You know, it’s really frightening to realize that Weird Al
\nYankovic’s recording career has outlasted probably eighty percent
\nof the artists he’s ever lampooned. Nevertheless, this is a tough
\ndisc to do;
\nPoodle Hat<\/i> has the tough role of trying to follow up what is
\nprobably Al’s best CD, 1999’s brilliant
\nRunning With Scissors<\/i>. Al’s also gone with some personal
\nchanges; music’s most weirdest bachelor has gotten married,
\nfathered a child, and generally gotten domestic. It begs the
\nquestion — does real life and suburban felicity blunt the wit of
\nthe most successful parodist since Tom Lehrer?<\/p>\n
Are you kidding? Nah.<\/p>\n
\nPoodle Hat<\/i> is pretty damn funny. As usual, Al takes aim and
\nshoots down a few over-inflated egos — his send up of Oscar-winner
\n“Lose Yourself” on “Couch Potato” manages to perfectly echo
\nEminem’s self-aggrandizing mix of pretentiousness and gangsta —
\nwhile tossing out a CD of almost perfect comedy. Add to the mix the
\ntalent of his band (there are times when I think that Jon “Bermuda”
\nSchwartz, Jim West, and Steve Jay are the greatest backing
\nmusicians of all time), tight production and mixing, and clever
\nlyrics, and it’s likely you’ll bust a gut listening.<\/p>\n
The parodies are what most people know Al for, and they’re
\npretty damn funny this time. In addition to “Couch Potato,” we have
\nAl turning Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” into a summary of Spiderman
\n(“Ode To A Superhero”), April Lavigne’s “Complicated” becoming a
\ntale of bodily woes including beheading (“A Complicated Song”),
\nNelly’s “Hot In Here” improving in both subject and lyrics (“Trash
\nDay”), and a viciously hilarious sendup of the Backstreet Boys and
\nonline auctions (“Ebay”).<\/p>\n
Al’s originals and stylistic homages have gotten better over the
\nyears, and
\nPoodle Hat<\/i> has some of the best. Frank Zappa’s jazz
\nexperimentation shows up in an eerily accurate “Genius In France,”
\nBob Dylan is harpooned to perfection with “Bob,” and the utter
\nself-centeredness of “Why Does This Always Happen To Me?” (with Ben
\nFolds on piano) left me howling. Unfortunately, the weak track on
\nthe CD is also an original, the one-joke-and-it’s-not-too-funny
\n“Party At The Leper Colony.”<\/p>\n
Overall, however,
\nPoodle Hat<\/i> is one of the highlights in what is turning into
\na long, successful, and brilliant career. Weird Al Yankovic has
\nturned himself into much, much more than just another funny face,
\nand shows no sign of slowing. Besides, where else can you hear a
\nbrief polka version of Papa Roach’s “Last Resort”?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":26409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6172],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-37641","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-weird-al-yankovic","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37641"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}