Tell me if you’ve heard this one before. Meet Jet: a Melbourne anti-grunge quartet (two of whom are brothers) who intend to put the roll back into rock ’n’ roll.
Yes, it does sound a tad familiar doesn’t it? Luckily enough for your reviewer, despite their déjà vu credentials, Jet are actually pretty damn good.
Like their antipodean counterparts The Datsuns, The D4 and The Vines, the band pack quite a punch in the riff department, sparing not a decibel in anthemic opener ‘Last Chance’ and the fantastically titled ‘Cold Hard Bitch’. But alas, they do ditch the rock-isms on occasion, delving into slightly dodgy introspective-ballad territory on lighter-in-the-air moments ‘Look What You’ve Done’ and ‘Move On’.
Gladly, all is not lost and they manage to pick up the pace with hit-written-all-over-it ‘Get Me Out Of Here’ and the storming ‘Take It Or Leave It’, although they do insist in rounding off proceedings on a rather wimpish note in the shape of acoustic endeavour, ‘Timothy’ – a sweet ballad with pretty harmonies but, sadly, no balls.
When they’re rocking out, Jet are a force to be reckoned with, but their two speed approach (namely very fucking fast or painfully slow) doesn’t really do them any favours, seeing their forays into acoustic melodrama – whilst absolutely un-horrible – sit quite uncomfortably with the record. Not the greatest debut of the year, but impressive nonetheless.