Andrew W.K., You’re Not Alone

Andrew W.K. has always been an enigma, at least to me; truthfully, it’s part of his charm. Is he serious about his whole “Party Hard” shtick? How can anybody be that goddamn positive all the freaking time? That can’t be real, can it? Is it all a big put-on, a character he’s playing, like an Adult Swim version of an irrepressibly upbeat kids’ TV show host?

And then, a few months back, along came You’re Not Alone, and things took a few big steps further into the Realm of Weird-Ass Shit. Seriously, this album is one of the strangest things I’ve ever heard, largely because…well, it’s essentially a self-help album. Okay, scratch that — it’s not just a self-help album, but a self-help album mashed-up with an album of massive, earth-shaking, fist-in-the-air rock.

Imagine if, say, KISS had followed up Destroyer with an album where Gene Simmons stepped in every few songs to talk about how it’s okay to feel overwhelmed by life, because that’s the point of life, to be intense, and how you need to believe in yourself, and how thinking positively is the only way to find your true self…and then the band would come roaring back in with another blast of furious, heavy rock.

I’m paraphrasing, yes, but only a bit — the above is honestly pretty much what the handful of spoken-word tracks on You’re Not Alone are about, with Andrew W.K. pontificating seriously about those topics without even a backing track. I’m reminded of the self-help CDs my wife sometimes gets out for when we go on long family car trips, although coming from Andrew W.K., it feels a bit more relevant and vital, somehow.

Really, I should’ve seen it coming. I mean, Andrew W.K.’s done self-help appearances for a freaking decade now, at least, even lecturing at universities here and in the U.K., and he’s written advice columns for just about the same length of time, with a truly memorable stint at The Village Voice with his “Ask Andrew W.K.” column, where he touched on everything from dealing with racist relatives to being confident to coming out as transgender.

Viewed in that light, then, You’re Not Alone makes perfect fucking sense. And despite my initial chuckling and head-shaking, the album itself works perfectly, too. Andrew W.K. has created an album that not only rocks like hell but holds out a reassuring hand for the listener to grab onto; it’s in the title, it’s in the lyrics to songs like “Music Is Worth Living For,” “I Don’t Know Anything,” and “Ever Again,” and it’s even in the liner note art, where the centerfold pic is of Andrew W.K. crying, sitting on the ground under a streetlight while a second Andrew W.K. crouches nearby, seemingly trying to talk down his double. (Also? The cover art was done by freaking Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell, which blows my mind just that extra little bit…)

The music itself is immense, just track after track of this densely-layered, metal-tinged, arena-sized sound that blends orchestral bombast with epically anthemic rock that seamlessly incorporates distorted, cruching guitars, subtle strings, and delicate, otherworldly keys. “Music Is Worth Living For” lays out the template, with guitars and a rhythm section that roars and stomps along beneath angelic metal-goddess backing vocals while Andrew W.K. himself testifies that music, to him (and yeah, to me, too) is like his own personal higher power, a drug he can’t imagine living without.

From that high point, You’re Not Alone dives straight on into another with “Ever Again,” which is slower and more menacing, a defiant middle finger raised to anybody who tries to shut you down and tell you that you can’t achieve your dreams — and which also points out that sometimes those dreams do collapse on you, but you can’t let it weigh you down. “I Don’t Know Anything” is full-on rock fury that almost comes off as musical-esque; it’s blazing and wall-to-wall full of guitars, to be sure, but the song’s arrangement brings to mind Jim Steinman more than any of Andrew W.K.’s songs that I’ve heard before.

“Party Mindset” gets a little less heavy but keeps the party going (obviously), laying out W.K.’s personal party philosophy over a bed of retro-sounding keys and slow-moving tidal waves of guitar, while “The Party Never Dies” sounds nearly like liturgical music, with Andrew W.K. recounting the story of “The child of mysteries / The child of lies,” who is later crowned with a halo of gold. Then comes “Give Up On You,” a triumphant, reassuring burst of rock glory that promises, “We will give you hope / We will make you strong / We will show you love.”

In a way, this mid-album triumvirate of songs makes it almost seem like Andrew W.K. is building his own religion of sorts, based on his ideas about “partying” as living and being positive. The feel is almost like what you feel when you attend a service at a contemporary, forward-thinking church, where fresh-faced, ever-smiling dudes get up on stage and sing songs about love and glory while everybody claps along.

Don’t worry, though — I don’t think W.K. is interested in creating his own church, per se, but rather more about building up anybody and everybody he can. That comes through on “Keep On Going” and its companion spoken-word bit, “In Your Darkest Moments,” where the singer explains that yes, bad things happen in life, because that’s part of living, and you can’t let it knock you down and keep you there. Instead of eradicating that bad stuff, you have to recognize it, to own it, and learn to be okay with both the good and bad.

Interestingly, things get a bit darker after that point, with oddly reassuring track “The Devil’s On Your Side” and the sinister “Break The Curse,” but You’re Not Alone soon climbs back out of the pit with “Total Freedom,” which starts with soft vocals and fragile pianos and keys and slowly, steadily builds to a brilliant celebration of being unafraid, of being unashamed, of not caring what anybody else thinks. It’s a gorgeous, uplifting moment, one that feels like the apex of what Andrew W.K.’s trying to say with the album as a whole: you don’t have to care one damn bit about what anybody else thinks, or about competing with other people, or about some notion of “winning.” It’s enough that you just keep on going.

As someone who remembers being an awkward, scared, nervous kid who was bullied, who was confused about where his life was going, who questioned who the hell he was, and who thought about taking his own life, this album is an awesome, amazing thing. Listening to You’re Not Alone, I wish I’d had musical heroes like this, people who sounded like they were talking directly to me when they declared, “If you’re frightened / if you’re worried / you’re not alone / Hand in hand / we’re taking the step / into the great unknown.” That hand up means a whole lot to somebody who was like I was as a kid.

After all of this, after listening to You’re Not Alone repeatedly and loving it more and more with each listen, I’ve realized that I don’t actually care if Andrew W.K. is “real” or not. If it’s an act, it’s a damn good one, a facade he’s let take over his whole life and image — and I’m totally fine with that. I believe in Andrew W.K.; I really do, wholeheartedly and completely. Because not only is his music awesome and loud and fun, but the message he’s trying to get across is one worth believing in. And if that message can reach at least a handful of confused, scared kids (or, hell, adults) and help them get through life, then that’s an absolutely magical, beautiful thing.

(Photo courtesy of Andrew W.K.)