Jamiroquai -- Virtual Insanity

 

Ahhh...1996! By this point, I think things had settled down for me in my home life in Ichikawa, Chiba and work life in Asakusa, Tokyo. Music-wise, there was that Komuro Steamroller with folks like Namie Amuro（安室奈美恵）, trf and Tomomi Kahala（華原朋美）. But I have to specify one little thing. At the time, I was still employed by that English-teaching behemoth NOVA and one night, I had my regular duty in the Voice Room which was the chamber in just about every branch where a form of free conversation can take place between teacher and students. Interestingly enough, we got onto the topic of music and I asked one student about which singers she liked. Well, one of them is the topic of this week's Reminiscings of Youth article.

Maybe I should correct myself and say Reminiscings of Young-ish Person since I was already into my thirties by that point, so this would make this ROY the latest one, temporally speaking. In any case, as you can see from the cool dude in the woolly black top hat, I am talking about Jamiroquai. When my Voice Room student answered with his name, I couldn't quite hear it correctly which gave her the opportunity to expound on this British singer and his "Virtual Insanity".

"Virtual Insanity" was released in August 1996 and I have to say that the first thing that caught my eye was that amazing video (it came out a month later) which seemed to be part magic and part IKEA. I not only had that urge to buy a bookshelf but I also got that enjoyment of listening to that old-style groove and soul. There was one comment which described the song as being timeless in its arrangements. I can certainly agree and the opinion also had me thinking again why so many people have gone ga-ga over City Pop in the last few years, and again perhaps the groove theory has that physiological effect on a lot of humans, no matter the gap between age and the time of release of a certain song.

Now I've just realized that "Virtual Insanity" is 25 years old! The single did OK in Canada as it hit No. 64 on the RPM chart and No. 39 on US Billboard. Iceland really loved the song as it reached No. 1 there and then finished the year as the No. 5 single. Meanwhile in Japan, its cellphone ringtone version went Gold according to the Recording Industry Association of Japan. 

This time, let's go with who picked up the hardware at the 1996 Japan Record Awards.

Grand Prize: Namie Amuro -- Don't Wanna Cry

Best Album: globe -- globe

Best New Artist: PUFFY -- Asia no Junshin (アジアの純真）