Coming back from an Andrew WK gig last night, where the eclectic artist performed for only just over half hour, my flatmates comment was “oh well, after all he doesn’t have much material…”. Wrong. For Andrew WK may be famous for his immortal anthem ‘Party Hard’, but US Number 1 album “I Get Wet” is not the first or the last work the adoptive New Yorker has produced. And no, he’s not a ‘one hit wonder’ either, in fact his fan base is loyal and enthusiastic, and his gigs sell out pretty quick, after almost ten years and 3 more obscure albums after “I Get Wet”.

“Close Calls With Brick Walls” was originally released in 2006 in Japan and Korea, but due to differences with his creative team, the album has not been made available worldwide, until this year when it was decided it was time for it to conquer the West. As if the 18 songs contained in “Close Calls With Brick Walls” were not enough, Andrew’s fans have been rewarded for their patience with an additional CD, “Mother of Mankind”, containing 21 ‘rare and unreleased’ tracks spreading from 1999 to 2010. So there, you get 39 Andrew WK songs for the price of one CD: bargain for every die hard fan. But, what about the rest of us? Can we get to the end of track 39 without yawning?

While his live shows are still a big crazy party, “Close Calls With Brick Walls” appears more of a ‘I can do more than just party hard’ statement. Sure you still get the usual chaotic, effervescent Andrew WK to jump and bounce about to, like in ‘Not Going to Bed’, but you will find the rest of this album ‘chaotic’ in a very different way, like it or not. From unclassifiable, unexpected ‘Hand on the Place’ to the epic intro of ‘When I’m High’, you’ll be left wondering if this is utter genius or if old dear Andrew has been indeed partying too hard.

There is some good stuff on “Close Calls With Brick Walls” , occasionally a good deal of catchiness, like in ‘One Brother’; however shining in an 18 song album is a difficult task for any song. And that’s not all; there’s still “Mother of Mankind”, where we can explore everything before, during and after the ‘Jeans and White shirt’ Andrew WK persona. As he puts it himself on the booklet (nice read), this may be ‘to some a treasure chest, to others a box of garbage’. ‘As usual I have no idea what I’m doing’, he adds; and this ability to express instinct in its purest form, often bordering insanity, is maybe the true key to the hype surrounding Andrew WK’s shows. Unfortunately, it’s a tad harder expressing the same things on CD.