Jet: Shaka Rock

The concept of one-hit-wonder seems to be lost on the majority of non-corporate rock bands.

Pop bands turn up, deliver their hit, enjoy the popularity and then have the decency to get fired from their label when the follow-up bombs spectacularly. Bands such as Jet have no such decency. Because of their independent nature, they feel free to bob about flush after flush after flush. They are unflushable.

Just because their days of commercial appeal have passed them by, though, that doesn't mean that they have all the relevance of Pauly Shore, right? Were they in any other genre, we'd retort with a hearty "probably not", but since Jet are primarily a pop-rock band, part of their job description is that they remain 'popular'.

Shaka Rock does prove one thing though, it proves that they do not care for mainstream attention anymore. It comes with its credentials firmly rooted in retro-rock. A time when Oasis and AC/DC were viewed as gods, when a piano ballad could easily lie down with a hard-riffing jockeying blast of stripped-back distortion and raw attitude.

"K.I.A", "She's a Genius", "La Di Da" and "Times Like These" all purport to capture the hair-flailing aspects of the band, the majority kicking off with a prominent bass riff (hey, it worked for them before) before bringing in the guitar chords and activating the testosterone-fuelled vocal generator.

Absolutely nothing is wrong with the results, nothing. However, with the hordes of new songs coming to our ears daily, our tastes do not usually wait for music to sonically offend us before we deem it unworthy of our attentions. No, the onus is on the music to impress each and every one of us. Depending on your attention-span and patience, there could be a window of anything from 15 seconds to a couple of hours.

After spending nearly ten hours with the album, that time of shine never came. For all their musical competence, Jet fail to properly harness their magical hooks. Forty-minutes of guys playing retreads of themselves and other bands with lyrics which hardly redefine the boundaries is forty minutes you could have spent listening to bands more worthy of your attention.

Jet, The Datsuns, The Von Bondies, The 22-20's, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: all of them had their moment in the spotlight, sometimes it's just time to realise that the spotlight won't be swinging back your way again unless you start doing something special.

Until that happens, we're sure all of the said bands will have great fun trying to get back there. Well, once all the band members stop jumping ship anyway.

At least Jet have 100% retention rate still.