World of Weird Al Yankovic

Okay I haven't seen titanic, maid in manhattan, or any other major movies of the sort. I go to the movies less than three times a year, I never rent any, and the only ones I see on tv are the low budget 80's movies on Comedy Central (including UHF! Yay!)

Poodle Hat - Day Three: Can't get enough of Ebay. Thinking of just looping that song over and over and over...



I dunno Squirrelygirl, it may be the contender for Germs replacement. Picture it: The musical accompaniment is all taped. Al and TBITB come out in appropriate boy band swoon worthy costumes and do the boy band thang. I propose we add a sixth member. One related to a certain bass player... A little something for everyone. Every one of the girls in the audience anyway.

Poodle Hat - Day Three: Can't get enough of Ebay. Thinking of just looping that song over and over and over...

That one just keeps tickling my funny bone too. I've been crooning all day about Shatner's old toupee. And it seems to me that coming up with a good answer to the musical question "Tell me why... I need another pet rock" could be a truly life-changing experience. And then I remember that this song was written by a man whose wisdom tooth was auctioned off (admittedly not on eBay, but still) and my joy is just unconstrained.

Poodle Hat - Day Three: Can't get enough of Ebay. Thinking of just looping that song over and over and over...

I dunno Squirrelygirl, it may be the contender for Germs replacement. Picture it: The musical accompaniment is all taped. Al and TBITB come out in appropriate boy band swoon worthy costumes and do the boy band thang. I propose we add a sixth member. One related to a certain bass player... A little something for everyone. Every one of the girls in the audience anyway.

oooh.....*dies of happiness* yes I hope it is that 'certain person'



yeees ooh I could just see it! *knows what she's dreaming about tonight*



Sarah



*crosses fingers*

My first post. Wee!



Couch Potato: The original was remotely familiar, but since I don't listen to Eminem, I really couldn't tell. Well, the lyrics were still funny. Ha. See, I'm laughing.



Hardware Store: This is my favorite. Hard to imagine that a song that's not a parody would be my favorite? I guess Al's own style just brings a smile to my face. To quote my dad: "you know, there has to be SOME talent into making that song." As in, not just anybody could create that song and make it work the way he did.



Trash Day: GAAAAAAAH, I had to listen to this song SOOOOOOO many times it's ludicrous. Which makes Al's version all the better Seriously, though, the actual parody was kind of boring. But this song was pretty much necessary.



Party at the Leper Colony: I heard this in concert before the album was out. Cool song, and the lyrics threw me off. Which, I suppose, was the point.



Angry White Boy Polka: My favorite Al medley so far. But that's just because I haven't played it a thousand times. Why isn't Linkin Park in it? "Shut up while I'm talking to you" would have been at least an interesting intermission.



Wanna B Ur Lovr: *shrug* I skip this one. The title was promising, but I just can't get into it.



A Complicated Song: Excellent. I can't think of anything else to say.



Why does this always happen to me: Love it. I know guys like this, too, so I can relate.



Ode to a Superhero: Spiderman in three minutes. Good just for that... but then it makes fun of Billy Joel... extra points for that. This reminds me of The Saga Begins, actually.



Bob: Lyrics are cool, but I have to give a *shrug* to this for not knowing anything about Dylan.



Ebay: Wonderful. That's all I have to say about that. A++ WILL LISTEN TO AGAIN!!!!



Genius in France: I know nothing about Dweezil Zappa. I didn't like this song. I skip it.



The extras: Home videos... meh. Some funny stuff, but I liked the other stuff better. Hey, you know what instrumentals + lyrics mean? Karaoke! Okay, not really, but I liked the extras. Plus they were trusting enough not to have fifty security holes to jump through, so I just have the .mov on my desktop and use that to listen to the album if I want to concentrate on the lyrics. Plus I never have to pull out the CD. Very cool indeed.



Final thoughts: Worth every penny. I still want to know why Linkin Park wasn't in it, though...

Welcome to the board!



Good review, but it's an homage to FRANK not Dweezil Zappa.

I wish people would stop liking linkin park and start listening to zappa. so much more talent in one moustache hair...

Welcome to the board!

Good review, but it's an homage to FRANK not Dweezil Zappa.

Sorry, was basing facts off of post above me. I knew it was Frank at one time... but I was lazy. But thank you. I feel a little sheepish...

I wish people would stop liking linkin park and start listening to zappa. so much more talent in one moustache hair...



I didn't say I liked Linkin Park, I said that it would be appropriate -- they were overplayed and it got on my nerves, much like Nelly. And "SHUT UP WHILE I'M TALKING TO YOU" sticks out in my mind. I obviously haven't heard Zappa, but I will try to find some of his music.

I wasn't sure how I wanted to do this. The most popular format of review here seems to be song-by-song, so I guess I will conform as the mindless sheep that I can be sometimes. I did do away with the "10/10" numbering system, since it's hardly any kind of science. I might as well just throw stars at everything (which I won't). Hopefully my words can comment on the album without grades and stars and letters and numbers (well, I'll need the letters) and still make sense.



Couch Potato - The opening alone serves as a great opener for the album itself. Al rarely kicks off an album with a TV song, so this at least was starting off with familiar territory. I know there are a few who didn't like that it was sort of like "I Can't Watch This II," but I'm always fascinated by what titles and names he can put together in lyrics. I think this is a little more impressive when you consider that with all of the cable and satellite channels out there now, he was able to offer a potpourri of popular shows from all networks (as I said when the song first appeared on MSN, any song that can mention Six Feet Under, The Osbournes, SpongeBob Squarepants, and The Muppet Show is all right in my book). He doesn't try to string them all together into one thought or try to connect the cable network names, which I think works in this song since it's parodying rap, a music genre known for just sticking in outta-left-field words or phrases. It's not the best parody on the album, but a strong one to open it. This would have been a kick-ass video.



Hardware Store - All the originals on Poodle Hat have this one inherent problem. They all have these great concepts, but Al doesn't follow them up with laugh-out-loud lyrics. "Hardware Store" is a good example. "A song about a hardware store? Ridiculous! Oh, that Weird Al!" But the first two verses could have been about anything, really. I know there are some people who don't like it when Al simply lists things as he does during the mind-boggling bridge here, but I think it shows Al's remarkable skills as a songwriter (as do some other originals on the album). The vocals in general are a little "wordy," but the style does bring back memories of some of Al's classic upbeat originals.



Trash Day (or, "At least I get Al's odd look on Headline News.") - I'm not sure what I could say about this one. I wasn't a really big fan of the original song, but I'm trying to not let that affect how I felt about the parody. Some parodies sound like Al is trying to wedge a subject into a musical hook that just won't let it fit. The lyrics are a bit too complex for a rather simple idea that doesn't really take a side. It would probably be funnier if Al sang about excuses why he couldn't take the trash out (at least in the similar-in-content "Livin' In The Fridge," he kinda attributes the mess to a roommate). The only part I like is the ending in which Al starts using size variations ("With a molecule a..."). And it's funny to hear which song follows this, knowing one of the causes of leprosy.



Party At The Leper Colony - I did not make it to the Orange County Fair shows, so I was quite interested to hear this song at long last. It's fun and catchy, and although the use of the body puns loses its shock value early on, at least the song doesn't overstay its welcome. Looking back at those concerts, I could see why Al chose this as a preview for the album.



Angry White Boy Polka - I am barely qualified to review this polka, as I only knew two (maybe three) of the songs that were featured. I knew OF all the groups, but I couldn't tell you who did what. Don't get me wrong....I really tried to listen to all of the hit songs of the last four years just for this moment. Maybe I just never found the radio station that played them, or Clear Channel didn't categorize them correctly in my area, I don't know. There were just so many other popular songs of the last few years that I would have liked to hear in the polka (just off the top of my head: "A Thousand Miles," "In A Little While," "Get This Party Started," "Never Gonna Stop," "All Star," "Boss Of Me," "Kryptonite," "Lady Marmalade," "Angel," "Waiting For Tonight," and a slew of others), but oh well. The polka itself doesn't really break new ground as far as style, as there are a few instances of "That was already done in this polka," but that's not bad. Hopefully once I get more familiar with these songs I'll appreciate this medley more.



Wanna B Ur Luvr - Just glancing at forum thread titles, it seems that this song is the big klunker of the album. This is another example of a good concept (taking tired pick-up lines) but just going nowhere with it. I didn't necessarily hate this song, but I think I figured out what's wrong with it: it's missing a punchline. Although there are a couple of good lines in it, without some kind of final joke it just seems like an endless six-minute set-up. Before the album was released, someone guessed that the song was about online "love," but really anything would do for a punchline....it could have been set in a mortuary, or an old folks home, or a comic book shop. Changing just two lines could have made this song this generation's "They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Ha." The "Girl you must be Jamaican" coda is funny, but hardly an ending.



A Complicated Song - Here's where the album starts picking up steam. As much as I'd hate to use this phrase, but I know Avril's not everybody's cup of tea. I like her, and I knew early on that her song was destined for a Weird Al parody. The verses act more like the set-ups to the chorus' punchlines, which is fine here only because it changes each time and gets more ridiculous....and "complicated" seems like such an unlikely word to find so many rhymes for. I'm not sure, though, if I'd like a varying theme in every parody. This is also one of those rare recent instances in which Al's arrangement differs significantly from the original song. At times it sounds as if it doesn't quite match Avril's, but it does give the listener a better opportunity to hear some great instrumental work (just listen to the little guitar uplift during the second verse)...something that I think may have been buried in the original. Easily my favorite song on the album, and if I was a betting man I would say we've got ourselves a great single here.



Why Does This Always Happen To Me? - Every album has that one original song that sort of rises above the others and becomes a part of Al's definitive oeuvre. Running With Scissors had "Germs," Bad Hair Day had "The Night Santa Went Crazy," Alapalooza had "Frank's 2000" TV," and on Poodle Hat we get this one. It's hardly flawless, as it does suffer from the same "concept vs. joke" problem that the other originals share, but there's just something about this song that makes it special. Perhaps if Al went back and reworked the lyrics, this could actually be a touching "straight" ballad. It's unassuming and doesn't come off as "Listen to this! I'm being so zany on my own!", which even some of the better Al originals can't avoid (try imagining "Everything You Know Is Wrong" done at this pace). I'm not exactly sure why it was necessary to have Ben Folds play on the track, no offense to Ben of course, but hey, whatever works.



Ode To A Superhero - An eerily uncanny harmonica starts what is perhaps the sleeper hit on the album....one that will no doubt become a fan favorite and an awesome sing-along concert number, but will probably be overshadowed by the other, "newer" parodies. Al has had a slight admiration for Spider-Man in the past, so at first I was a bit worried that this would not follow the movie at all and just be a generic song about him. Fortunately though, Al continues what could very well be called the "new hit movie to the tune of a classic pop song" genre. The one little problem I had with "The Saga Begins" is that from the point-of-view of Obi-Wan Kenobi, there was very little room for a sense of minor confusion. In "Ode," Al decides to sing the song as an outsider and not as a character, so his lyrics are a little more relatable. Lines such as "And he's riding around on that glider-thing" avoid the omnipotence that "Saga" suffered from. This is also the long-awaited return of a prominently featured accordion in a parody (not that it could have been avoided with this song!). The musical arrangement in this one is phenomenal, particularly the big crescendos during the last verse and chorus. After twenty years of not hearing a Billy Joel song in any form on any ALbum, this was well worth the wait.



Bob - I love language, so a song comprised of palindromes is something I could definitely get psyched about. As an experiment it's a novel idea, even if there aren't any actual jokes contained. On a completely different level, I think Al was trying to say something about how we as a culture look for meaning in song lyrics. Bob Dylan will probably go down in history as rock music's greatest poet, so there are no doubt some who try to analyze every word he ever wrote down, even those in his more benign works....so it makes perfect sense that Al would mix this satire concept with Dylan's deep style. If this was any other artist besides Al who recorded this song, people would be looking at it more than just as a series of palindromes. They would want to know what the singer is trying to say with "Rise to vote, sir" or "Do geese see god?" In this aspect, this is an excellent song and perhaps the musical equivalent to the Freudian phrase "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar".....but then again, I may just be looking too much into it.



Ebay - Like a lot of people who kept up on the spoilers, my first reaction was "Backstreet Boys? Aw geez....why??" I really tried to keep an open mind about it, but ultimately I expected this to be one of those songs that I would listen to once and then skip every other time. Well, thankfully I was dead wrong, and I am aware that I could be facing a public stoning a la Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," but this could very well be the best parody on the whole album. Al took a popular song by a popular group, mixed it with a popular subject, and was able to make it both listenable and funny....which is what a Weird Al parody is all about, right? I am, like a lot of Al fans are, an eBay junkie, so I thought a lot of the jokes were dead-on, but hopefully even the less-experienced surfers of that site would get them as well. And Al again got to tackle and poke fun at the style of the boy band, something (as has been pointed out) he did quite well with "The White Stuff." Is it wrong to say that Al harmonizes unbelievably well with himself? After several listens, the final note gag still cracks me up each time.



Genius In France - With a chuckle (is this the one that Bermuda is credited for doing? The French "haw haw haw" laugh sounds more like Al) we jump into the album's final song. I like Frank Zappa, but I am by no means a devoted fan that knows everything about the man's work (yet). I was able to pick up on his various styles throughout the song, which Al does a great job at switching back and forth. This original again faces the same problem as the other originals do on here...the lyrics are lacking humor. After the first line, we get the joke. For a nine-minute song, it can't just rely on the musical content, as great as it is...it needs to have good lyrics to keep the listener's interest. Unfortunately it goes on about a minute too long. As far as the idea of the song, I know many have likened it to Jerry Lewis's fame in France, but really it could stand for any bottom-rung part of pop culture that's embraced elsewhere (David Hasselhoff in Germany, Anime in the United States, etc.). There's usually a sense of spectacularness for the originals that close an album, but I don't think it happens here. "Albuquerque" was a fine "long song" to end the last album....it shouldn't become a tradition. "Genius In France" is cool, intriguing, and of course a well-produced number, but it belongs in a different spot. Tributes at the end of an album usually seem rather slapped-on. I'm not sure which original would have made a better finale, so maybe Al was on the right track after all.





Packaging - All of the photos are excellent, although I was just a tad disappointed that the booklet didn't really follow the subway theme (if we were still in the days of the mass-produced vinyl record, that picture of Al fading through the train would have made an awesome back jacket image). The band photo was really cool and definitely poster-worthy. The disc image is perhaps the most creative I've ever seen (maybe tied with the donut image on the first Simpsons soundtrack). Kudos to the new art directors!



CD Extras - Ah, the age of the DVD. Now we almost expect extras in every aspect of laser technology. Not sure if the on-screen lyrics served any real purpose since they weren't done in sing-along style and were already printed in the booklet. The alternate photos were cool...I just hope there are still some left over for the web site. And Al's home movies were a scream ("Here I am at.....42."). It's extra presentations like the Quicktime program that make me hope and dream of seeing The Weird Al Show on DVD one day.



Overall - Poodle Hat is a good if not superb album. After grand slams such as Bad Hair Day (IMO, still his best overall album) and Running With Scissors, it would have been almost impossible to top them. I don't really like ranking albums from best to worst simply because it's a matter of opinion....and my rankings would no doubt differ from those of lots of people. But, I would probably put Poodle Hat above the likes of Alapalooza, but just below such albums as Off The Deep End and In 3-D.



Nonetheless, it was worth the wait. Once the newness wears off, it will definitely be worked into my normal Al listening rotation.



Now then, when does "Album 12" come out?

Now then, when does "Album 12" come out?

we waited four years...and you're impatient after 5 days;)



wait till the tour starts.......and ends..THEN we can start being unbelievably impatient again!



Sarah