If you’re a big fan of Andrew W.K., well you’re in luck because he just brought out another album that may literally help you get through all of those troubles that built up while waiting six whole years for more music from him. If you’re not a fan, well, join the bandwagon my friend, because you’re in for one hell of an emotional rollercoaster ride.
His new album, “You’re Not Alone”, released on March 2nd is a compilation of intense musical and theatrical productions with feel-good titles and self-help lyrics that make you feel annoyed and patronised at the same time. The first song of the album, “The Power of Partying” sounds like you’ve just entered a 90s video game that you may never be allowed to leave. It’s completely instrumental, filled to the brim with dramatic trills and crescendos against a brass band and then of course, an epic electric guitar solo accompanied by tom-tom crashes. If the album’s cover art doesn’t spell out for you, this album is a little over the top.
Andrew W.K was well known back in the day for his immense amount of talent, being a multi-instrumentalist, and just being a seriously cool musician. “You’re Not Alone” is his first album release since 2012, and although he may be talented, it just reeks of too much time and too much money.
“Music is Worth Living For” is the second track on the album. The lyrics are triumphant and poetic, and the electric guitar is wild as he shreds alongside gospel harmonies and chanted choruses that scream “music is worth living for” many times. Although, that comment should maybe be a little more subjective next time. Not to be fooled as the most over the top track of the album, fifth track of the album, “The Feeling of Being Alive” is a spoken monologue to help guide you through your fears in life. The track is baffling and just adds to the severely thematically disjointed essence of the album.
“Party Mindset” provides us with Pac-Man beeps, pop-drenched piano chords as W.K continues to wow us with his electric guitar riffs. It’s a turnaround, emotionally and ends in another tremendous guitar solo. The album is lengthy, continuing on with more uplifting titles such as “The Devil’s on Your Side” and “Total Freedom”, and it ends with title track, “You’re Not Alone”. It’s huge, to say the least. It’s empowering and makes you feel like you’ve finally come to an end, until W.K. screams to you that “your journey’s not over, it’s just begun”, which again, is accompanied by a wild electric guitar solo. Although an incredibly nice gesture, it’s unfortunately not Andrew W.K.’s best work, and you probably won’t see “You’re Not Alone” on the shelves as the best-selling self-help album of the year.