Jason Kay could never be accused of being anything less than ambitious, musically speaking. From the moment his group Jamiroquai landed with their groundbreaking debut Emergency on Planet Earth (1993), they set the standard for the acid jazz movement which birthed them. But unlike their peers the Brand New Heavies and Incognito, Jamiroquai, under Kay's watchful eye, had bolder artistic ambitions. Kay's charisma—as a songwriter, singer and performer—would not be constricted by the aforementioned acid jazz format.

Starting on Travelling Without Moving (1996), Jamiroquai's music began to mirror the actual evolutionary trek that black music embarked on in the 1970s, cutting funk with disco rhythms. With the arrival of A Funk Odyssey (2001), their transformation was complete. The disco-funk opus was celebrated commercially, but a sect of critics and fans weren't too impressed—they pined for the simpler, band based approach to rhythm and blues synonymous with Jamiroquai's first two records.

The albums that followed A Funk Odyssey, Dynamite (2005) and Rock Dust Light Star (2010), were accomplished recordings, but ultimately self-conscious. The former leaned too hard toward studio gloss and the latter attempted to (erroneously) strip back the progress of their 1996 to 2001 stretch. Throw in changing tastes, emerging competition and some of Kay's own personal effects, it was the perfect storm to obscure Jamiroquai's impact on dance and R&B music at the end of the 1990s and early 2000s.