Taking an upwards of three years to create, "Get Wet" is a crash course in Krewella's Eurotrash electro-disco (heavy on the trash, light on the Euro, of course). It begins on a sharp downbeat with the opener "Live for the Night", and throughout the next three tracks, it's a bitch-slapping assault of electronics and big, piercing vocals courtesy of sisters Jahan Yousaf and Yasmine Yousaf. Thankfully, though, sole producer Kris "Rain Man" Trindl decides to back up their vocals with dense arrangements of synth, drum machines, and Hi-NRG party pop, and not with the vocal processors which have made every EDM act in 2013 sound as high and shrill as a drill. This isn't Krewella's only redeeming factor. "Get Wet" manages to sprawl every sub-genre of Electronica under the sun, ranging from deep house to everything but ElectroClash (though it gets dangerously close many times). If "Alive" was the only thing that this record had going for it, it would still be one of the best mainstream dance albums of 2013, but there's actually different elements at work here besides pounding four-on-the-floor and breakdowns that are the dance equivalent of hard metal. Nothing says versatility quite like inserting a string arrangement in one track ("Ring of Fire"), while hiring Stephen Schwartz to co-produce another (the album's lone ballad, the excellent "Human"), but below the surface, Krewella manages to out-Ke$ha Ke$ha, while recording with the humane sensibility of Daft Punk. Lyrically, "Get Wet" is unabashed with its use of cliche: "I'll sleep when I am dead", "Go hard or go home", or "Come on make me feel alive", to start the list. But this album is far from clinical; it might be crass in its approach, but the end result is a collection of undeniably fun, some even inspiring, dance tracks that all lend a hand in cementing Krewella as an artist to watch. True, things sag when the BPM dips below 120, but the frothy high-tempo songs, "Come & Get It" in particular, all make up for the slower moments in the back-half of the record. Such is to be expected for the first LP from a newly famed act, especially within the electronic dance genre, they were going to run low on steam eventually. Still, there's something to be said of Krewella's happily empty persona: they may not have much insight (their biggest revelation is that "I'm human, and I make mistakes"), but since the music is as trashy as their lyrics, "Get Wet" benefits from all parts of their gleefully mindless approach, something that's truly fun junk.
Recommended Tracks in Bold:
1. Live for the Night 2. We Go Down 3. Come & Get It
4. Enjoy the Ride 5. We Are One 6. Dancing with the Devil
7. Alive 8.
Pass the Love Around 9. Ring of
Fire
10. Human 11.
Killin’ It 12.
This Is Not The End
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