Jet - Shine On

Tue 10th Oct, 2006 in Music Reviews

The swift demise of any band can be a bit like a car crash: gut wrenching but difficult to turn away from. The tumble that The Vines took from the top of the pile was so spectacular, their turn of fortune so brutal, that even reading about it felt like rubbernecking. The Vines’ fate isn’t something you’d seriously wish on anyone. So, regardless of whether you love or loathe Jet the more humane side of you surely wants Shine On to bolt out of the traps full pelt, foaming at the mouth with a bite that’s just as big, if not bigger, than its bark.

It’s a tall order though and three years is a long time between albums. The novelty of 70s styled retro rock is starting to lose its shine; Wolfmother have gleefully capitalised on the vacuum Jet left during the intervening period and bands such as Airborne and Hell City Glamours are waiting in the wings to provide fresh meat to an audience that may view Jet as stale even before Shine On has hit the stores.

It’s not quite game over but this album really does need to be…no, has got to be, better than average.

As it is Jet have kept their fingers crossed that their second album will remind you of why you fell in love with them in the first place. There’s plenty of fuss-free Aussie pub rock on Rip It Up and Holiday to keep fuss-free listeners in dirty riffs and cigarette stained tunes for a month or two. That’s All Lies has all the noisy fun of early Supergrass spliced with ACDC. And Oasis turn up the party to supply Nic Cester with a fine Mancunian whine on Come On Come On and lend familiar guitar breaks in support of his ceiling high falsetto on Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.

Yes, Jet do loud and fast pretty well but there’s more than one string to their creative bow…they do slow and quiet stuff too. Like Get Born, Shine On is replete with easy ballads. Eleanor plays like a sun-dappled day in The Beatles’ back yard; Kings Horses is a nice turn in hazy 60s melancholy and Shiny Magazine borrows a shiver of a tambourine from The Supremes and harnesses it to the back of Nic Cester’s sweet but sad vocal.

It all sounds perfectly fine but what makes Shine On a necessary purchase in addition to Get Born?

Not much really.

It’s fenced in by a lack of confidence in new ideas and, although there are some hints of what the album could have been, those moments desperately need to be unshackled so that they can breath. Bring It Back shows potential to be Jet’s Champagne Supernova but it misses the anthem opportunity by a mile because the lightweight production keeps the sound too watery. Horns, strings and sitar are cited as contributing to the album, however, where they could have added some interesting depth they’re merely a token gesture in the mix. Overall the tried and tested formula wins out and makes for a big yawn factor.

Lyrically the album is also bit of an embarrassment. No-one is asking that the words chomp at the intellectual bit but please boys, at least try and make some sense. You’re not going to pull off the cleverly abstract so stick to what you know, “its easy to feel that free when you know what you want to be” is fine. “Climb to the top of the mountain but you’re still alone” is not. It’s nonsense. “Got this notion from another man, put a dead fish in my hand. Paperweight baby it’s my name. I hold you down cos you’re all the same to me”. Bizarre.

Where Shine On should be romping home, it shuffles apologetically into view with its tail between its legs and big puppy dog eyes, pleading with you to love it like you did three years ago, because ‘hey, remember how much fun we had together when we bounded around to Are You Gonna Be My Girl’. Unfortunately the world has moved on , and a slight deviation from Get Born’s rulebook just isn’t going cut the mustard with listeners who have already hopped on the backlash bandwagon. You’re going to have to try much harder next time Jet…if indeed there is a next time.

Watch the clip for Money Where Your Mouth Is