Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 20/06/05
Label: SonyBMG

There are few truer pleasures than getting re-acquainted with the psyche of Mr Jay Kay, and as a dispatch from the frontline of his life, "Dynamite" is no exception. And guess what! He's been driving fast cars! ("Black Devil Car"). And faster women! ("Electric Mistress"). And "drinking wine and killing time!" ("Seven Days"). But fear not, because he still found time to apply his formidable mind to the American political system. ("World That He Wants").

Of course, it's easy to ridicule Kay, which is why so many of us do. He is inherently a silly man, an eco-warrior with a fleet of gas guzzlers and a Chelsea nightclub lifestyle that even Prince Harry now finds a little passé. But what this sometimes obscures is that every once in a while he manages to give the world a sparkling pop song, and for that we should be kinder.

In fact, "Dynamite" may be his most consistent long player yet, which is not to say there aren't some lows. There's a funk workout half way through "Electric Mistress", which isn't so much overbaked as incinerated. There's the above "politics" song, which is so vague in its discontent it makes Kasabian look like Bob Dylan. And worst of all there's the ghastly diet funk of "Starchild", a song which limps on and off the stereo like a wounded soldier dragging itself across an arid desert.

But then there are the highs, the moments where a deep, bleak part of you realizes that Jay Kay is probably having a lot more fun than you are. There's the snarling, grimy dance sleaze of first single "Feels Just Like It Should", the best thing the behatted one has released in years. "Seven Days" is breezily seductive, a laid back cousin of Will Smiths' "Summertime" (a high compliment indeed).

And then there's the dumb funky dance songs he does so well, tracks stuffed as full of nagging hooks and silly lyrics as Jay Kay can manage. A lyric about not wanting to get shot down? Then best throw in a sampled machine gun. You've written a song called "Give Hate A Chance" and you're frightened it might be a bit camp? Then make it twenty times as camp! Go on, outcamp the Village People!

Oh, admit it, the guy's entertaining.

    by Jaime Gill