Jet - Return of the Great Pretenders?

For too long it seemed THAT hit single from Jet's debut 'Get Born' - Are You Going To Be My Girl - couldn't be avoided, as it was belted to death through advertising campaigns, and played to the point of tedium on radio stations worldwide. While they wear their 60s and 70s rock influences on their sleeve (the bands' name being taken from the song Jet on Wings' 1973 album 'Band on the Run') they have been repeatedly criticised for being too heavily influenced by classic rock acts.

Bass guitarist Mark Wilson, in a recent interview with The Skinny, quickly dismisses these accusations, "They come from people who are lazy and not really listening. People like to read about things, so journalists have to write about things I suppose."

Recently released second album 'Shine On' contains more ballads than their debut, and many reviews have noted their striking resemblance to Oasis. "That's just the British press," says Mark. "They love to categorise everything, and because we've toured with Oasis, and have two brothers in the band, like Oasis, they can't resist. We weren't even listening to them while we made this record. We were into The Zombies, Captain Beefheart and The Birds."

Accusations like this have plagued the group since their inception and culminated in a group of local Australian musical identities playing outside some of Jet's Melbourne gigs under the name Get Bored: The Australian Jet Experience. They combined Jet songs with the tracks they are believed to copy; for example Iggy Pop's Lust For Life combined with Are You Going To Be My Girl. Wilson retorts, "Really we don't give a shit, we write songs for ourselves, and if other people like them that's great. We're not worried about success, that's not why we write and, if you're writing to sell records you're not going to get anywhere."

The negative press hasn't affected the success of the band – their debut received mixed reviews, yet still sold over 3.5 million copies and won six awards at the Australian Record Industry Awards (ARIAs) in 2004.

Latest album 'Shine On' has received some rave reviews, many lukewarm receptions and some downright abuse from critics – like the Pitchfork review which features no words, just a monkey drinking it's own urine (www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/38853). Again, Wilson isn't fussed about any of it, "We get amazing reviews and amazing detractors, it seems we will always be loved and hated in equal measure. Our job was done as soon as we were finished in the studio."

The first single from the new album, Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is, is already getting extensive radio airplay and was, "the obvious choice since it provides a link between the old and new record," says Wilson. A recent US tour was a complete sellout, and the forthcoming gig at the Barrowlands in Glasgow is also sold out, indicating that whatever the critics think, their music is still being very well received. Of Glasgow, Wilson says, "It's our favourite place in the world to play."

While the first album was deliberately raw and was an effort to capture the live sound of the band, the new album features songs that are, "better, bigger sounding and more complicated. We wanted to use the studio as an instrument and show that the band has grown." Of allegations that songs were written to be hits, he retorts, "We don't write 'business' songs and we don't care about record sales. We are so proud of this record and now we're just going to tour our arses off."

The album itself took six months to write, while "we had all of our previous lives to put together our debut. This album was much tougher." Then they spent a lot of time in the studio because, "we wanted to experiment and push things too far, so we then had to pull things back."

So the critics may continue to give Jet a hard time but as long as they continue to sell records, get songs on the radio and sell out gigs, the press will keep writing about them. So are they any good? Well Beyonce and Robbie Williams also sell out concerts and produce hits, so maybe that's not a reliable measure of quality. The best bet is to work it out for yourself, but the consensus seems to be that it doesn't matter what allegations of blandness and plagiarism are hurled at Jet, they still rock damn hard.