Review: Andrew W.K. remains committed to his feelgood cause with new album God Is Partying
- by Joe Sharratt
- in Reviews
Andrew Fetterly Wilkes-Krier, better known as Andrew W.K., was one of the big breakthroughs of the early noughties alternative revival. His single Party Hard was a mainstay of rock club nights up and down the country, while the album that spawned it earned rave reviews and featured in many critics ‘album of the year’ rundowns, and gained a solid following, partly fuelled by the (at the time) controversy over the cover image of the blood-stained star himself.
God Is Partying is Andrew W.K.’s fifth studio album but – in the UK at least – nothing he’s done since has quite recaptured the hedonistic magic of his earliest material. Seemingly that matters less to him than you might imagine though, because in the years since the release of his debut album I Get Wet, Andrew W.K. has diversified his interests, appearing in films and TV shows, working in radio, producing music including for legendary reggae artist Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, writing, and setting a world record for Longest Drum Session in a Retail Store at the MTV O Music Awards in 2013, when he drummed non-stop for 24 hours.
With so much going on, you might be left with some doubt if Andrew W.K. has the same energy now as he did in his younger days, but within the opening minute or two of curtain raiser Everybody Sins, any doubts will have been quickly dispelled. Babylon fuses big drums and operatic rock with a flurry of synths, while I’m In Heaven is thumping industrial rock and I Made It brims with defiance.
God Is Partying then is a high-octane, adrenaline-fueled romp that’s just as fun and frenzied as Andrew W.K. has ever been. It’s pretty clear he’s still partying hard.
God Is Partying tracklist:
- Everybody Sins
- Babalon
- No One To Know
- Stay True To Your Heart
- Goddess Partying
- I’m In Heaven
- Remember Your Oath
- My Tower
- And Then We Blew Apart
- I Made It
- Not Anymore
- Everybody Sins (radio edit)
