Bonnie and The Jets II by Bonnie and The Jets – Album Review
By Ellie Victor
Bonnie and The Jets have been building a reputation the old-fashioned way – grinding stages, leading with a charismatic voice and a band steeped in ’60s and ’70s muscle – but II feels like the moment the Norwegian soul-rockers stop being a best-kept secret and start writing themselves into the classic-rock conversation. It is part two of a planned trilogy, a record about karma, identity and reinvention, and it plays like a group testing its limits without losing the warmth that made the first chapter stick.
It opens with an a cappella ditty – all Fleetwood Mac-ready harmonies and First Aid Kit depth – before the blue touch paper is lit by ‘Old Stories’, a wind-through-the-hair rocker with an incendiary guitar break. Anyone expecting retro soft-rock comfort – as I admittedly was – will be taken aback. The attack is leaner, the rhythm section hungrier, the guitars shading closer to Free and Heart than to Laurel Canyon balm.
‘Naked’ ups the ante again, Janis Joplin’s ghost wailing before a Led Zeppelin bonfire. It is short, sharp and totally committed – the kind of two-and-a-half-minute jolt that modern soul-rock rarely dares. When the band pulls back for ‘Diamonds & Gold’, they strip to a bluesy piano riff that builds, patiently, into a Black Crowes-like Alabama shake, nodding as much to Tedeschi Trucks Band’s gospel-tinted lift as to Rival Sons’ denim-and-dust swagger.
Caroline “Bonnie” Bonnet of Bonnie and The Jets, 2025
“Resilient”
They can do elemental, too. ‘I’m Alone’ moves like weather – humid verses, pressure rising – undercut by an organ figure that refuses to settle, then a skyline of vocal wails that punch through like sun after storm. It is easy to file the performance alongside Grace Potter at her most open-throated, or Beth Hart when she lets the room breathe. That makes the sequencing of ‘Breaking News’ smart: the storm quiets for a neat piano ballad that even dares to include a children’s chorus. It should be cloying; it isn’t. The band plays it straight, and the sugar lands as a grace note rather than a gimmick.
The centre stretch is where II stakes a fuller claim. ‘Broke Blues’ is an orchestral firestorm – strings and drums in a rising spiral – echoing the widescreen urgency of Florence + The Machine’s recent work without borrowing the gloss. ‘Reinvent Yourself’ summons the spectre of Stevie Nicks across a sea-swirling arrangement, all tambourine shimmer and salt-spray guitar, yet the vocal phrasing belongs to Caroline “Bonnie” Bonnet alone – a rich, resilient instrument that can rasp, purr and flare without showboating. She has shades of Alanis Morissette’s bite and Joanne Shaw Taylor’s sure-footed grit, with a dose of Delaney & Bonnie’s earth under the nails.
There is plenty for classic-rock purists to grab hold of – Deep Purple’s organ rumble, The Band’s unhurried communion, Bad Company’s heavyweight roll – but the record also squares up to modern soul-rock: hints of Blues Pills in the saturated mids, Mother’s Finest in the rhythm guitar’s percussive chop, a flash of Alabama Shakes in the way choruses kick the door. The trick is how natural it all feels. The productions have vintage warmth and a forward-looking edge; the playing is tight, but with just enough looseness in the joints to keep the grooves human.
“Heart not bombast”
If ‘House of Creation’ is the heaviest cut – Bad Company big, shoulders out – then ‘That Beautiful Smile’ is the elegy, a closing benediction that lands on heart not bombast. It does what good finales do: reframes what came before. The themes are old ones – letting go, rebuilding, the cost of change – but the arrangements make them new, leaning on Hammond burble, horn glow and guitar tones that remember how to sting without shouting.
What distinguishes II is balance. The group can pivot from bar-room grit to orchestral lift without losing the thread; the lyrics trade in plain-spoken resilience rather than self-help bromides. And Bonnet sings like a bandleader who trusts her players – Dagfin Hjorth Hovind’s guitar has cut and curl, Kristian Wentzel’s keys carry weather, the rhythm team hits with pocket rather than polish. Even when the references stack up the songs resolve as themselves.
Part two of a trilogy invites easy middle-chapter metaphors, but II earns a better one. It sounds like a band stepping into its skin – bigger, bolder and less beholden to expectation. I’ll be there for part III.
3.5 out of 5.0 stars
More info: bonnieandthejets.no
Ellie has spent over three decades dissecting riffs, rhythms, and rockstar egos, all in pursuit of the perfect review. Her music writing journey began at 12 with a glowing 10/10 diary entry for Echo and the Bunnymen, and she’s been chasing that high ever since. Armed with encyclopaedic knowledge and a soft spot for the sonically daring, Ellie will review anything that’s put in front of her – as long as it’s on vinyl.
