“Don’t you want rock music?” That was Jeff Tweedy’s reply to a quip in regards to the band Jet throughout an interview with author Chuck Klosterman, who was attempting to goad Tweedy into bemoaning how lame the Aussie rockers had been. Tweedy didn’t take the bait, not as a result of he is aware of higher than to speak shit about different musicians, however as a result of he understands {that a} world with out bands who make dumb rock music like Jet can be so boring.

Rock has a wealthy historical past of dumb songs. It’s a part of what makes choosing up a guitar so enjoyable. If nation music is “three chords and the reality,” then rock and roll is 4 chords, an excellent riff, and a complete lotta lust. A few of rock’s most beloved songs are simply plain dumb. “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”? Kinda dumb. “Stroll This Approach”? Dumb. “Smoke On The Water”? “Again In Black”? “Blitzkrieg Bop”? All dumb. These songs and these riffs are engineered to make you progress with out pondering. They make us dance even when we don’t know , with one hand holding onto a beer and the opposite pointed to the sky. There’s simply one thing a few huge ol’ guitar riff that faucets into this primal pleasure heart of our brains that turns us into Beavis & Butt-Head. And that’s okay! If a track is that instant, why deny it? You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to take pleasure in these songs, however you’d be an fool to not.

Trying again on the charts, various rock in 2003 was in a darkish place. Perhaps it’s the impact 9/11 had on our collective psyche, to not point out our world leaders launching us blindly right into a endless battle. Our shattered complacency had many people looking for out music that suited a extra dour temper. Whereas the world waited for the Strokes to comply with up Is This It (and so they wouldn’t have to attend for much longer), rock music was in a bizarre place. Chris Cornell joined Rage In opposition to The Machine (type of), Metallica launched their most abrasive album, and whereas nu-metal was on its method out, post-grunge continued its notorious reign on the charts with songs cheerily titled “(I Hate) All the things About You,” “Ship The Ache Beneath,” and “Silly Woman.” When the #1 rock track on the charts on the finish of the 12 months is “Headstrong” by Trapt, you already know one thing has gone catastrophically unsuitable (and to assume that was BEFORE they racked up all these large Pandora numbers). These songs had been brooding and self-serious. Sure, they had been dumb, however they had been a scolding-the-barista-for-getting-your-latte-order-wrong taste of dumb. That shit ain’t enjoyable.

Different rock was so bleak in 2003 something that deviated from it felt kitschy. Simply ask Fountains Of Wayne, whose track “Stacy’s Mother” grew to become one of many largest crossover hits of 2003. Its brilliant power-pop sound caught out like a sore thumb on various radio; it was a Barbie in a sea of Oppenheimers. What “Stacy’s Mother” signaled, nevertheless, was that possibly we nonetheless had an urge for food for enjoyable dumb rock songs in spite of everything.

Enter Jet and the Darkness, two wildly completely different bands from reverse ends of the world who shared the same ethos to make catchy, throwback rock and roll. Jet’s Get Born and the Darkness’ Permission To Land flip 20 within the US this month. The most important singles from these two information – Jet’s “Are You Gonna Be My Woman?” and the Darkness’ “I Consider In a Factor Known as Love” – added a splash of coloration to the charts. Each songs are fun-loving dumb-rock classics, and each are higher than you keep in mind.

If music criticism is to be taken as a cultural barometer (please don’t do that), then you definately’d be forgiven if you happen to thought that everybody and their mom hated Jet. Critics LOATHED these guys to the purpose the place you questioned if small animals had been harmed in the course of the recording of Get Born. A part of the criticism was that we’ve heard all this shit earlier than, and that Jet had been simply cashing in on the throwback storage rock revival that the Strokes and the White Stripes originated. They arrived on time to be lumped in with that motion, however they had been slightly too late to be appreciated for what they had been, which is a stable rock ‘n’ roll band and nothing extra. Strive as they could, Jet may by no means be as cool as these trendsetting bands. There’s a distinction between not caring and attempting to look you don’t care, and Jet wouldn’t know informal nonchalance if it hit them over the pinnacle with a Les Paul.

Listening to the album in the present day, nevertheless, it’s straightforward to confess that Get Born has some enjoyable-enough gems, like “Rollover DJ,” “Take It Or Depart It” (not a Strokes cowl), and “Get What You Want.” These songs attempt for Exile On Primary Avenue-era Stones, however with out the intercourse, medication, and tax evasion. Amongst these tracks you additionally had your Beatle-y ballads that will most likely work higher underneath Noel Gallagher’s supervision. To be truthful, I may be digging too deep right into a file that has the depth of a kiddie pool to start with. In the event you strip the context away from Get Born, you’ll discover that it’s only a innocent however catchy throwback rock and roll album. And if it may make you dance, who cares about blatant imitation?

Talking of blatant imitation: We wouldn’t even be speaking about Get Born if not for the album’s swaggering hit “Are You Gonna Be My Woman?” Simply because the Nice Storage Rock Revival of the early aughts began out with a riff explicitly ripped from Tom Petty, Jet’s most well-known track rips off Iggy Pop ripping off the Supremes. To their credit score as two of the best dudes in rock historical past, each Iggy and Petty had been nice with their riffs being re-translated for a brand new viewers; they had been sensible sufficient to know that each one artwork – rock music particularly – is borrowed in a technique or one other. What’s rock if not a style constructed upon shamelessly copying what got here earlier than? And if you happen to’re going to swipe a timeless groove, you might do lots worse than Motown, which supplies “Are You Gonna Be My Woman?” a little bit of a glam-rock strut.

As with so many huge dumb rock songs, there isn’t a complete lot to “Are You Gonna Be My Woman?” Initially written by frontman Nic Cester whereas he was sitting on the bathroom in his late teenagers, the track is an ode to the British Invasion and the artwork of attempting to get laid. The manufacturing is pretty hands-off, which supplies the track a type of distorted, raggedy stay really feel to it. The primary issues we hear are a tambourine, a cleared-throat, and a curious bass line earlier than the remainder of the band bursts via. You may hear the amps buzzing within the house between Cester’s pleading verses, through which he performs the lovesick idiot going after the lady with huge black boots, lengthy brown hair, and a get again stare. Though she’s with one other man, he simply has one cheeky query earlier than he lets her get away: “Are you gonna be my lady?” Not a lot to dissect there, actually, however the phrases had been by no means the purpose. In reality, the band stage-tested the songs earlier than Cester had any lyrics to start with. “I might make stuff up,” Cester instructed Songwriting Journal in 2019. “I knew it was extra in regards to the diction, so I may type of get away with faking it slightly bit.”

The laid again strategy advantages a track like “Are You Gonna Be My Woman?,” which sounds much less labored over than a lot of the different tracks on Get Born. It succeeds as a no-frills, danceable rock track with an important groove, some dusty rock and roll riffage, and a handy guide a rough tagline. The simplicity is a part of the attraction. In the USA, “Are You Gonna Be My Woman?” reached #29 on the Billboard Sizzling 100 — greater than most rock songs this century — thanks largely to a spot on a type of dancing-silhouette Apple iPod commercials. It was their first top-40 hit and stays highest charting single. Folks have carried out lots worse on a bathroom seat.

The Darkness, then again, had been something however easy. What began as a prog-rock/heavy metallic cowl band by brothers Justin and Dan Hawkins, the English combo leaned into the over-the-top traditional rock factor with glee. It actually helped that they may play the hell out of it too. Justin Hawkins, specifically, is all the pieces you need in a frontman – bombastic and humorous with elastic vocal chops in addition. Their debut file Permission To Land – which additionally turns 20 within the US this month – sounds simply as vivacious because it did when it touched down in 2003.

From the revved-up glam metallic of “Get Your Fingers Off Of My Lady” and “Black Shuck” to the witty power-pop gems “Rising On Me,” “Love Is Solely A Feeling,” and “Friday Evening,” the album hasn’t aged a bit, which speaks to how a lot enjoyable it sounds 20 years later. The place Jet tried their damnedest to sound cool, the Darkness sound like they’re not attempting exhausting in any respect. Once you hearken to each albums 20 years later, which band sounds extra comfy?

It’s telling that when writing what turned out to be the band’s largest hit, “I Consider In A Factor Known as Love,” the brothers Hawkins had been attempting to jot down the dumbest shit they may consider. “We didn’t labor over it,” Justin admitted to The Guardian earlier this 12 months. “We didn’t toil and search for the final word riff. I used to be simply following my fingers, actually.” In the identical piece, his brother Dan provides, “We had been having a dialog alongside the strains of: ‘Why don’t we simply write the stupidest track ever?’”

Their indifference is what sells “I Consider In A Factor Known as Love.” None of it sounds belabored. An important dumb rock track like that is alleged to really feel carefree, and what’s extra carefree and common than a joyful love track with some guitar solos combined in for good measure? In the event you’ve ever been in love earlier than, you already know precisely what Hawkins is singing about when he says, “My coronary heart’s in overdrive and also you’re behind the steering wheel.” You don’t must assume twice about that. Love will flip even essentially the most good individual right into a senseless fool. “I Consider In A Factor Known as Love” seems like falling in love for the primary time, whenever you discover somebody who makes you imagine in love and all it has to supply.

The Darkness’ biggest asset on Permission To Land – apart from the absurd vocal ranges and their Skinny Lizzy-indebted guitar riffs – is their potential to not take themselves so goddamned critically. Simply watch the space-invader themed music video for “I Consider In A Factor Known as Love,” which was the alternative of Jet’s black and white “Are You Gonna Be My Woman?” efficiency in nearly each conceivable method. Then once more, a number of movies would look stiff in comparison with this one.

Justin Hawkins first seems on a spaceship, bare in a heart-shaped tub, earlier than being dried off by some furry Grimace-like creature. From there, he struts, prowls, and fights a large crab on a pink Mars-like planet. There are slow-mo scenes highlighting the band’s flowing hair (and so they actually had EXCELLENT hair), and guitar solos are carried out in entrance of an infinite stack of Marshalls. The video’s best scene is its climax, through which the band shoots lasers out of their devices to defeat a large squid attacking their spaceship. Though they didn’t go for any “nipple pyrotechnics,” the entire thing is fucking humorous, and the Darkness had been in on the joke. They indulged in rock’s ridiculousness, and “I Consider In A Factor Known as Love” is best for it.

It’s exhausting to check songs like this breaking via in the present day as a lot as Jet and the Darkness did 20 years in the past. Rock songs like theirs don’t seize the zeitgeist fairly like they used to — though we did come fairly shut in 2021 with Moist Leg’s “Chaise Longue,” a pleasant and completely foolish addition to the dumb rock canon. Bear in mind how nuts everybody went for that track? Lots of people didn’t get it, however much more folks went batshit for it. Although introduced with an innate cool that Jet may solely dream of, at its core “Chaise Longue” is a crazy rock track that quotes Imply Women, and its origin story is a dumb-rock story as outdated as time. “We wrote it in a single a night, simply writing for enjoyable and fooling around,” Moist Leg’s Rhian Teasdale has mentioned in regards to the track. “It was a track that by no means actually was alleged to see the sunshine of day.” It’s additionally a few chair.

That’s the great things, when an artist writes one thing so tossed-off and silly that it speaks to one thing universally primal in our brains. Not each track must be toiled over. You don’t must rewrite each little take. Rock doesn’t need to be good as a result of it by no means was. It’s allowed to be sloppy, foolish, and dumb. This isn’t meant to be some grand Dave Grohlian/College Of Rock-type assertion in regards to the “Energy of Rock ‘n’ Roll” or an assertion that rock is the one style that issues. However there isn’t a lot to dislike about “Are You Gonna Be My Woman?” and “I Consider In A Factor Known as Love,” two songs that disrupted the monotony of the choice charts within the fall of 2003. What the Darkness and Jet had in widespread was that they had been stable rock bands who had been good at creating memorable hooks. They weren’t precisely altering the world with their music, however their largest hits inspired loads of rock ‘n’ roll hopefuls all over the world to select up a guitar and write some dumb shit themselves. And what’s so unsuitable with that? You want rock music, don’t you?