Being in "da radio" lots of people ask me what my favourite music is. Whilst that's a question I always struggle to answer, this weekend I could finally and definitively answer one music-based quandary, as I now have "a favourite album". Not only is it my PERSONAL favourite album...but I believe it's the greatest album of all time. Let me explain...
In 2001, Andrew WK became a flash-in-the-pan metal star with his hit "Party Hard". My 17-year old mind was blown by the song. I was a chubby, alternative college student who took a great liking to music which featured grown men shouting and wailing. "Party Hard" filled that quota,with Andrew bellowing his balls off alongside a thrashing metal guitar, a hard-hitting drummer and - bizarrely - the inclusion of a Jools-Holland-esque plinky-plinky piano (yeah, that's what they're officially called - officially!)
For some reason I never listened to the album the followed the single...until last week. And nine years later, my mind was blown again by Sir W.K's 9-track masterpiece called "I Get Wet".
You only need to hear about twenty seconds of each song to understand the sheer brilliance of this album. First, here's the title track "Party Hard" in case you've never heard it.
Thrashing metal, steady beat, all groovy. Here's track two "Take It Off"...
Sounds familiar, does it not? But it gets better - here's "I Get Wet"...
At this point I was laughing my head off! Everything is EXACTLY THE SAME! Surely this can't continue...here's "Ready To Die"
Nice introduction of a kiddy piano, then STRAIGHT BACK INTO IT! Thrashing guitar, drums, plinky-plinky piano the WHOLE NINE YARDS. Then we come to the second single from the album, this is "She Is Beautiful".
There are three other songs on the album that are "slightly different to Party Hard" as opposed to "carbon copies of awesomeness". I was listening to this album walking to work genuinely laughing to myself, and my brother Mike admitted he listened to the album with a tear in his eye. I haven't stopped listening to it either, I had it on this morning as I was writing this blog. I just cannot get ENOUGH of it! I listening, I'm singing and I'm laughing.
But we weren't laughing AT Andrew WK, no way no how! Mister WK is, possibly, one of the most underrated performers in music history! I say that in TOTAL SINCERITY, not one trace of sarcasm whatsoever! Here's a guy who completely embraced his bread and butter. He knew what song put him on the map, and that was "Party Hard". He wasn't misguided enough to believe that his song was a deep, moving "Anthem of the times" and he wasn't naive enough to believe that people who bought his album wanted to hear his full range. I bought this album (from a charity shop for £2, no less) because I love "Party Hard", as I'm sure many other people did. He knew his limits, and he knew what people wanted to hear. So he gave it to them...he gave them thirty-plus minutes of balls-to-the-wall, no-nonsense, straight-to-the-point Andrew Double-You Fucking Kay!
That's why, I believe, this is the greatest album of all time!
Long live Andrew, and when it's time to party...you KNOW we'll party hard!