it like many others.

A quick perusal would show that this shirt is generally the most accepted design of any of my free shirts. As written before, most Americans don't know to decode the dude on my shirt as a Jamiroquai symbol. Most like to wear the flavor of the month brand name at JC Penney that is likely to feature a design that speaks as much attitude as the Jamiroquai drawing. It makes for an odd instance when I am accepted as having a good taste in a shirt when I am wearing just another band shirt from what deserves to be an extremely well-known band. Fashion, as I have found in my experiences wearing free shirts can be strange and predictable like that.