Album Title
Jamiroquai
Artist Icon The Return of the Space Cowboy (1994)
heart off icon (0 users)
Last IconTransparent icon Next icon

Transparent Block
Cover NOT yet available in 4k icon
Join Patreon for 4K upload/download access


Your Rating (Click a star below)

Star off iconStar off iconStar off iconStar off iconStar off iconStar off iconStar off iconStar off iconStar off iconStar off icon


Star IconStar IconStar IconStar IconStar IconStar IconStar IconStar IconStar IconStar Icon












6:24
4:17
4:49
5:54
6:22
5:09
5:29
7:02
5:22
6:22
8:51
5:53

Data Complete
percentage bar 100%

Total Rating

Star Icon (2 users)

Back Cover
Album Back Cover

CD Art
CDart Artwork

3D Case
Album 3D Case

3D Thumb
Album 3D Thumb

3D Flat
Transparent Icon

3D Face
Transparent Icon

3D Spine
Album Spine

First Released

Calendar Icon 1994

Genre

Genre Icon Acid Jazz

Mood

Mood Icon Good Natured

Style

Style Icon Jazz

Theme

Theme Icon ---

Tempo

Speed Icon ---

Release Format

Release Format Icon Album

Record Label Release

Speed Icon Virgin

World Sales Figure

Sales Icon 0 copies

Album Description
Available in: Country Icon Country Icon Country Icon
The Return Of The Space Cowboy is the second album by the band Jamiroquai. Released in 1994, it is usually classified under the acid-jazz and funk genre.
This album has become somewhat uncommon in the United States but remains a classic in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. Many consider it to be the best and most refined example of the unique Jamiroquai sound. The album has sold 4,000,000 copies to date. Bassist Stuart Zender does not appear on the album version of the song "Space Cowboy". Zender's explanation of the events which led to his non-appearance on the title track refer to a situation that occurred during the last stages of the album recording.
Jay Kay informed Zender that he wanted to record a new version of the title track. However, Zender had scheduled some time off to patch up his relationship with model Milla Jovovich. Kay gave his blessing to take the time off, but when Zender returned he found that Kay had recruited a session bassist, known only as "Mr X", to play on the song. Mr X is credited on the liner notes. The track "Morning Glory" was sampled in "Bite Our Style (Interlude)", a track by Missy Elliott from her album, Supa Dupa Fly. A similar occurrence occurred with "Manifest Destiny", sampled in "Who Do U Believe In", a track by Tupac Shakur from his album Better Dayz.
wiki icon


User Album Review
When Jason ‘Jay Kay’ Cheetham and his band appeared in 1992 as part of the acid jazz movement, they were viewed with a great deal of suspicion by the rock and soul cognoscenti. Aside from their leader’s silly hat, they ”“ keyboard player Toby Smith, bassist Stuart Zender, drummer Derrick McKenzie and Wallis Buchanan on didgeridoo ”“ seemed too arriviste; he was a showbiz child (his mother is comedienne Karen Kay), had bad boy credentials and a deep love for Stevie Wonder’s music. Naming his band after a combination of ‘jam session’ and the Iroquois Indians, theirs was a weird, stoned funk that sounded like some lost album from 1972.
The Return of the Space Cowboy was the 1994 follow-up to their debut, the previous year’s Emergency on Planet Earth. Q Magazine said at the time that "only Jay Kay could come up with as naff a title as The Return of the Space Cowboy and make it sound about right", and it’s true: it shouldn’t work, but it does. The whole album happens leisurely ”“ it plays for 71 minutes (just 10 minutes shorter than Wonder’s Innervisions and Fulfillingess’ First Finale put together) with most tracks around the six-minute mark. The mellow funk of Manifest Destiny meanders before drifting off in a brass heavy coda. Morning Glory is laid back, a blissed-out joy; perfect comedown music with percussion darting from speaker to speaker. The Kids is the only time the album strays from its trippy groove, with its heavy wah-wah opening and Kay’s affirmation that "now we’re getting nasty".
Space Cowboy, Half the Man and Stillness in Time were its UK-charting singles; the album reached number two domestically and spent over half a year on the chart. More importantly, it established the group in America, and its influence was huge, with Morning Glory sampled by Missy Elliott and Manifest Destiny by Tupac Shakur. The album hasn’t really dated one bit as it paid so little attention to musical trends of the time.
Although it still leaves this reviewer with the overwhelming feeling that he’d rather be listening to Stevie Wonder or Donny Hathaway, you cannot deny how well this is all done. The Return of the Space Cowboy captures this first phase of Jamiroquai at their very best.


External Album Reviews
None...



User Comments
seperator
No comments yet...
seperator

Status
Locked icon unlocked

Rank:

External Links
MusicBrainz Large icontransparent block Amazon Large icontransparent block Metacritic Large Icon