Folks, there’s no other way to put it: it is indeed time to party. When your career includes both working with Wolf Eyes to having your own show on Cartoon Network (not Adult Swim, mind you! Cartoon Network proper! We’re talking “lead-in to ‘Ed, Edd n Eddy’” over here!) you’ve had a pretty unbeatable life. And if you’re Andrew W.K, you’re no stranger to showing just how awesome you think that very life is. So, get your white jeans back from the dry cleaners and ready them for some more sweat stains (well, we hope that’s just sweat…) because today we rank all of Andrew W.K’s studio albums, or pass out from sleep-deprivation trying!
6. God Is Partying (2021)
While it’s always a bummer to put an artist’s most recent offering on the last place chopping block, sometimes that’s just the way the beer can crushes. W.K goes for a straight up metal reinvention, which unfortunately sounds a bit too much like Jack Black coming up with impromptu songs for “School of Rock.” It’s got its scant highlights, sure, but you have to wait to the latter half of the album to hit them, like “I Made It” successfully capturing the feel of an unmade ’80s Stallone film.
Play It Again: “And Then We Blew Apart” sounds like a long-lost Bowie track, complete with passable impression!
Skip It: “Remember Your Oath”
5. 55 Cadillac (2009)
As jarring as the idea of an “all instrumental, free-improv, solo piano concept album about drivin’ around in your car from Andrew W.K” might be, even more jarring still is the fact that…it kinda works! Piano has always been a part of W.K’s repertoire, and these compositions function as Andrew W.K songs if you close your eyes and BELIEVE, damn it! Even despite the complete lack of party talk. At the end of the day, ya gotta give the guy points for taking such a big swing but still having it fit into his catalog. Highlights include our hero being moved to create a drum set out of the piano in “Night Driver” and the surprise big finish of “Cadillac.”
Play It Again: See below
Skip It: Uh, well…We’ll be honest, this one’s kind of an “all or nothing” affair.
4. Close Calls With Brick Walls (2006)
While it may not reach the huge heights of his better LPs, “Close Calls With Brick Walls” is nothing if not W.K’s most variety-packed. Jumping genres from Hawkwind-esque space drone on “Close Calls With Bal Harbour,” channeling Girl U Want-era Devo on “Pushing Drugs” and only relying on his tried-and-true “hyper-caffeinated Meat Loaf” schtick on scant songs (such as the ultimate slumber party anthem “Not Going To Bed”) It’s no “I Get Wet,” but W.K is clearly having a blast mixing it up with his vocal style and instrumentation (Yup, that’s a xylophone you hear on “Las Vegas, Nevada”) Plus, we’ve run the numbers, and this album title is definitely in the running for coolest of all time.
Play It Again: “I Want To See You Go Wild”
Skip It: “Hand on the Place”
3. You’re Not Alone (2018)
Interspersed with inspiring spoken-word interludes that sound like what would emerge if Mr. Rogers and Henry Rollins got in the teleporter from the Fly, “You’re Not Alone” is W.K at his most philosophical. Full to bursting with his trademark energy and unending quest for the party, “You’re Not Alone” also just might make you tear up from thinking of the halcyon days of your youth. The spoken vignettes certainly run the risk of wrecking the flow, but it’s frankly kind of nice to have your own personal AWK in your headphones, as the little cartoon angel on your shoulder… Errr, cartoon devil, we mean, or, uh…Dang, which one is he???
Play It Again: The segue from “The Feeling of Being Alive” into “Party Mindset” gives the sensation of a glorious parallel universe dirtbag Schoolhouse Rock episode.
Skip It: “Break the Curse”
2. I Get Wet (2001)
Our boy Andrew careens from the depths of Michigan noise-rock scene and into the public eye with this aural cinder block to the face. It’s the one we all know and love, and it’s a classic for a reason: this thing GOES! Hits like “Party Hard,” “It’s Time to Party,” and “Party Till You Puke” solidify W.K’s penchant for a good get-together, for lack of a better term…damn, why can’t I think of the word I want? It’ll come to me, I’m sure. Anyway, this one’s undeniable, but there’s still room to grow, and if anyone has the energy to top themselves, it’s W.K.
Play It Again: “I Love NYC” kicks Sinatra’s ode to the Big Apple right in the ass
Skip It: “Don’t Stop Living in the Red” is nice, but it’s a bit of a hat-on-a-hat after the triumph of the title track, if you ask us.
1. The Wolf (2003)
What do you get when you cross all the fun and fury of “I Get Wet” with the added bonus of matured songwriting? Why, Andrew W.K’s best album “The Wolf,” of course! Alright, that might not be a very funny joke, but that’s not what we’re here for…we’re here, as always, to PARTY. “The Wolf” may not have the mainstream notoriety of its predecessor, but that’s what makes it take the top spot for us – it’s the polar opposite of a sophomore slump. A neverending freight train of rock-solid songs like “Totally Stupid,” “Your Rules,” “Never Let Down” let the listener know they’re in good hands…when that hand isn’t balled into a fist and punching “the idea of spending a quiet night in” in the crotch. Plus, with all the choir singing, and talk of the importance of friends and family, you could conceivably pass this off as Christmas music once winter comes. Throw it on at the next midnight mass and let us know how that goes for you!
Play It Again: “I Love Music” because, well, we do too.
Skip It: “Make Sex” (because we’re pretty sure he’s talking about the “pre-marital” variety, and we don’t want our monocles to shatter from such ribaldry!)