The rah-rah anthems may go over great at Gay Pride. (Jett's been playing a lot of LGBT fests lately, including a recent stint at the Dinah Shore Women's Weekend in Palm Springs.) But they fall flat on plastic, where the simplicity of the lyrics shines through:

If dreams can be dismembered
An' our worth can be ignored
Need a new direction
Cause this one we can't afford
There's bad stuff happening
An' nobody does a thing
(“Riddles”)

Similarly, you can't fault “Everyone Knows” for its sentiment and sincerity…

I see 'em stare at us
Whenever we're together
They haven't got the right
Just cuz we're wearin' leather
If you're all right
If I'm all right
And I don't care if everyone knows
If it feels this strong
It can't be wrong

...but you might for its lack of musical complexity and love-song clichés.

The only “movement” song on Sinner that works, perhaps, is her cover of Paul Westerberg's “Androgynous,” a four-four, nursery-rhyme-ish ironic take on the old boys-in-blue, girls-in-pink nugget. The song features Dick and Jane in a dress and chains, respectively, post-gendered and happy as can be. Lines like “something meets boy/and something meets girl” elicit a laugh, not a wince. And when Jett sing-songs, “Kewpie dolls and urine stalls / Will be laughed at the way/You're laughed at now,” the listener may actually share the dream.

Ironically, Sinner's true strength lies in the apolitical--or even post-gay--material. Bisexual activists, for example, are going to have a real problem with the way the wayward girlfriend in Jett's cover of “ACDC” (originally recorded by the band Sweet) is represented. This teasey, ambivalent slut “can't make up her mind/On how to fill her time … you better take it now or never.” But the song rocks and you can hear echoes of the fast, punk/rockabilly tradition of classic Joan Jett, Blackhearts, and a little Runaways. It's undeniably fun, and the video should be a pop lesbian classic.

Also stand-outs are the three songs that Jett co-wrote with Hanna. The two have been collaborating since a stint in Seattle in the 1990s when the so-called godmother of rock (the moniker's a stretch, really, since the devilish, sprite-like Jett is only 48) and the original riot grrl, formerly of Bikini Kill, decided to indulge in their mutual admiration.

Assuming that the recording quality of “Five” gets fixed on the final release (this reviewer had a preview copy), it may be the best song on the CD, precisely because it manages to state Jett's discontent with the status quo and maintain her punk, don't pin-me-down attitude. “Do you want me to come out?” Jett sings rhetorically; Hanna responds, “Ready or not.” But the coming-out is a lie, not because it's not true, but because it can't tell the whole truth:

Radio and my television screen
Is it image you want
Is it really me
I've falling over something that I just can't explain
No, no, no, no
You want me to
You want me to
But I can't define
Desire

At last we know the real reason Jett's been reluctant to use the L-word: she's a non-conformist even by gay standards and she's a postmodernist. Identity is a trap, image is a fantasy, and desire in all its protean form is the only thing real. Laid down to pop hooks a la Le Tigre, the doctrine turns out to be Sinner's salvation.

Get Sinner today at iTunes; or get it June 12 at Amazon.com

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