Jet, ‘Shaka Rock’ ** (out of 4)
Pop and rap singles are regularly praised as gleeful, idiotic summer fun. But rock has a harder time. Maybe it’s still a post-Beatles expectation of guitar music as art, or a lingering hangover from Limp Bizkit’s chart reign. But the Australian quartet Jet has long been a pincushion for rock fans for whom seriousness is all-important and a knuckle-dragging take on the MC5’s stoned garage-rock is beneath contempt.
Maybe Jet took those jabs to heart. On its latest album, “Shaka Rock” (EMI), Jet tries on a bit more space and texture, becoming a more rewarding listen and less of a conversation piece in the process. “Beat on Repeat” belatedly enters the disco revival with this surprisingly adept Blondie-ish floor-filler, and the band tries on the Skoal-ringed jeans of Molly Hatchet on “Black Hearts (on Fire).” With “Seventeen,” Kings of Leon finally has real competition in codpiece-rock lechery circles.
“Shaka Rock” is an unmistakable and confident move toward respectability for Jet. But it does make you wonder why it’s so rough for a band to be young, dumb and full of bad come-ons.
