I Get Wet

Production

I Get Wet was recorded while Andrew W.K. was living in New York City. The first songs written for the album were "It's Time to Party" and "Take It Off." The album was recorded with many layers of overdubbing, in order to make the album "sound as party as we could make it sound," and for the "sound of the songs to be like one instrument" instead of a collection of individual musicians.

Influences

One inspiration for the album was Andrew W.K's enjoyment of intense, major-key music, something he attributed to his musical childhood experiences with the piano.

Another inspiration for I Get Wet was the charity single "We Are the World" by USA for Africa. Andrew W.K. was impressed with how all the artists on the song were singing all at once, something he described as a "powerful sound, like an orchestra." In turn, Andrew W.K. wanted to create music that sounded like that.

Album cover

I Get Wet is known for its highly recognizable cover art shot by famed art photographer Roe Ethridge: a photo of a wet-haired Andrew W.K. with a large stream of blood running from his nose, down his chin and onto his throat. This cover art caused a controversy in Europe, as it was seen to represent cocaine abuse and violence. To achieve the effect, W.K. initially said that he struck himself in the face with a brick during the photo shoot, but later explained that it did not lead to enough blood flow. Consequently, he supplemented his own blood with some of an animal which he got from a butcher's shop.

Release history

The album went to #1 on Billboard's Top Heatseekers chart. The songs "Party Hard" and "She Is Beautiful" were released as singles. The opening track, "It's Time to Party", was featured in an advertisement for Hotwire.com, a Coors spot and an Expedia ad. "Fun Night" can be heard in the 2003 film Old School. The track, "Don't Stop Living in the Red" was featured in an ad for Target. "I Love NYC" is frequently played at New York Rangers games. "Ready to Die" is used in the Hitman game series.

On August 28, 2012, a deluxe reissue of I Get Wet was released. The reissue contained previously unheard recordings, demos, live tracks, and alternate mixes. A limited number of autographed deluxe editions contained a lock of Andrew's hair, a piece of his white jeans, or an autographed plane ticket from his 2012 world tour.

Critical reception

I Get Wet provoked sharp critical reaction when it was initially released, with Pitchfork Media's Ian Cohen retrospectively writing that "critics of Andrew W.K. were often branded as the fun police and his fans considered fools or incurable ironists." On the review aggregate site Metacritic, the album holds a score of 64 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Stephen Thompson of The A.V. Club described I Get Wet as "more fabulously entertaining the louder it's played" and added that "if it wipes out a generation of hard-rock crybabies along the way, fans will owe him a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid." Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone also gave the album a positive review, stating that "there's no denying the over-the-top whomp of his music, the loudest and funniest metal you've heard in ages." David Browne, writing in Entertainment Weekly, noted that W.K. "must know how ridiculous this all sounds, but he attacks the material with such fervor that you almost believe he means every word." AllMusic's Heather Phares noted that while the album "has a certain sameness due to the frenetic beat that drives nearly every track, it's the perfect complement to W.K.'s party-centric vision", praising it as "refreshingly simple and cleverly stupid."

Adrien Begrand of PopMatters gave the album a mixed review, writing "At its best, WK’s music is a refreshing blast of skanky air on the current stale music scene, but at its worst, it’s disappointingly monotonous, unoriginal, and very, very dumb." Evan Chakroff of Stylus Magazine called it a "worthless piece of rock-product, 35 minutes of glossy, overproduced tripe", but concluded that "once these songs have pounded their way into your head, you can’t help but pay attention" and "if this is a joke, it's a brilliant one." Ryan Schreiber of Pitchfork Media panned the album as being "about as empty as rock music gets, right down to the tinny, digitally processed tonebank noise that passes for 'guitars.'"

Legacy

Q listed I Get Wet as one of the best 50 albums of 2001. NME included I Get Wet in their retrospective list of the best albums of 2001. Rhapsody ranked the album at number two on its "Rock's Best Albums of the Decade" list. Despite initially panning the album upon release, Pitchfork Media later placed I Get Wet at number 144 on their list of top 200 albums of the 2000s. Ian Cohen of Pitchfork Media gave the 2012 reissue of the album a "Best New Reissue" designation and referred to his own review of I Get Wet, rated 8.6 out of 10, as Pitchfork's "biggest statistical mea culpa ever", writing that "whether you consider these songs to be brilliant, brilliantly dumb, or just dumb, I Get Wet is necessarily simple."

Andrew W.K. reflected on the album's initial reaction in a 2012 interview, saying:

Track listing

All songs composed by Andrew W.K.

1. "It's Time to Party" – 1:30
2. "Party Hard" – 3:04
3. "Girls Own Love" – 3:13
4. "Ready to Die" – 2:54
5. "Take It Off" – 3:10
6. "I Love NYC" – 3:11
7. "She Is Beautiful" – 3:33
8. "Party til You Puke" – 2:34
9. "Fun Night" – 3:23
10. "Got to Do It" – 3:55
11. "I Get Wet" – 3:23
12. "Don't Stop Living in the Red" – 1:42

13. "We Want Fun" – 4:21
14. "Make Sex" – 0:46

Personnel

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes.