Post by StevePulaski on Jun 23, 2011 22:58:43 GMT -5
"Weird Al" Yankovic
Alpocalypse
★★★
Following up his big successful album Straight Outta Lynwood, five years later is "Weird Al" Yankovic's Alpocalypse. The wait was long, but the outcome is favorable. The first downside about the album is that five of the twelve tracks were already released on Al's Internet Leaks EP released in 2009. Not really a complaint, but releasing several singles before the album doesn't leave many surprises. Other than that, everything else is pretty much spot on.
On top of new songs, Al delivers music videos for ten out of the twelve songs. The music videos are animated with the exception of Perform This Way, most likely to save time and some money. The music videos aren't bad. TMZ feels like the sketches done in a tenth grader's sketchpad flipped at hyperspeed giving it a unique vibe. Whatever You Like has numerous little "Al" easter eggs which are fun to pick out. My favorite is If That Isn't Love where the animation has a very stop motion animation quality to it. All the music videos are composed beautifully just like the songs.
Weird Al has always been considered a favorite musician by me because when I was younger, I was so ammused by pop culture parodies and songs that sound similair, but yet are completely different. I attended Al's July 5, 2008 concert in Merriville, Indiana and had the time of my life. It was my first concert and I was only a few rows back on the left side. It was an unforgettable experience.
Al released Whatever You Like in 2008, and at that time everyone thoughts an album wouldn't be too far away. In 2009 we got an EP called Internet Leaks with four songs (Craigslist, Skipper Dan, CNR, and Ringtone) on it. None of them were direct parodies, but style parodies to bands like The White Stripes and Skipper Dan being a parody of "The Jungle Cruise Ride" in Disneyland in the style of a Weezer song. This was a nice collection of songs, but where was the album? Was this all we were going to get? Scattered songs?
It wasn't until April 25, 2011, two years after the EP and three years after Whatever You Like, we got Perform This Way, a parody of Lady Gaga's absurd dresses in the tune of her hit Born This Way. At first, it looked pretty cloudy in Al's future with Gaga rejecting the parody. But after a day she gave the OK, and Al confirmed his album Alpocalypse to be released on June 21, 2011.
Alpocalypse has twelve tracks, with sadly six singles already heard prior to the album's release. We open with the controversial single Perform This Way which is a very good parody to Lady Gaga mimicking her in "meat dresses" and being a "human jellybean." The music video might rank in one of the top videos Al has ever done. We then get CNR, a White Stripes style parody replacing the punchline of the joke from Chuck Norris to Charles Nelson Riley making him out to be a larger than life human. It has a great beat, and a great JibJab style music video. Chuck Norris fanboys may find some true competition.
TMZ is next parodying Taylor Swift's mega pop hit You Belong With Me. It plays with the idea of the media being too involved in celebrity's lives, and how they blow one thing out of proportion. It's true and a fun parody. My second favorite song on the album is next; Skipper Dan. An excellent music video and an extremely catchy song about a successful student wasting his life working at "The Jungle Cruise Ride" under the name "Skipper Dan." It's hard to explain, and starts out slow, but the chorous is insanely catchy and easy to follow.
Weird Al's signature Polka song is next and this one could be his best yet. Polka Face (parody of Gaga's Poker Face) races through fourteen short song snippets at hyperspeed. My favorites being Day 'n' Nite, Down, and So What. Craigslist is next parodying The Doors style of music and it's only all right. This was the first of the Internet Leaks songs to be released and even in 2009 I wasn't totally fond of it. Two years later I'm not either.
Party in the CIA is a parody of Miley Cyrus's Party in the USA talking about an agent in the CIA and all the missions he goes on. I wasn't too fond of Miley's song, and this song is just decent at best. It's less clever than the title. Queen gets their style parodied in Ringtone, a song about annoying and tedious cell phone ringtones. Not a lot to say, but the beat is the best part of the song.
Another Tatoo is a parody of B.o.B's song Nothin' on You and it definitely is one of the many strongpoints on the album. The animated music video is great, and the lyrics follow Nothin' on You very well. But because much of the song describes tatoos and shows them off without mentioning them in the lyrics, without the music video this song isn't as fun. Plus the drawings and colors in the music video are very appealing to the eye.
My favorite track on the album is another one that needs the music video to fully appreciate it. If That Isn't Love describes pretty much every man's relationship with their women. The character talks about how he manages to pull through when forgetting his girl's name, how he always leaves her a little bit of milk, etc. He does more harm than good clearly. Without the music video, the antics the lead character does mean nothing. It's much funnier and relatable seeing them rather than hearing them with no visual.
The album concludes with two great songs. The first song was released way back in 2008; Whatever You Like. It's a parody of the long gone T.I. song of the same name. The song is great, and is almost the "whiteboy" version of the song. The music video, like I mentioned before, has a plethora of easter eggs that may involve pausing and reading every few seconds. They're definitely worth it though.
Just like on Straight Outta Lynwood, the album ends with a heartfelt tune. Don't Download This Song happens to be my favorite song on Straight Outta Lynwood passing itself off as a sad sort of tune when it's really hilarious and relatable. On Alpocalypse, we end with Stop Forwarding That Crap To Me, a tune about text messaging and email spam. Anyone who has ever gotten a piece of spam email or text thinks the exact same words as the song and it really shows that you're not the only one. Alpocalypse starts strong and ends strong.
I own every single "Weird Al" album, and couldn't resist buying this even though a majority of the songs I heard online. Beginning his career in the late seventies and sticking around through thick and thin into 2011 is a hard thing to do. Al keeps his engine running with yet another solid edition in his parody files. While this album is mainly more style parodies than direct song parodies, it still succeeds and proves that if you have a solid work ethic, a great catch, and numerous song ideas, you can still win.
Recommended tracks: Perform This Way, TMZ, Skipper Dan, Polka Face, Another Tatoo, If That Isn't Love, Whatever You Like, and Stop Forwarding That Crap To Me.