I Get Wet

Andrew W.K. appears on the cover of his new CD with a bloodied nose. We can only guess at the symbolism behind this, but I’d like to think, that, having heard his thoroughly ridiculous debut for Mercury, his mother punched him.

To capture the true essence of I Get Wet, you need to imagine Twisted Sister, Transvision Vamp, Shampoo and the J.Geils Band mutilating each other in a dark alley after a night on the alcopops, while the Duracell rabbit provides the percussive backdrop.

This New-York-City-loving, all-American boy is a real party animal. We know this because he tells us on tracks one and two. The short, sharp shock of ‘It’s Time To Party’ is followed by current single, the phenomenally catchy, but equally silly, ‘Party Hard.’ And, just in case we still aren’t convinced the delightfully monikered ‘Party Til You Puke’ continues the thread later.

In the production department, no expense has been spared. It took a quarter of a million dollars to capture the authenticity of Andrew’s early shows when he performed alone with just a single mike and CD backing track for company.

The lyrics pulse with macho posturing. Take the anti-intellectual stance of ‘Ready To Die’. “This is your Judgment Day/We need a sacrifice and now we get to take your life/We shoot without a gun – we’ll take anyone.” If we are to believe Andrew, it took five years to polish such masterpieces of lyrical eloquence.

Despite this, the hype machine is already at full tilt pushing the message of Andrew W.K. to the masses. But it’s highly likely that five years from now I Get Wet will be one of those embarrassing records your friends laugh at while thumbing through your CDs.