Radio DJ: Alright guys, we're gonna do a song by a band called Jet next. They're from Australia, and this is a great song. It's called Get What You Need, and it's only on... (radio station call letters deleted to protect the guilty)
This is how I was introduced to Jet. The fact that the most alternative major station in Boston seemed to be hip to them made me listen to the song that was played. Hell, AC/DC and Silverchair were both from Australia, and THEY made worthwhile albums. Ooooooooo, Silverchair. Good comparison for this band. While I always thought Silverchair got a raw deal from critics due to their age (and they proved that with the unbelievable Diorama disc), I feel that Jet is getting the exact opposite from critics. I've seen them be called "refreshing," "fun," and "that old time rock and roll we've been missing." In the words of Dr. Evil: "riiiiiiiiiiight."
Jet is the Seven Mary Three of garage rock, which is to say they most likely got signed due to the sloppy sound that some of their faster numbers have. They're a tad better than The Vines, but that's only because their influences are a bit more wide. They're not as good as The Hives because their singer, Cameron Muncey (who also plays rhythm guitar), lacks the pure charisma of that band's lead singer, Pelle Almqvist.
Perhaps it is unfair to simply label Jet as a garage rock band. After all, this album holds a lot more variety than say, The White Stripes' Elephant does, or either of the The Strokes' albums. But unlike the Stripes, who manage to make great blues based rock and roll despite having a trained monkey on drums, Jet just sounds like 15 bad cover bands rolled all into one gigantic crappy supergroup.
Are You Gonna Be My Girl is the song that is currently garnering radio airplay, not to mention all sorts of critical acclaim. Call me crazy, but I liked this song better when it was called Lust For Life and Iggy Pop was singing it. Is this what is passing as "quality rock" right now? There's nothing better out there than this? Or are people just that eager to eat whatever radio craps out as "the next big thing?" Cause I'll tell you, Are You Gonna Be My Girl is only the beginning of the suckage and unoriginality to be found on this disc.
The only thing that is bearable on this entire album is Rollover D.J., which while as derivative as the rest of the album, at least has a big fun chorus attached to it, and some nice jangly guitar rhythms. Alas, other than this, its all downhill.
Jet reminds me of a band who has no confidence in themselves or their talents. Their influences are so present on the album that you lose who exactly Jet are. Furthermore, they seemingly feel the need to document each of their influences by having either an entire song ape that band, or part of a song ape that band. Look What You've Done sounds like a Beatles or John Lennon piano ballad, just without the lyrics that would make you stand up and take notice.
Both Timothy and Move On have elements that would not be foreign to fans of Pink Floyd's more atmospheric material (both songs remind me of Wish You Were Here for some reason, maybe the vocals).
Perhaps the band's biggest influence though is the Rolling Stones, which comes across not only in some of the stuttering riffs laid down on the rockers, but on the ballads Radio Song and especially, on Come Around Again, which I'll give credit to as the best rewrite of Wild Horses I've ever heard (not that I ever WANTED to hear a rewrite of the Stones' second or third best song).
The aforementioned Get What You Need bores me. It reminds me a lot of The Hives'Hate to Say I Told You So, not just in sound, but in the general swagger the song tries desparately to pass on. It fails miserably.
I'm surprised that an AC/DC influence isn't to be found in more prominence on this record, if for no other reason than the resemblance one of the band members holds to the late, great Bon Scott and the Australian heritage. At times, you can hear a bit of DC's bluesy power, but this band is much more about The Stones et al.
In short, Get Born bores me to death. If you're going to be THIS derivative, you had better at least have the energy, swagger, and power to back it up. Jet lacks all three. They sound as bored putting these songs to wax as I am listening to them. They have all the right influences and no idea what to do with them. They are the most UNORIGINAL band I have possibly ever heard. For all of these reasons, skip this album and just pick up AC/DC's Powerage album instead. You'll thank me later.
Great Music to Play While: wondering how in the world a band this blase got a major label deal in the first place...
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