Before I begin this review, I want you to save your looks of astonishment and disbelief and comments of, "he actually thinks this is good music?" until after I've said my peace. Thank you.
My introduction into the world of Andrew W.K. was a quick one. I'd read some reviews in Rolling Stone that lauded the album as a masterpiece, something totally different, blah, blah, blah, whatever. All I ever saw of Mr. K (what does the W.K. stand for anyway?) was a serious metal rock pose in a white t-shirt and dirty white jeans. The scenery may have changed but the look definitely stayed the same. (I'm still not convinced that it wasn't just the same picture with a little Photoshop trickery.) Then I saw the video for Party Hard on MTV. And for some reason, this is the point where my story differs from most others'. I was so caught up in that video that I kept a close eye on MTV the next few days to see it again. And when it did come on, I turned it up. Loud.
Whenever I asked any of my friends if they'd seen the video, they all laughed in my face. I was somewhat put out. Being quite confident in the musical tastes of my close peers and having tastes at least moderately similar to theirs, I was made to reexamine my original opinion. "Am I a little off on this one? Could it have been some queer folly on my part?" After a brief bout of confusion, and self-doubt, I came to the conclusion that I was in the right, and everyone else that I had approached about this was, indeed, wrong. I bought the album and have listened to it almost every day since. Okay enough about my W.K. baptism. On to the music.
Upon first listening of I Get Wet, one thing stands out. You know there's something different about an album when one of the most used and prominently featured instruments on the album is the kick drum. It doesn't miss a single beat during the entire album. And with every tune pushing at least 150 bpm, that's quite a feat. I admit that it does tend to blur the songs together a bit, but with repeated listenings, that's easily cured. If there's one thing that can be said about Andrew W.K., it's that the man knows how to write a hook. Which is one of the biggest surprises about this music. Tonally, it sounds like it should be straight out of the Metallica camp, but these songs are pop songs. There's no getting around that fact. And it's one that is to be embraced. (Don't we all secretly admire some of the popsters of today? Yeah, the music might be annoying, but every once in a while, they slip in a huge hook that almost makes it palatable.) Imagine if N'SYNC stopped writing about all that love crap, and just wrote about partying with maybe one or two tunes about chicks. Now imagine if they got Pantera to play those songs. Dream no longer.
Andrew W.K. has an admirable lust for life. If you check out his web site, www.awkworld.com (believe me I have. In fact, I'm an official Andrew W.K. Slammer.) that fact will make itself evident. Almost every one of the songs is a cry for action. Party Hard, Don't Stop Living In the Red, and Got To Do It are just a few of the examples. In fact, even the tune, Ready to Die speaks about killing off the old part of you and giving birth to a new, for lack of a better word, "party" self. (Those are my words, not his.) This is music that promotes feeling, moves to action, and gives rise to semi-serious contemplation. I think if we were to ask Andrew W.K., he would even be happy with his harshest critics. Although they may hate the music, at least he's caused them to have a fierce passion about something. And I think in the end, that's the ultimate goal.
I guess at least some small mention must be made of the album cover. If you haven't seen it, it bears the image of the face of our man Andrew in a somewhat somber pose. (Unbelievable!) His is nose bleeding profusely, running down his chin and neck. If you have any issues with the graphic nature of the photo, flip it over and there's a cool live photo on the back. I suppose there's some deeper meaning to the picture, but I won't go into that here. Think what you will, when it's all said and done, it's kind of a cool picture.
This music makes no apologies. It is party music. You don't set your alarm
clock to wake you up to Party Hard. (Although it would do a great job.) And
it's not particularly the music that you want to fall asleep to. But I can
say with no doubt that for me at least, Andrew W.K. is music to live to.
andrew
wk - "party hard" (windows media).
andrew
wk - "i love nyc" (windows media).
andrew
wk - "she is beautiful" (windows media).
andrew
wk - "fun night" (windows media).
