Jet
Shaka Rock
14 Track, LP (2009, Real Horrorshow Records/Five Seven Music)
Related: Jet.
It’s the classic character arc over three acts: the ambitious yet misguided protagonist makes a deal with the devil in the first (Get Born); falls on his own sword in the second (Shine On); and achieves redemption, but is irrevocably changed in the third (Shaka Rock). That Jet’s career – three albums and eight years in – now resembles an oft-recycled Hollywood cliche is no accident. Like Bud Fox in Wall Street, they were willing participants in their own flawed story; a quintessential rags-to-riches yarn that saw them transported from a Dingley factory floor to some of the world’s biggest stages alongside the likes of Oasis and The Rolling Stones, and (almost) back again.
So when Nic Cester plays the Icarus card in ‘Goodbye Hollywood’ – Shaka Rock’s most direct and revealing cut – it’s a little bit difficult to swallow. “I crashed into the sun,” he sighs, mere moments after confessing to being “swallowed up, spat out and kicked around” by an unnamed antagonist, most probably one of Atlantic/Elektra/ Winterman and Goldstein. He later waves “goodbye to Hollywood” in a tacit acceptance that the pursuit of fame and fortune at the expense of artistic freedom ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. I wonder if he’d be singing the same tune had Shine On not undersold its predecessor by 3.5 million?
Regardless, Shaka Rock sees Jet enter a new era of enlightenment. They’ve released this album on their own label, the newly created Real Horrorshow Records, and more tellingly on their own coin. It’s a difference worth noting; one that’s more significant than the rumoured million or so less in the bank. Free from the shackles of corporate expectations and recoupable marketing budgets, Jet – Cester, his drummer brother Chris, guitarist Cam Muncey and bassist Mark Wilson, who they poached from the Ca$inos in 2002 – have finally made a record for themselves. And while their livelihoods may be riding on its financial success, it actually sounds like they’re having fun (as opposed to just approximating it like they’ve done in the past).
It’s in this climate that Jet have written some of the most playful and artistically divergent songs of their career. ‘Beat On Repeat’ is a white reggae riot with faux Anglophilic vocals and tongue-in-cheek nods to Roxy Music and Combat Rock-era Clash. ‘La Di Da’ is like a high-speed drive through the desert complete with vibraslap and the sort of watered-down existentialism Lily Allen sells to kids (“I don’t know what’s right/And what’s real anymore” versus “I don’t know anymore/What I need and what for”). ‘She’s A Genius’ jumbles up a certain Knack riff before unexpectedly launching into Dumb Rock Chorus Of The Year, while ‘Seventeen’ is another perfect pop song with a twist: a boppy piano gives way to the kind of dancefloor-filling chorus Kings of Leon revived their career with.
Sure the lyrics are naff and it’s still prone to the odd riff lift (‘Let Me Out’ sounds like ‘Just What I Needed’ by The Cars), but in filtering their ever-expanding influences through their own prism, Jet are finally getting born.
by Darren Levin
Despite overtures by frontman Nic Cester that Jet are no longer behold…
A week out from the release of third album Shaka Rock, Jet’s Nic Ceste…
After stints with Atlantic and Elektra, Jet will got it alone for albu…
OK, so it’s no Cosmic Egg, but the title of Jet’s new album is just a…
After returning to the live circuit with a spirited performance at Sou…
headline should be: 'jet in good review shock'.
yeah true.
Haha. And nary a YouTube video of a gorilla pissing to be seen.
twas a chimpanzee, wasn't it?
I'd rather not have to watch it again to confirm or deny.
Wonderful Levin! Good to see a band reviewed on merit, even when everyone else has already given them a scathing evaluation - without hearing a single song!
you mean like this?
I hought the reviews, in Australia at least, had been reasonably considered.
I'm waiting to read Everett True's review of the reviews.
Wow, that Rolling Stone review is terrible.
because we actually listened to the album?
so, decent reviews from mathieson (in the age) and the king of mono. There's a noticeable drop in smartarsery in general in the editorial here lately, it's nice.
Probably. I was replying more to Anne's post about the scathing evaluations.
That said, I think ''Goodbye Hollywood'' is the worst song on there.
agreed.
Mathieson and josejones' reviews were good because they didn't resort to cheap shots, not because they were favourable necessarily. That Rolling Stone review is horrid, but hardly surprising - it does exactly what the reader expects and offers no sign of the writer having actually engaged with the album (as horrible as that task may be).
the AC/DC comparisons are way off the mark (in this instance at least).
Nice covert review you slipped in there, shaun.
I would have expected more from Rob Sheffield, who I've always considered a reasonably cluey critic, who wrote that (American) Rolling Stone review.
saw this on the new GO channel on television ... the film clip is ok in bits, but the song is monotonous and boring and grates on your nerves after a while
the song whatever it is ?
Precisely. Engage with whatever's reviewed on its own merits - regardless of whether you're a hater or a lover. That'd eliminate a lot of the shit in reviewing, I reckon.
Merit is absolute?
I hear that song on fox fm and when he sings oh oh oh oh I sort of go oh oh oh oh
other than that it just sounds like a song on fox fm really
No, but giving something a review based on playing to the peanut gallery (ie: pissing monkey) is hardly 'reviewing'. Gaining notoriety, yeah, but critical engagement and reaction? Fail.
I'd rather read someone putting something into words about precisely why they hate band x (or the band X, even) rather than the sort of ''Hey, they just fucking suck!'' thing that goes on a fair bit.
Maybe should've said merits or lack thereof.
Snark for the sake of snark?
Yeah, and it's not just music criticism, either.
You mean in reference to my second par? More an explanation of why such venom is required, I suppose. It's not much to ask, but it seems to be taken as read that something sucks, I guess.
But yeah, it is happening all over. Thanks, Blogs: there's your undying gift to criticism!
Oh, it's a competition to come up with the wittiest put down you can, regardless of actually appraising the work/person/event in question. There was a great article in the Guardian a couple of days ago about the topic.
Even the shittest bands should at least be granted a review that, in some way, gives an indication of the overall sound for those not so familiar with said bands... Oh yeah, ''AC/DC''!?!?!?!? Oh yeah, myspace. Sorted.... Carry on.
In hillsong's 'Great articles' thread, I posted a link to the article Modi's referring to. It's a good 'un.
Yeah, that's a great piece. Articulates exactly what I hate about Vice Magazine.
The Denby piece, that is.
Swinburne's Masters of Entrepreneurship and Innovation offers a subject in 'Entrepreneurship and Existentialism'.
awesome!!!!!
yay Jet!! i hope this album goes fkn bananas for em - they are great
Black girls are devious, oh oh ah ah oh oh
listening more and more to this record
i really dig it
i cant believe people are digging this! i have heard a bunch of songs on they are not only completely boring but obviously just rewritten songs from the 60's and 70's. i can sing older lyrics over just about every song. they even sound like they are not into and just trying to earn a buck. i want to punch each and everyone of them in the face.
ive always said that jet write songs in the hope that they will get picked up for advertising like the ipod / car commercials in the past. they are just so comercially viable and none have any personality.
it sickens me.
mediocrity is what the kids are being sold these days...shame...
ive always said that jet write songs in the hope that they will get picked up for advertising like the ipod / car commercials in the past. they are just so comercially viable and none have any personality.
sounds like a career....
The Knack should claim some royalties for that song played to death everywhere. My Sharona was bad enough but remade by Jet makes the original sound like a fucking masterpiece.
sounds like a career....
lets see how that pans out for them then.
it pans out with living in a villa in tuscany with a model for a wife and enough coke to keep you fully gakked.
i'll take it!
So they are on tour soon in Oz.
Are the tickets selling?
Who is doing the tour support?
I'm guessing that the support will be some band involving ex-members of The Anyones. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
An example to add to your argument, from Esquire magazine and Kate Beckinsale.
hwct said 1 day ago:
mediocrity is what the kids are being sold these days...shame...
yeah in a world where we have short stack, too many average aus hip hop acts, and indie disco being all pervasive, how dare jet write an album with catchy rock songs...