VirtualInsanity-Remastered2013
Jamiroquai
Travelling Without Moving (Remastered)
A funk-fueled prophecy from the future's dance floor, still echoing decades later.
What we're living in?
Lemme tell ya
Yeah, it's a wonder man can eat at all
When things are big that should be small
Who can tell what magic spells we'll be doing for us
And I'm giving all my love to this world
Only to be told
I can't see, I can't breathe
No more will we be
And nothing's gonna change the way we live
'Cause we can always take, but never give
And now that things are changing for the worse, see
Whoa, it's a crazy world we're living in
And I just can't see that half of us immersed in sin
Is all we have to give these
Futures made of virtual insanity, now
Always seem to be governed by this love we have
For these useless, twisting, of our new technology
Oh, now there is no sound, for we all live underground
And I'm thinking what a mess we're in
Hard to know where to begin
If I could slip the sickly ties that earthly man has made
And now every mother can choose the color
Of her child, that's not nature's way
Well, that's what they said yesterday
There's nothing left to do, but pray
I think it's time to find a new religion
Whoa, it's so insane
To synthesize another strain
There's something in these futures
That we have to be told
Futures made of virtual insanity, now
Always seem to be governed by this love we have
For these useless, twisting, of our new technology
Oh, now there is no sound, for we all live underground, wow
Now there is no sound
If we all live underground
And now it's virtual insanity
Forget your virtual reality
Oh, there's nothing so bad
As a man-made man
Oh, yeah, I know, yeah (take it to the dance floor)
I know I can't go on
Of this virtual insanity we're living in
Has got to change, yeah
Things will never be the same
And I can't go on
Where we're living in
Oh, oh, virtual insanity
Oh, this world
He's got to change
'Cause I just
I just can't keep going on in this virtual, virtual insanity
That we're living in, that we're living in
And that virtual insanity is what is, yeah
Futures made of virtual insanity, now
Always seem to be governed by this love we have
For these useless, twisting, of our new technology
Oh, now there is no sound, for we all live underground, oh
Futures made of, now, virtual insanity
Now we all, we seem to be governed by a love
For these useless, twisting, of our new technology
And now there is no sound, for we all live underground
Yes, we do, oh
(Living in) now this life that we live in
(Virtual insanity) it's all going wrong
Out of the window (living in)
Do you know there is nothing worse than (virtual insanity)
(Living in) a man-made man
(Virtual insanity) there's nothing worse than
(Living in) a foolish man
(Virtual insanity) hey!
Virtual insanity is what we're living in, yeah
Well... It's alright
What we're living in?
Lemme tell ya
Yeah, it's a wonder man can eat at all
When things are big that should be small
Who can tell what magic spells we'll be doing for us
And I'm giving all my love to this world
Only to be told
I can't see, I can't breathe
No more will we be
And nothing's gonna change the way we live
'Cause we can always take, but never give
And now that things are changing for the worse, see
Whoa, it's a crazy world we're living in
And I just can't see that half of us immersed in sin
Is all we have to give these
Futures made of virtual insanity, now
Always seem to be governed by this love we have
For these useless, twisting, of our new technology
Oh, now there is no sound, for we all live underground
And I'm thinking what a mess we're in
Hard to know where to begin
If I could slip the sickly ties that earthly man has made
And now every mother can choose the color
Of her child, that's not nature's way
Well, that's what they said yesterday
There's nothing left to do, but pray
I think it's time to find a new religion
Whoa, it's so insane
To synthesize another strain
There's something in these futures
That we have to be told
Futures made of virtual insanity, now
Always seem to be governed by this love we have
For these useless, twisting, of our new technology
Oh, now there is no sound, for we all live underground, wow
Now there is no sound
If we all live underground
And now it's virtual insanity
Forget your virtual reality
Oh, there's nothing so bad
As a man-made man
Oh, yeah, I know, yeah (take it to the dance floor)
I know I can't go on
Of this virtual insanity we're living in
Has got to change, yeah
Things will never be the same
And I can't go on
Where we're living in
Oh, oh, virtual insanity
Oh, this world
He's got to change
'Cause I just
I just can't keep going on in this virtual, virtual insanity
That we're living in, that we're living in
And that virtual insanity is what is, yeah
Futures made of virtual insanity, now
Always seem to be governed by this love we have
For these useless, twisting, of our new technology
Oh, now there is no sound, for we all live underground, oh
Futures made of, now, virtual insanity
Now we all, we seem to be governed by a love
For these useless, twisting, of our new technology
And now there is no sound, for we all live underground
Yes, we do, oh
(Living in) now this life that we live in
(Virtual insanity) it's all going wrong
Out of the window (living in)
Do you know there is nothing worse than (virtual insanity)
(Living in) a man-made man
(Virtual insanity) there's nothing worse than
(Living in) a foolish man
(Virtual insanity) hey!
Virtual insanity is what we're living in, yeah
Well... It's alright
“A funk-fueled prophecy from the future's dance floor, still echoing decades later.”
In the mid-1990s, Jason Kay — the restless, hat-adorned frontman of Jamiroquai — found himself at a peculiar crossroads.
The band had already proven that acid jazz and funk could thrive in a Britpop-dominated landscape, but Kay was growing increasingly anxious about the world hurtling toward the millennium.
Cloning, genetic engineering, the nascent internet, and the creeping digitization of everyday life haunted his thoughts.
Holed up at Sarm West Studios in London's Notting Hill with longtime collaborator Toby Smith and producer Al Stone, Kay channeled his existential unease into a song that would become the defining statement of his career.
The sessions for "Travelling Without Moving" were ambitious — the band wanted to push beyond the retro-funk template and create something that felt simultaneously timeless and urgently modern.
"Virtual Insanity" emerged from those sessions as the album's beating heart, a track where paranoia and groove existed in perfect, paradoxical harmony.
Musically, "Virtual Insanity" is a masterclass in restrained sophistication.
Anchored in C major at a languid 103 BPM, the track opens with a deceptively simple piano figure — melancholic, almost hymnal — before the rhythm section locks into a deep, syrupy groove that owes as much to Stevie Wonder's mid-'70s explorations as it does to the acid jazz movement Jamiroquai helped popularize.
Toby Smith's keyboard work is the song's secret weapon: layers of Rhodes electric piano, Wurlitzer, and synthesizer pads create a warm, enveloping sonic bed that contrasts brilliantly with the lyrical anxiety.
Stuart Zender's bass playing is fluid and understated, never showboating but always propelling the song forward with an almost gravitational pull.
The production by Al Stone is notably spacious — every instrument breathes, and the mix favors warmth over brightness, giving the track an analog richness that has only deepened with the 2013 remaster, which brought new clarity to the low end and restored the shimmer to Smith's keyboard textures without sacrificing the original's intimate atmosphere.
Lyrically, Kay paints a portrait of a world losing its soul to technological obsession.
The opening salvo — "it's a wonder man can eat at all / when things are big that should be small" — sets the tone of bewildered observation, a man watching proportions and priorities distort in real time.
The central refrain, "futures made of virtual insanity," is not merely a catchphrase but a thesis statement: that humanity's love affair with technology is producing futures that are fundamentally unreal, governed not by wisdom but by compulsive infatuation with "useless, twisting" innovation.
Kay's reference to mothers choosing "the color of her child" was remarkably prescient, anticipating debates around genetic selection and designer babies that would intensify in the decades to come.
The emotional arc moves from observation to desperation — "I think it's time to find a new religion" — before arriving at a kind of resigned groove, as though the only sane response to insanity is to keep dancing.
The repeated mantra "there's nothing so bad as a man-made man" distills the song's philosophy into a single, devastating aphorism: in our rush to improve upon nature, we risk creating something profoundly diminished.
The song's cultural impact was seismic and immediate.
Released as a single in 1996, "Virtual Insanity" climbed charts worldwide, reaching the top ten in the UK, France, Italy, and beyond, and cracking the US Billboard Hot 100 — a rare feat for a British acid jazz act.
But it was Jonathan Glazer's iconic music video that catapulted the song into the global consciousness.
Filmed at the now-demolished Sarm Studios, the video featured Kay dancing and stumbling through a white room where the floor appeared to move beneath him — an effect achieved not through CGI but by physically moving the walls and furniture on a hydraulic platform while the camera and Kay remained stationary.
The video won four MTV Video Music Awards in 1997, including Video of the Year and Breakthrough Video, and became one of the most replayed clips of the decade.
Critics hailed the song as a rare achievement: a pop-funk single with genuine intellectual substance, a protest song you could dance to.
More than a quarter century later, "Virtual Insanity" resonates with an almost eerie prescience.
In an era of deepfakes, algorithmic manipulation, social media addiction, and AI-generated reality, Kay's anxieties have not only been validated — they've been exceeded.
The song has become a touchstone for successive generations discovering it through streaming, video game soundtracks, and viral moments online.
It remains the crown jewel of Jamiroquai's catalog, the track that elevated them from cult favorites to global icons.
The 2013 remaster, included in this deluxe reissue of "Travelling Without Moving," honors the song's legacy by letting its nuances shine with renewed fidelity while preserving the warmth and humanity that made it extraordinary in the first place.
In a world increasingly governed by virtual insanity, this song endures as both a warning and a balm — proof that the deepest truths can still be delivered on the smoothest groove.
