Straight Outta Lynwood
I picked up Weird Al's new album last night. I'm enjoying it so far, but it's not his best. There's a lot of things that surprise me about it, though.
My review:
The direct spoofs: I know I'm getting old, because I only recognize half of the songs he's spoofing, and one I didn't even know I knew until I heard his version. And for the most part they're just average. White & Nerdy, as anyone who reads my blog knows, is slowly becoming one of my favorites in recent memory, fortified by an absolutely hilarious video.
The others... I don't know, they're give and take. Canadian Idiot is pretty weak. Do I Creep You Out, a spoof of some guy from American Idol, is pretty decent, kinda follows along the lines of Melanie, off of Even Worse. But it's growing on me.
Confessions Part III and Trapped in the Drive-Thru seem to be songs that spoof the concept of the songs more than the songs itself. I had never heard Trapped In The Closet, but I've heard so much horrible stuff about the song and the video that I can see where Al's going with it, his 11-minute epic that follows a pretty mundane event. It's pretty decent.
The style spoofs: He gets pretty creative and specific with his style choices, but the results are pretty flat. Pancreas can probably be best described as Pet Sounds era Beach Boys, I'll Sue Ya spoofs Rage Against The Machine, and Close But No Cigar, after a second listen, really reminds me of Cake. None of them are very good, with Close probably coming out ahead.
There are really only two originals on the album that I'm enjoying, and in both cases I really didn't like them on the first listen, but they're growing on me. Virus Alert, which is done in a sort of 80's-techno style, isn't that great lyrically, but the tune's growing on me. Ditto with Don't Download This Song, probably the closest thing Al's ever done to political commentary.
The album's double-sided, with one side containing the CD, and the DVD second side filled with six videos, the full album, an instrumental/karaoke feature, and a behind-the-scenes feature.
One of the things that really surprises me about the videos, all animated, all for the "originals", are how, um, un-kid-friendly they are. Don't get me wrong, I never thought of Al as a kiddie artist, but in the past he seems to have tried to keep it pretty subdued.
A lot of it this time around can probably be attributed to the animators brought on for the videos as much as anything. The Robot Chicken crew do the video for Weasel Stomping Day, and he was able to get John Kricfalusi, the guy behind Ren & Stimpy, to do Close But No Cigar. CBNC has lots of skimpy T&A, including naked female bootie, which I've never really considered Al's style, and both that and WSD are pretty gory by cartoon standards, with the main cat character in CBNC disembowling rodents, and the folks in WSD... ummm... stomping weasels.
And yet they're probably the best videos of the group. Virus Alert's also fun. Pancreas is forced, I'll Sue Ya is fairly bland, as is Don't Download This Song, which is done by the famous cartoonist Bill Plympton.
Overall, though, the album is usual Al: While not his strongest work, it's still better than a lot of other stuff out there. I was hoping to hear a little more gimmick in his songs, like in Poodle Hat, but for the most part it's just an average album.
My review:
The direct spoofs: I know I'm getting old, because I only recognize half of the songs he's spoofing, and one I didn't even know I knew until I heard his version. And for the most part they're just average. White & Nerdy, as anyone who reads my blog knows, is slowly becoming one of my favorites in recent memory, fortified by an absolutely hilarious video.
The others... I don't know, they're give and take. Canadian Idiot is pretty weak. Do I Creep You Out, a spoof of some guy from American Idol, is pretty decent, kinda follows along the lines of Melanie, off of Even Worse. But it's growing on me.
Confessions Part III and Trapped in the Drive-Thru seem to be songs that spoof the concept of the songs more than the songs itself. I had never heard Trapped In The Closet, but I've heard so much horrible stuff about the song and the video that I can see where Al's going with it, his 11-minute epic that follows a pretty mundane event. It's pretty decent.
The style spoofs: He gets pretty creative and specific with his style choices, but the results are pretty flat. Pancreas can probably be best described as Pet Sounds era Beach Boys, I'll Sue Ya spoofs Rage Against The Machine, and Close But No Cigar, after a second listen, really reminds me of Cake. None of them are very good, with Close probably coming out ahead.
There are really only two originals on the album that I'm enjoying, and in both cases I really didn't like them on the first listen, but they're growing on me. Virus Alert, which is done in a sort of 80's-techno style, isn't that great lyrically, but the tune's growing on me. Ditto with Don't Download This Song, probably the closest thing Al's ever done to political commentary.
The album's double-sided, with one side containing the CD, and the DVD second side filled with six videos, the full album, an instrumental/karaoke feature, and a behind-the-scenes feature.
One of the things that really surprises me about the videos, all animated, all for the "originals", are how, um, un-kid-friendly they are. Don't get me wrong, I never thought of Al as a kiddie artist, but in the past he seems to have tried to keep it pretty subdued.
A lot of it this time around can probably be attributed to the animators brought on for the videos as much as anything. The Robot Chicken crew do the video for Weasel Stomping Day, and he was able to get John Kricfalusi, the guy behind Ren & Stimpy, to do Close But No Cigar. CBNC has lots of skimpy T&A, including naked female bootie, which I've never really considered Al's style, and both that and WSD are pretty gory by cartoon standards, with the main cat character in CBNC disembowling rodents, and the folks in WSD... ummm... stomping weasels.
And yet they're probably the best videos of the group. Virus Alert's also fun. Pancreas is forced, I'll Sue Ya is fairly bland, as is Don't Download This Song, which is done by the famous cartoonist Bill Plympton.
Overall, though, the album is usual Al: While not his strongest work, it's still better than a lot of other stuff out there. I was hoping to hear a little more gimmick in his songs, like in Poodle Hat, but for the most part it's just an average album.