Shine On is the second album by Australian rock band Jet, released on 30 September 2006 in Australia and internationally on 2âÂÂ3 October 2006.
The iTunes Store leaked the album in the Australian and United Kingdom stores on 16 September 2006, two weeks before the official release date. After iTunes leaked the album, Shine On made its way onto file sharing sites through forums of similar bands and people shared that information on Jet's MySpace page.
On 23 September 2006, Triple J premiered the album on its Music Specials show along with interviews with the band. A day later, Nova 100 played the entire album on the radio as a preview.
NME first reported in June 2006 that the tracks "L'Esprit d'Escalier", "Holiday", "Hey Kids" (for the US version only), "Shiny Magazine", "Eleanor", and "All You Have to Do" were set to appear on the album. "Hey Kids" was released on the Elektra soundtrack but the band liked it so much, they revived it for this album. "Rip It Up" was originally titled "Nothing to Lose", and images of the work in progress lyrics can be viewed in the "Shine On" teaser video that was released in August 2006, along with lyrics for "Don't Worry Baby".
Australian newspaper Herald Sun described the following tracks prior to the release of Shine On:
The album debuted at No. 3 on the Australian ARIA Albums chart the week of 8 October 2006 and became the fiftieth-highest selling album for 2006, and was certified platinum (70,000 units shipped). It also debuted and peaked at No. 13 on the Official UK Top 75 Albums Chart and No. 16 on the Billboard 200, but quickly fell out of the top 100 within four weeks.
As of 2007, the album has sold 137,000 copies in the United States. As of 2012, Shine On and Shaka Rock have sold 212,000 copies combined in the United States.
Critical reaction to the album was mixed. British music magazine NME, for instance, called the record "another joyfully old-fashioned rock 'n' roll album immersed in the classics", while AllMusic gave the album 3.5 stars out of 5 as a solid if undistinguished second effort.
The American review site Pitchfork posted a review containing only a video clip of a chimpanzee urinating into its own mouth, along with a score of 0.0 out 10. The review was widely shared and helped popularise Pitchfork.
In 2024, the Pitchfork editor Scott Plagenhoef said the writers had felt that Shine On represented the way rock music had "curdled into a set of lazy signifiers and posers". He said: "ProgressionâÂÂwhether it was in hip-hop, pop, guitar music, electronic musicâÂÂwas important to us at the time. Seeing mainstream rock music, which of course most of us had grown up with a fondness for, become so knuckle-dragging and Xeroxed was disappointing." They felt it would be a waste of time to write a conventional review, and so conceived something "metaphorical and dismissive" and site editors attributed the non-review to collective pseudonym "Ray Suzuki".
Porter Robinson references the Pitchfork review in the lyrics of his 2024 song "Russian Roulette," as part of the song's commentary on the fickle nature of fame and critical reception.
"Shine On" is a song by Australian rock band Jet, and the third single from their second album, Shine On. The single was released in Australia on 7 November 2006. A digital EP was released to the American iTunes Store in December 2006. It was subsequently released as a CD and 7" vinyl single in the United Kingdom on 5 March 2007.
"Shine On" peaked at number 54 on the Australian singles chart (number 40 on the Australian physical singles chart); number 47 on the Scottish singles chart, and number 114 on the UK singles chart. The song also charted in the United States reaching number 30 on the Modern Rock chart.
The song was written by Nic Cester to comfort his family after his father's death. He is quoted as saying: "It was inevitable I would write a song that dealt with all of that, but it was almost too big a subject for me to handle. Then I got a phone call from my mum saying everyone was depressed so I wrote the song through Dad's eyes, what he would say to help everyone through. We recorded it in one take, but it was emotional, very heavy." Cester in an interview with the Los Angeles Times went on to state, "Shine On, is a song I wrote from DadâÂÂs perspective. ItâÂÂs like his words to us, to our family." Bernard Zuel, in the Sydney Morning Herald, stated that the song "takes its cues from McCartney's Let It Be ballads, choirs and all, daring you to mock the genuine emotion.
The title of the song is in homage to "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", a similarly themed song by Pink Floyd. Similarly, the refrain of "Shine on, for everyone" is reminiscent of "Instant Karma!", a song by John Lennon.
The song was featured in the final episode of the television series The O.C., and also in the final episode of season four of Cold Case. The song was also in a first-season episode of Brothers & Sisters.
The band performed the song at the Sydney Sound Relief concert in 2009.
In 2008 the song featured in the tribute to Fred Hollows and in the Fred Hollows Foundation advertisement on Australian television. In 2009 the advert went on to win a Gold Star Award for 'best non-profit video advertisement' at the 29th International Fundraising Congress, held in the Netherlands.
Album: