Jet – Get Born (Elektra)

This is not a good album. Even if you like the hit song, “Are You Gonna Be My Girl,” you’re not going to like the rest of this album. I understand why that song has its detractors. It reeks of major-label bandwagon jumping to sign their own version of a white-striped retro rock band. Sure, it borrows its riff from Iggy Pop. But still, can you really deny that it’s a good song? I can’t. I like it. And it’s definitely one of the most fun moments of 2003 on MTV2’s Subterranean. I like garage rock. I like the Rolling Stones. I’ve liked this kind of music since before Jack White was playing drums in Goober and the Peas. I don’t care if it’s trendy now. I don’t care if it’s a fad that’ll be “over” by the end of the summer. It’s the kind of stuff I like. And “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” is a fine garage rock single.

But the album is awful. Get Born is a classic example of why kids these days do not purchase cds: all filler, no killer. Download the single, put it on a mix and forget about Jet. Their album is worthless. How many puss-rock ballads can a band put on a record before the album becomes a puss-rock record and they become a puss-rock band? You can tell that they’re going for the mid-seventies stoner vibe, but none of it works. There are no other songs with even half the driving rhythm and balls-out spontaneity as the single.

In one of the less lame songs on the album, Jet tells us to “Take It or Leave It.” You know what to do. Leave it. And do yourself a favor and go listen to some real Detroit rock and roll.