Jet's Shine On

I’ll admit it. 2004 would have been a lot better year had it not been for six little words: “Are You Gonna Be My Girl.” But luckily, there was a glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel. After thousands of hours of airplay, dozens of stereotypical long drives down stereotypical beach highways and countless appearances on the same party mix as “Somebody Told Me,” it looked like the world was finally starting to forget about the shaggy boys from Down Under.
Flashforward to 2006: And the record exec gods said, let’s concoct a new Jet record. True to form, on Shine On, the Aussies have once again proven that they haven’t forgotten to rip off their British and American predecessors and get hotter bitches to boot. A pipe organ? No way. A slowed down tempo? Get out of town! On “Skin and Bones,” Jet tries to sound like Petty, but the guitar rifts sound contrived, the lyrics are plain elementary and the structure of the song exhaustingly generic. In the nebula of newer releases, I’ll take Nelly Furtado any day.