Review Summary: A party-ready mix of genres + two gorgeous voices + easily danceable beats = one of my new favorites.
Krewella only really blew up last year (after their Play Hard EP came out) but they've been working a lot harder than they've been playing for a very long time. With their blend of heavy and light EDM and electropop, they've been tearing up stages and headphones across the world. Now they've released their debut record, Get Wet, and it's worth waiting for.
The Krew's first single from the record, "Live for the Night", is a Ke$ha-style party song that was one of the first songs the two sisters in the group wrote together. Aside from sounding like many other songs we've already heard, it's a pretty well-done number. "We Go Down", however, deviates from the pop formula with a drumstep beat and a hard high-pitched drop that goes double-time the second time around. The vocals are still there, but the party vibe is gone - now it's all about survival.
"Come & Get It" is the first previously released track, coming from the trio's Play Harder remix EP, but it fits right in among the beats and rage-ready dubstep. So much better than the Selena Gomez track of the same title. "Enjoy the Ride" is a much more progressive pop song, describing exactly how much fun Jahan, Yasmine, and Kris are having in their crazy, crazy lives, and while it sounds once again like so much other pop, there's an uplifting vibe to it, and the lyrics are much more well-written than anything else you hear on the radio.
"We Are One" starts out similarly to "Enjoy", but the drop goes much harder - built for banging as loud as possible in the largest room possible. Things change up again on the excellent "Dancing with the Devil", featuring drums from Travis Barker and guest vocals from Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump. The vocals are just dissonant enough that it gives the song a rock n' roll edge, and the drums definitely help that edge. The Krew's massive hit "Alive" comes next, and though it's a good song, it feels a bit as if it was put here as a filler track.
However, Krewella tries out a seriously different sound on the chillstep "Pass The Love Around", and it goes over...moderately well. It doesn't fit too well within all the heavy beats, but it's a nice break before the absolutely massive hardstyle highlight "Ring of Fire" drops its four-on-the-floor kicks and dirty bassline. "Human" brings a bit of an emotional vibe with an acoustic guitar riff and a heavy yet melodic dubstep drop with a power ballad guitar solo.
Up next is "Killin' It", another track from the Play Hard EP, and once again, it feels like a bit of a filler - but it's still a really, really good track. The album wraps up with the Pegboard Nerds collaboration "This Is Not The End", and it goes out with a dubstep bang. The sisters' voices drive the hard-hitting song along to the finale, still proclaiming that it's not the end.
The verdict? Despite one or two filler tracks, and some songs sounding as if they're made for the radio, this record is jam-packed with destructive beats, gorgeous vocals, and some very cool collaborations. Play this one as loud as possible.
(Postscript: The iTunes deluxe version of the album features two bonus tracks, "Lights and Thunder (feat. Gareth Emery)" and "Enjoy the Ride (Acoustic)". "Lights and Thunder" sounds a little bit like "We Are One", but has a much more melodic vibe, and it's a definite highlight of the record in my book. "Enjoy the Ride (Acoustic)" features an obviously synthesized piano, but the sisters' voices harmonize better than at any point on the rest of the record. It's a very different ending than the standard version, but a welcome one.)
(Postscript 2: If you like this record or want to know what you're in for, visiting Krewella.com will bless you with four free songs - the unreleased original trap/hardstyle banger "Party Monster", an acoustic/orchestral cover of Pendulum's "Watercolour", a remix of Fall Out Boy's "Alone Together", and "This Is Not The End".)
Highlights: "We Go Down", "Dancing with the Devil", "Ring of Fire", "Lights and Thunder"
