POODLE HAT REVIEWS!!!

[anthontherun]

COUCH POTATO: Awesome. Al's best rap song ever. I still laugh at the intro.



HARDWARE STORE: Love the vocals and lyrics here. Not the best song here, but good.



TRASH DAY: Love the line Julia Waters sings. I was surprised at how many "-ot" words he got to use.



PARTY AT THE LEPOR COLONY: Hilarious. I never heard this before, and I was pleasantly surprised. (When I heard it was a "Not Fade Away" type song, I wasn't too thrilled, but I love it.)



ANGRY WHITE BOY POLKA: My least favorite here...not the best polka either.



WANNA B UR LOVR: Funny at first, but goes on too long.



A COMPLICATED SONG: Favorite part has to be the decapitation verse...I was on the floor.



WHY DOES THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN TO ME?: My absolute favorite here. Did anyone else expect him to say "8.5"? Just one of the many reasons this song is teriffic.



ODE TO A SUPERHERO: I was expecting more, but it's good.



BOB: Got to hard to follow since it didn't make any sense...I like it a lot though.



EBAY: While I don't like the song it parodies, this was hilarious. Great one.



GENIUS IN FRANCE: Dead-on Zappa. Vocals, lyrics, music, it's totally Frank. I'm a big fan of his so I obviously enjoyed this one.

[Weird Chris Farleyfan]

Hey everyone, I posted a mini review on my thoughts and feelings a couple days ago before the album came out (I had downloaded it), and now that it's offically out, and I've listened to it over and over, I'd like to review it too. Before I continue, it must be noted that Al is my favorite band/singer, and that I am entitled to my opinion.



I am so happy that everyone here seems to like it a lot, and it makes me happy that Al has made so many other people happy. However, I'm not really enjoying the album half as much as most of you are. So far, after about 10 complete listens thru, I would have to give it a 5/10, or a 6/10. If you care, here's my song-by-song:



Couch Potato - I think this is a really good parody and I love the numerous TV show refrences, and it makes the catchy-yet-annoying Eminem sound very listenable, one of my favourite songs from the album.



Hardware Store - Probably my favourite original from the album. It just flows together nicely, has a nice rhythm and of course the verse from hell (For Al's throat I would assume), really great song.



Trash Day - It's an alright song, but since I hate the original, there wasn't too much I was expecting. I thought I would like it better, but oh well, maybe it will grow on me.



Party At The Leper Colony - Well, after hearing everyone talk about how great the concert version was, and not having heard it myself, I was dying ot hear this song, and it sounded like it would be hilarious... but it turned out to be one of my least favorite songs... I don't find it that funny, and the style it was recorded in has a lot of potential, but I find listening through the whole song to be more of a chore than anything. I really wanted to like this one too.



Angry White Boy Polka - I liked this polka about as much as his other polkas, which is a lot! His polkas are always great, and someday when I get enough of them, I'll make a polka only CD.



Wanna B Ur Lovr - Funny song at first, but boringly slow. I can't really stand to listen to it, but that's okay because there's usually one song per album that I'm not a fan of (Phony Calls for BHD, Germs for RWS, etc), so I chalk this up to that. The only part I feel that's really catchy is "Girl you must be Jamacian/Because Jamacian me crazy!".



A Complicated Song - My favourite song on the album, hands down, which is surprising because I'm not a fan of Avril's. I just thought he nailed this so well, I love it. I think it's great how it's broken up into 3 different subjects, and I feel that it works together as one.



Why Does This Always Happen to Me? - I love his violent songs too, and I loved this on the first listen thru, but since then it's lost steam and isn't really keeping me listening. I don't care for Bed Folds, so maybe that's the problem, but it's too subdued.



Ode to a Superhero - Not caring for the original, I wasn't a big fan of this either. Usually I love parodies even if I don't like the originals, but this just seemed uninspired. It seemed like "The Saga Begins" only about Spiderman. Not a bad song, just not that interesting to me.



Bob - This was very dissapointing to me. Although I appreciate the tremendous effort that must have been put into it to write it all in palendrome, and someone with enough time on their hands could use enough metaphors to make it make sense, I just find it boring. Maybe it's because I'm not a fan of Bob Dylan, but I just... don't care for the sound of it at all. I was hoping (before I realized it was a homage to Bob) that it was about someone named Bob, maybe someone annoying or just remeniscent a la "I Remember Larry". Besides, Al sounds hilarious when he says the name Bob.



eBay - A lot funnier and better than I thought it would be, but it also feels a little bit dated. However, it's pretty good and has a nice rhyme scheme.



Genius In France - As you can probably tell, I'm not a fan of older style music that a lot of others here like, so after the first 2 listens I wasn't a fan of this song either.



I don't mean to be depressing, really I don't, because I wanted nothing better than to come here yelling about how much I loved the album, when truthfully I'm just not that satisfied with it... but I'll keep listening, maybe it will grow on me. Am I the only one?

[Lauren27]

QUOTE I loaded the new album into my cd drive and got a message that I need to install a new version of Quicktime.  I clicked the 'Install' button, but predictably, nothing happened.



So, I will assume that everything is working as it should and take this time to write a completely pointless review that no one here will either a) Read or B) Agree with.







I had the same problem... so I checked the version of QuickTime it required, which was version 6 while my computer only had version 2. I did a search to find QuickTime 6 is a free download. Go for the free download & choose the "Recommended" version (not minimum, it won't work).

[minnick27]

First off: Genius In France? Greatest song ever! It almost brought a tear to my eye. Im a huuuuuuge Zappa fan, and like Olfuzzy said, he really was channeling FZ on this one. I ust hope that it can be performed in concert just once (prefferably 7/19 *hint hint*



Wanna B Ur Lovr is a great song, the vocals are what makes it. And I will be using some of these lines on Saturday night



AWBP is one of the best to date. I think it sounds very Lawerence Welk-ian, or even (frank) Yankov-ian





Ode is wonderful. I love Billy Joel and Spiderman.





Ill leave he others until later





Mike

[Shelley]

I'd have to say I liked RWS overall more than I do Poodle Hat.. did anyone notice how many "listing" songs are on PH? Couch Potato - tv shows/channels, Hardware Song - hardware, Trash Day - different kinds of garbage, Ebay - different stuff to buy. I must admit it got a little old, instead of clever lyrics. Since I'm not a Bob Dylan fan, I really didn't get into "Bob" (Al's fault for making it sound so much like Dylan!), but the palendromes were clever. I'm also not a Zappa fan, so the last song just drags on for me. On the other hand, Al has once again been able to take a song that I hate (Nelly's original) and make a song that I love (Trash Day). He did the same for IAATP for me.



Anyway, I do like the new album, the enhanced features were awesome - in fact the home movies made me laugh more than any of the songs!



-Shelley

[MidiboyGregg]

Here is MY review of Poodle Hat...read this if you want some slightly DIFFERENT opinions.



Couch Potato - Ok, this song is pure brilliance. I really like the way this song flows, and catching all the TV shows is a lot of fun. There is a joke in there that maybe few people will get about TiVO. (It thinks I am gay.) In case you didn't know, TiVO "learns" the types of shows you like to watch, and then automatically records other shows that are like it.



Hardware Store - This song is so darn fast, it's awesome. What's really awesome is listening to the vocal only mix so you can hear what is really going on. I can't wait to see how he pulls this one off live. I was a little dissappointed when I heard just how many of the vocals were really nothing more than samples, but it is still great. (If you don't believe me, listen to the vocal only mix...there are a lot of keyboard sampled vocals...but, it's still awesome.)



Trash Day - A fairly decent song, though not the strongest parody ever. Probably because I absolutely HATE the original song, though I do love Al's "I think that rats gettin' big." That makes me laugh out loud.



Party At The Leper Colony - Full of puns. I really enjoyed this song, however, younger people will likely not get it. That's ok. It's still funny, in a gross and morbid kind of way. Al, if you want to continue with morbid songs, stick to this, and Santa, but please do not EVER, EVER release a song like Why Does This ALways Happen To Me again.



Angry White Boy Polka I probably don't like this song as much as most of you do, cuz honestly, I don't know but maybe 2 of those songs. (Chop Suey and Youth Of The Nation...) This song is lost on me. His least entertaining polka ever, in my opinion.)



Wanna B UR Lovr - Ok, I personally like this song, however, I am dissappointed in Al in a big way here. Lyrically, this is the most un-family friendly song he ever did. Al what were you thinking? Again, I find the innuendo funny, but it just isn't Al. I would be embarrased to play this with kids in the room.



A Complicated Song - This is one of the strongest songs on the ALbum. People think it is disjointed, but it really isn't. It's just like every verse is a different part of the singer's life. I find it quite ingenious actually.



Why Does This Always Happen To Me? - ALright ALready. This song really, really, really cheeses me off. 30,000 dead people is not a funny thing to sing about. The main thing that cheeses me about this, is that earthquakes are quite common, and quite commonly, people die in them. It isn't funny. Ever. Al, it sure is a good thing you didn't make a joke about a terrorist attack. Why is 30,000 people dieing funny, but 5000 people NOT funny? Because it REALLY happened. Well, mass amounts of people REALLY die in earthquakes also.



Ode To A Superhero - I personally truly enjoyed this song. His movie songs that tell the plot are truly inspired, because it pokes fun at plot shortcomings, but still makes the movie look good as well.



Bob - Unless you know that the song contains palindromes, you are not going to get or like this song. It makes no sense. I originally thought the song was inspired until I saw EVERY one of the palindromes Al used on a website about palindromes. It is cool how he at least got the lines to rhyme.



Ebay - This is probably the absolute strongest, best and most entertaining (and original) parodies he has ever done. It is not only spot on, but it is almost like the song was originally written to be THIS song. Very brilliant. This album is worth this song along.



Genius In France - This is another great song with all kinds of funny little quips in it, though the song will be lost on some. It really reminds me of something from Rocky Horror for some reason! Good song, but I still like Albequrque better.

[weird_el]

Overall, it's in my top 3. Time will tell.



I thought the only low points were the first verse to "A Complicated

Song" and the way "Genius in France" ends.



The polka grew on me after listening 4 times. I love the "Last Nite"

part where Al sings such nice harmonies with himself. I think finishing it with "Without Me" would have made it better.



Currently my favorite song is a toss up between "Wanna B Ur Lovr"

(his seductive way just turned me into Al-Gal goo) and the Ben and Al

mix of "Why Does This Always..." That Ben & Al mix is also my favorite extra.



"Ebay" was the most pleasant surprise. I'm not much into BSB, but I

do love it when Al sings in his "sweet voice."



"Ode to a..." is alright. Not as good as Saga Begins, but I'll always

like it when Al plays accordion on something. Nice understated work. More good piano.



I am most impressed with the 3rd verse of Hardware Store and all the

Zappa-ness of Genius in France. I still would like to know how many Zappa references are in GIF. Al may not be political, but he sure can be politically incorrect. It's over-the-top silliness.



As for "Bob" -- SO MANY DYNAMOS!



I think it's the best bunch of original songs since Dare to Be Stupid. RWS parodies are still better.



El

[Weird Chris Farleyfan]

Why Does This Always Happen To Me? - ALright ALready. This song really, really, really cheeses me off. 30,000 dead people is not a funny thing to sing about. The main thing that cheeses me about this, is that earthquakes are quite common, and quite commonly, people die in them. It isn't funny. Ever. Al, it sure is a good thing you didn't make a joke about a terrorist attack. Why is 30,000 people dieing funny, but 5000 people NOT funny? Because it REALLY happened. Well, mass amounts of people REALLY die in earthquakes also.

No offense, but that's the best part of the song.... haven't you ever felt that way, even if not in a literal sense? Like if you're watching your favorite show, and then the president comes on with some speech about something that you could care less about, or if there's some other news item that you'd much rather have read about later instead of ruining your show-watching? I guess I can understand what you're saying, but nobody takes Al seriously... I mean in the 3rd verse when he talks about stabbing his boss in the face, that's hilarious too! Imagine worrying about bending your knife after you stabbed somebody in the face... it's great.



Also, I'd defend Wanna B UR Lovr, but it's a boring song. But if you find that offensive, what about most of "Jerry Springer" from RWS or the line in "Gump" from BHD when he says "His girlfriend Jenny is kind of a slut"? I think that's more "offensive" that some corny one liners.

[MidiboyGregg]

I agree that Jerry Springer crosses the line too, however, it is a great parody of the show, because the show does cross the line...I also don't like that song being played with kids in the room...



Now, like I said, I like the song Wanna B Ur Lovr, just not for kids.

[weirdojace]

Now, like I said, I like the song Wanna B Ur Lovr, just not for kids.

I'm a kid (13 years old), and I hate Wanna B Ur Lovr. I do get some of that stuff. Ick. I'd be embarassed to play it with adults in the room!