A great single burdened by the other 11 songs... (I Get Wet - Andrew W.K.)

Name: edmundoconnor

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Product:	I Get Wet - Andrew W.K.
Date:	30.11.02 (120 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: 'Party Hard' is a terrific single par excellence, More energy than a warren of Duracell bunnies, Three stars for 'Party Hard' alone

Disadvantages: *every* single track on the album sounds exactly like 'Party Hard' which gets boring after the third or fourth time, and by the tenth or twelfth time, you begin to lose grip on sanity...

How do you classify Andrew WK? Party metal? That can't exist can it? Pop metal? Maybe, though images of a resurrected Def Leppard do nothing for me. Completely, utterly stark-staring mad? Absolutely.

The cover shows Andrew WK with blood running down his face from his nose, presumably from partying too hard. The sleeve notes scream a huge 'PARTY HARD' with our Andrew moshing like a good 'un in front.

'Party Hard' is metal's version of 'Fight For Your Right To Party' - dumbed *down*. It's an absolute riot - a single that should get any party swinging (and moshing). Andrew WK goes for it at full pelt and provided you can keep up, three minutes of sound paradise is yours.

But then you listen to the rest of the album and you realise you're not listening to different songs, but the same song just played at slightly slower (relatively-speaking) or faster speeds with Andrew WK. 'Party Hard' was great hearing it first time round, but hearing it for the tenth or twelfth time wears down the nerves.

The pace is never less than frantic, meaning the whole band sound like a squadron of Duracell Bunnies who have overdosed on Red Bull. An injection of this kind of energy is what many bands could do with these days, but these guys seem to not have heard of the 'off' switch, meaning that the energy just keeps on sounding more and more fake. Or maybe these guys really *are* this keen to party. A very unsettling and slightly scary thought...

Combined with their names - Jimmy Coup, E. Pain and Sgt. Frank are the guitarists, for example - the whole band seems to be an eighties rock group you only just avoided hearing about. But in that era you could get away with three guitars, numerous charges of indecently masturbating fretboards and keyboards undergoing assault and battery. Andrew WK seems like a good bloke, but he's turned up 20 years or so too late for the real party.

>Having a single like 'Party Hard' is absolutely great, but a whole album just means Andrew WK looks more and more like a one-trick pony - the album is getting three stars purely on the basis of that song. Granted, there are some attempts at vaguely softer stuff, but this just gets buried by that uber-metal voice and the monstrous guitars. Andrew WK will have to prove everything in his second album (if there is one) if he's going to avoid charges of being a novelty act.

***
Revised on 02/12/02 - This opinion was an 'end of night' job originally so it wasn't my best work. Given it a few nips and tweaks and bulking out so you get more of the ol' edmundoconnor style you know and love.

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