Gary Louris of The Jayhawks plays lead guitar on "Obsolete," and Blake Babies and Antenna frontman John Strohm arranged the horn section on the song "Is This It?

"[9] Trouser Press writer Ira Robbins named Jetpack Blues the best of Polara's career, calling it "a modern Anglo-American power-pop noisefest that pushes hard and really gets somewhere.

"[2] Chris Riemenschneider of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune compared Jetpack Blues to My Bloody Valentine, calling it "a genuine blast, full of richly noisy, orchestrated guitar parts and layered Brit-pop melodies.

"[4] Robert L. Doerschuk of Allmusic wrote that "each track feels sleek and streamlined, with massive textural depth," but felt that the music was "formulaic and, worse, dispirited.

"[1] A reviewer for the online magazine babysue praised the album as "exceptional" and "full of slick melodic pop music with superb vocals and wild guitar work.