Trying out a new restaurant or a new haircut can be fun. Other times, it can be disastrous. Unfortunately for Andrew W. K., who jumped from a rocker to a pianist for his fourth album Cadillac 55, trying something new resulted in the latter.
His newest album sports eight songs with titles all revolving around cars and driving and, while he has some beautiful portions jumbled into a few songs, he mutilates his pieces with a grotesque, childlike style of hitting the keys and an excessive repetition of chords and outside noise which turns his fourth album into a massive and terribly annoying car crash.
Andrew W. K, (Andrew Wilkes-Krier) began playing the piano at age four and was studying at the University of Michigan School of Music Pedagogy Program by age five. He played the drums and keyboard in various bands all through out high school before moving to New York and performing solo. In 2001 he was joined by eight others; Donald Tardy (drums), Gregg Roberts (bass guitar, vocals), Sgt. Frank (guitar), Jimmy Coup (guitar, vocals), Kendall A. (guitar, vocals), E. Payne (guitar, vocals), John Sutton (guitar) and Richie Russo (drums). Together, the band went on tour, spreading their rock music around the world, landing spots as guests on late night talk shows as well as MTV.
Andrew W. K. broke off temporarily from his rocking roots to produce a mellower album entirely of his self-composed piano music. The songs on Cadillac 55 are either terrible from the start or begin with a hint of something promising only to be ruined 30 seconds later by repetition and ugly chords. There is nothing to drag a listener into the songs, and not a single thing to compel a person to keep listening. As soon as nice chords and beautiful music emerge they are immediately ruined and interrupted by junk.
Almost all of W. K.’s songs break off into parts where they sound like a child aimlessly playing with the piano. W. K. continuously stays within the same few octaves and repeats the same chords over and over again in “Begin the Engine” as well as most of “Night Driver”. The listener can’t connect to the lyrical narrative of the music because of the randomness of the keys and chords, and because too much is going on at once. This, combined with the repetition in the songs, will leave anyone with a headache.
Some thought process actually went into “Seeing the Car” with lots of changes in octaves as well as beautiful chords. Some work went into this piece because there is a story and it is an all around happier, almost enjoyable piece to listen to. This is the only song that is better than the rest on the album, and by far more interesting than the other songs. The song’s only downfall is the sound of crickets, which the artist decided to include on every track.
Another problem with Cadillac 55 is that the song titles do not match the feel of the song. With “Night driver” W. K. has upped his game a bit by adding a few octave changes making it actually sound like someone is playing the piano and not just messing around. There is a distinct difference between the tone of the music and the title. The song could have been in a lower octave with a deeper and darker sound because as of now the song sounds more like a happy stroll. Imagine walking in the park, sun shining, squirrels chasing each other and children playing and boom – the feel of “Night Driver”.
According to Andrew W.K.’s Website, his goal is to “create feelings of pure joy, true fun, total love, endless freedom, and infinite possibility”. Andrew W. K. is going to have to start his engines and try again.
1/5 Stars
