Jet Shine On: 20 Years On The Story Behind The Song That Changed The Album

Twenty years after Jet released their second album, Shine On remains defined by the deeply personal song Nic Cester wrote after his father’s death, a track the band recorded in a single take.

by Paul Cashmere

Jet’s Shine On turns 20 this week, marking two decades since the Melbourne rock band followed the international success of Get Born with an album that took a more personal and musically varied direction. Released in Australia on 30 September 2006, the record included the title track, a song Nic Cester wrote for his family after the death of his father and recorded with Jet in one emotionally charged take.

The anniversary places Shine On in a different historical context from its original release. Jet had become one of Australia’s most successful rock exports through Get Born, but the second album was not simply an attempt to reproduce that record. Alongside the hard-driving singles were songs that drew on older pop and rock traditions, while the title track confronted grief directly.

The most revealing story behind the album concerns the song itself. Cester initially found the subject difficult to approach, describing the prospect of writing about his father’s death as almost too large to handle. A phone call from his mother, telling him that the family was struggling, prompted him to find a different perspective.

Rather than writing directly about his own grief, Cester wrote Shine On from his father’s point of view, imagining what his father might say to the family to help them through the loss.

The recording was equally direct. Jet captured the song in one take, with Cester later describing the session as emotional and heavy. That personal origin gave the album its emotional centre and distinguished the song from the band’s more familiar rock material.

Shine On was released internationally in early October 2006, after an unusual pre-release period. The album leaked through the Australian and United Kingdom iTunes stores on 16 September, two weeks before its official release. It subsequently circulated through file-sharing networks, including forums associated with other bands, while Jet’s MySpace page became one place where listeners discussed the leak.

Australian radio also previewed the album before its official release. Triple J played the record in full on its Music Specials program on 23 September, accompanied by interviews with the band, while Nova 100 broadcast the entire album the following day.

The album opened with the brief L’Esprit d’Escalier and moved through songs including Holiday, Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is, Bring It On Back and Kings Horses. The record also included Hey Kids, which had previously appeared on the Elektra soundtrack before Jet revived it for the album.

The musical palette extended beyond the band’s established rock formula. Eleanor was described at the time as having a 1940s character, while Shiny Magazine carried a Phil Spector influence. Kings Horses was framed as a nursery rhyme dealing with some of the bitterness the band had experienced during the previous two years. The closing track, All You Have to Do, had been difficult to complete because the band was searching for an answer to its central question without making the song sound contrived.

Commercially, Shine On entered the Australian ARIA Albums Chart at number three and was certified platinum in Australia for shipments of 70,000 units. It also reached number 16 on the US Billboard 200, number 13 in the United Kingdom and number seven on the US Top Rock Albums chart. The album was subsequently certified gold in the United Kingdom.

Critical reaction was considerably more divided. Reviews ranged from recognition of Jet’s affection for classic rock to harsher responses from sections of the music press. The most notorious reaction came from Pitchfork, whose 2006 review consisted of a chimpanzee video and a score of zero. In 2024, former Pitchfork editor Scott Plagenhoef explained that the response reflected the site’s broader frustration at what its writers saw as the stagnation of mainstream rock at the time.

The title song ultimately developed a life beyond the album. Shine On was released as a single in Australia on 7 November 2006 and later featured in television programs including The O.C., Cold Case and Brothers & Sisters. Jet performed the song at the 2009 Sound Relief concert, while it was also used in a Fred Hollows Foundation campaign and tribute.

Two decades on, Shine On is therefore remembered not only as Jet’s second album, but as a record containing one of the band’s most personal recordings. The title track’s origin remains its defining detail: a song written in grief, recast as a message from a father to his family, then captured by Jet in a single take.

Tracklist:
“L’Esprit d’Escalier”
“Holiday”
“Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is”
“Bring It On Back”
“That’s All Lies”
“Hey Kids” (US bonus track / included in digital versions)
“Kings Horses”
“Shine On”
“Come On Come On”
“Stand Up”
“Rip It Up”
“Skin And Bones”
“Shiny Magazine”
“Eleanor”
“All You Have To Do”