Thursday, May 20, 2004

Well I got to hear one of the albums on that Top 10 list I made a couple days ago. While I remain glad that Jet's genuinely danceable singles are taking off in the mainstream while the leaden Kings Of Leon comb their moustaches in the land of pure bullshit (if they wore rebel uniforms they'd at least be fun to look at), Get Born doesn't provide evidence of any secret quality not found in their two hits. Their facelessness doesn't bother when you can strut to the beat ("Cold Hard Bitch" is worthy of Brian Johnston-era AC/DC), but these guys are hopeless when it comes to ballads or anything else that would require a modicum of personality or respectable earnestness (one slow number actually tries to come off like G'N'R's "Patience" and inspires little more than incredulous laughter). The lead singer's too wispy to pull off the alpha male act for more than three minutes at a time and he sounds like he learned sensitivity from Liam Gallagher. If he gets over his ill-fitting rawk tropes and shows a little soul and perspective on later albums, these guys might wind up being as good as .38 Special.

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