Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2006 3:31 am
The Weird Al revival is now officially out of hand. I just picked up a copy of this week's New Yorker (cover date 10/16/06), and there, in the front of the magazine, mixed in with the museum listings of all things, is a review of SOL! And it's a really positive review, too! There is a fair amount in it that I don't agree with, but hey, I'm not complaining.
It's short, so I reproduce it below. Enjoy!
POP NOTES
WEIRD SCIENCE
When "Weird Al" Yankovic first appeared in the early eighties, he was a pop parodist in the tradition of Allan Sherman, refitting the chart hits of the day with lyrics that ranged from silly to sillier - the Knack's "My Sharona" became "My Bologna," Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" became "Another One Rides the Bus." No one, not even his core audience of worshipful twelve-year-old boys, expected Weird Al to last. But then a strange thing happened: MTV. Weird Al filmed videos for his songs, got them into heavy rotation, and began to absorb as much star power as he reflected. (The best example of this was his symbiotic relationship with Michael Jackson.) The nineties brought diminishing returns, and Weird Al's old-fashioned jestering seemed unlikely to survive an era of mash-ups, MySpace, and other cutting-edge musical technologies. But on "Straight Outta Lynwood" (Volcano) Weird Al's loopy pop comedy persists and even flourishes.
Much of the reason for Weird Al's lean years had to do with the explosion of boy bands and gangsta rap, highly formulaic genres that resisted his approach. The new album's lead single, "White and Nerdy," ends the jinx. Reworking Chamillionaire's "Ridin'" as an ode to socially awkward, technologically obsessed white guys is more than a chance for Weird Al to spit out rapid-fire jokes about Wikipedia and "Star Trek": it's a canny reminder that the uncool make up much of the audience for hard-core rap. The other parodies amuse but don't dazzle: "Canadian Idiot," derived from Green Day's "American Idiot," is a good one-liner, but it goes on for dozens of lines, and "Trapped in the Drive-Thru" can't top its inspiration, R. Kelly's epically ridiculous "Trapped in the Closet." More rewarding are Weird Al's originals, which often parody not a specific song but a pop style. "Pancreas" is a sweetly gross tribute to "Smile"-era Beach Boys. "I'll Sue Ya" co-opts the firey agitpop of Rage Against the Machine. And "Don't Download This Song," the album's closer, is a sweeping ballad a la "We Are the World" that details the evils of music piracy. It is, of course, offered as a free download on Weird Al's Web site.
--Ben Greenman
It's short, so I reproduce it below. Enjoy!
POP NOTES
WEIRD SCIENCE
When "Weird Al" Yankovic first appeared in the early eighties, he was a pop parodist in the tradition of Allan Sherman, refitting the chart hits of the day with lyrics that ranged from silly to sillier - the Knack's "My Sharona" became "My Bologna," Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" became "Another One Rides the Bus." No one, not even his core audience of worshipful twelve-year-old boys, expected Weird Al to last. But then a strange thing happened: MTV. Weird Al filmed videos for his songs, got them into heavy rotation, and began to absorb as much star power as he reflected. (The best example of this was his symbiotic relationship with Michael Jackson.) The nineties brought diminishing returns, and Weird Al's old-fashioned jestering seemed unlikely to survive an era of mash-ups, MySpace, and other cutting-edge musical technologies. But on "Straight Outta Lynwood" (Volcano) Weird Al's loopy pop comedy persists and even flourishes.
Much of the reason for Weird Al's lean years had to do with the explosion of boy bands and gangsta rap, highly formulaic genres that resisted his approach. The new album's lead single, "White and Nerdy," ends the jinx. Reworking Chamillionaire's "Ridin'" as an ode to socially awkward, technologically obsessed white guys is more than a chance for Weird Al to spit out rapid-fire jokes about Wikipedia and "Star Trek": it's a canny reminder that the uncool make up much of the audience for hard-core rap. The other parodies amuse but don't dazzle: "Canadian Idiot," derived from Green Day's "American Idiot," is a good one-liner, but it goes on for dozens of lines, and "Trapped in the Drive-Thru" can't top its inspiration, R. Kelly's epically ridiculous "Trapped in the Closet." More rewarding are Weird Al's originals, which often parody not a specific song but a pop style. "Pancreas" is a sweetly gross tribute to "Smile"-era Beach Boys. "I'll Sue Ya" co-opts the firey agitpop of Rage Against the Machine. And "Don't Download This Song," the album's closer, is a sweeping ballad a la "We Are the World" that details the evils of music piracy. It is, of course, offered as a free download on Weird Al's Web site.
--Ben Greenman
Al's a metropolitan man, now!
