Jet - Get Born Review

There was nothing better than the collective "so what" unleashed by the American record buying public when Australian "rockers" Jet put out their most recent album last fall.  If only they had caught on sooner...

With their debut album Get Born, Jet became one of the better selling rock acts of 2003 and 2004.  Buoyed by singles like Are You Gonna Be My Girl and Look What You've Done, the band went multiplatinum.  People seemed to enjoy their brand of retro-rock.  And I know what you're thinking too:  "what's wrong with that, Matt?  what's so bad about Jet?"

You know, I could sell 2 million records too if I took a bunch of songs by classic artists, changed up some minor things, came up with some new (lame) lyrics, and recorded it.  You see, that's all Get Born is.  Are You Gonna Be My Girl is the most obvious ripoff ever of Iggy Pop's Lust For Life.  Look What You've Done sounds like a bad John Lennon outtake.  Cold Hard Bitch sounds like AC/DC if AC/DC somehow had their testicles removed and put into a blender. 

Perhaps worst of all is Come Around Again, which is almost a note for note ripoff of the Rolling Stones classic Wild Horses.  It's no Wild Horses, but it's not bad for a note for note ripoff. 

The only listenable song on this record is Rollover DJ, which doesn't actually rip off a specific song, it just manages to sound like it was influenced by the Stones, AC/DC and the Faces all at the same time.  That, and it actually shows a bit of Jet's personality.

Jet is like a well equipped male.  They have all these great influences and don't know how to use them.  If a guy is well equipped, and doesn't know what he's doing, well...; and THAT is Jet in a nutshell.