ANDREW W.K. RETURNS WITH INSTRUMENTAL JAZZ-NOIR ALBUM 'TEMPTATION TO EXIST'!

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Andrew W.K. Temptation to Exist album artwork

Andrew W.K. is back after five years, and he did not return with the album anybody would have predicted. TEMPTATION TO EXIST is an instrumental jazz-noir record built from piano, brass, woodwinds, cello, percussion, vibraphone, organ and synthesizers. The king of partying has entered a smoky room at the end of a hallway, and somehow it still makes sense.

Andrew W.K. Temptation to Exist cover photograph

For more than two decades, Andrew W.K. has treated partying as a philosophy: intensity, perseverance and the act of being fully alive. This album approaches that same existential obsession from a completely different musical direction. The huge hard-rock walls are gone, replaced by something exploratory, cinematic and occasionally disorienting.

Andrew produced and mixed the album while performing piano, guitar, bass, drums, percussion, organ, celeste, vibraphone, keyboards, synthesizers and vocals. Nick Lane contributes trombone and bass trombone; Gabe Noel adds cello and bass harmonica; and Ryan Tharayil plays alto saxophone, flute and clarinet while also serving as assistant engineer.

TEMPTATION TO EXIST is Andrew W.K.'s first album since 2021's GOD IS PARTYING. Instead of retracing that record's dark maximalism or reaching back toward I GET WET, he has opened a completely different door. The music changes, but the underlying mission survives: confront the overwhelming experience of being alive and turn it into sound.