493. "Party Hard" Andrew W.K.

"Party Hard"
Andrew W.K.
I Get Wet
2001

Andrew W.K.'s seminal 2001 album I Get Wet, while held in high regard at the time of its release, has seen its reputation as a forward thinking work of art only burnished in the time that has followed, so that now it is of a piece with beacons of sonic expression like Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, or Samuel Barber's Adagio.
One needs only a cursory listen to the singer's plaintive wail to discern there is greatness at play. When Andrew W.K. yearns, "Let's get a party going, and when it's time to party we will always party hard," it is hard not to think of America in 2001, the towers crumbling before our eyes, a decade of war stretched out on the horizon in front of us.
"Party Hard", therefore, is a parable for our culture on the post-millennial, post-modern, post-racial age, always striving, seeking, working, death's haunting bell forever around the corner...
This is a good song for people who like to party hard.