Despite being greeted by blood, sweat and jeers, Andrew WK has been a deranged man on a mission since his attention-sapping entrance in 2001.
Back then he was pretty insistent we sign-up to party. In fact he went as far as demanded our over indulgence 'til we puked. In doing so, AWK fought against accusations he was a fraud (Dave Grohl's pet project no less) and/or merely a joke. Harsh, but on the evidence, probably very fair. Two years later and his appetite for, yes, you guessed it, the P.A.R.T.Y, hasn't diminished one iota. Track two, 'Long Live The Party', pleads his case: "I want to have a party/You cannot kill the party". He's nothing if not insistent.
Less frantic and more anthemic than 'I Get Wet', 'The Wolf' rams the point further home with as much subtlety as before. This time he's upgraded from a sweaty club to a cavernous arena by investing in heavy-duty keyboards and spending hours pouring over his laptop painstakingly building up layers of sonic meat. The trouble is, the grandiose sounds he carves often sounds more polystyrene than pompous, no matter how many coats he applies.
Still, no one's suggesting he's an innovator. Andrew WK is not about envelope pushing. 'The Wolf' is so retro you expect to see Meatloaf's name on the credits, the Toxic Twins mucking in or Jovi popping into the studio to lend him a 'wow-wow" chorus for authenticity. It's a dodgy 80s heavy metal blockbusters with scantly clad maidens in distress, drapes billowing in the wind, very big hair and Andrew WK saving the day. Oh, and then throwing a big party to celebrate.
Standard second album clichés - maturing, developing, and experimenting - are unsurprisingly surplus to requirements. On 'The Wolf', the 'Bat Out Hell' baroque organ and choral one-two and hair metal nuances make welcome comebacks. Scratch the hard rock surface and the rampaging fist-pumping maniac probably makes more sense than plenty of so-called 'hi-brow' rock contemporaries, preaching the worthwhile virtues of following your dreams, seizing the moment, enjoying yourself and living life to the full. At least that's what we think he's ranting about.
'Tear It Up' is Poison's 'Skinny Bop' re-written, the 44 seconds of 'Make Sex' are hilarious, 'Totally Stupid' makes you want to fight your way to the front of the mosh, and 'Your Song' is a singalong chorus to rival anything Def Leppard left us with. Having said all that, 'The Wolf' would be nothing without the single 'Never Let Me Down' - a textbook power ballad with an air-guitar solo just waiting to be lovingly replicated. It's a particular high for AWK to date.
Andrew WK may be barking, but he's barking up the right tree. You can't stop the rock.
