After three decades as a performer and parody artist, when you pick up an album by \u201cWeird Al\u201d Yankovic, there are going to be precious few surprises. You know, before you even rip the shrink-wrap off the jewel case, that the disc is going to contain parodies of popular songs currently playing on the radio, as well as originals from Yankovic that parody groups by the style the music is written in. And, of course, there is the obligatory polka medley.<\/p>\n
As a fan and a reviewer, I\u2019ve also noticed that there is precious little \u201cmiddle ground\u201d regarding a Yankovic album\u2026 normally, it\u2019s either really good, or really bad. For every Straight Outta Lynwood<\/i>, there is a Poodle Hat<\/i>. Coming off what was quite possibly the strongest album of his career, Straight Outta Lynwood<\/i>, it can be assumed that there would be pressure for Yankovic to top that disc \u2013 explaining, perhaps, why it took five years for the follow-up, Alpocalypse<\/i>, to come out. And while it doesn\u2019t top its predecessor, there\u2019s plenty on this disc to show that Yankovic has not lost his edge, even if his clean-cut image takes a slight hit.<\/p>\n
Yankovic had two uphill battles with this disc \u2013 the first being that five of the tracks had previously been released as the Internet Leaks EP<\/i>. The other is the high expectations that people were going to have following all of the fracas surrounding his Lady Gaga parody, \u201cPerform This Way\u201d.<\/p>\n
Maybe it\u2019s ironic that \u201cPerform This Way\u201d is the weakest song on this disc. As far as parodies go, it\u2019s hardly inspired \u2013 though I\u2019d guess it\u2019s hard to write a song like this when Gaga\u2019s ever-changing image is almost a parody of itself. A weak track that the parody is based on, combined with lyrics about someone who isn\u2019t funny, equals a song that just falls flat.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, this is the only real mis-step on Alpocalypse<\/i>. While the remaining eleven tracks break no new ground, they do stand well on their own. If anything, this disc is yet another reminder that Yankovic is an extremely capable songwriter on his own, and perhaps one day will find he does not have to rely on parodies to get people\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n
Exhibit \u201cA\u201d: \u201cSkipper Dan,\u201d a tale about a man\u2019s lofty career ambitions for the klieg lights of Broadway smashed against the rocks of reality, as he serves as a tour guide on a boat ride. (Yeah, that one rings true for a lot of people, I\u2019m sure.) Exhibit \u201cB\u201d: \u201cCNR,\u201d a parody of the \u201cChuck Norris is God\u201d style of postings, substituting the karate master for Charles Nelson Reilly, eternal game show contestant. The transformation, though, works, and Yankovic mines comedy gold on both songs.<\/p>\n
The \u201cclean cut\u201d image of Yankovic creating completely family-friendly material takes two hits \u2013 the most noticeable on the fantastic song \u201cStop Forwarding This Crap To Me\u201d \u2013 a song I would like to send to every co-worker who clogs my e-mail with shit they don\u2019t take thirty seconds to research. I\u2019m not knocking Yankovic for his use of a mild expletive \u2013 or even the use of the word \u201cturd\u201d on \u201cIf That Isn\u2019t Love\u201d \u2013 but seeing he\u2019s based a career without having to resort to such words, it\u2019s a bit surprising to be hit with two instances on the same album.<\/p>\n
In fact, Alpocalypse<\/i> proves that Yankovic\u2019s originals are often stronger than the parodies. Yes, \u201cParty In The CIA\u201d is inspired, and both \u201cTMZ\u201d and \u201cAnother Tattoo\u201d are a lot of fun to listen to. But I\u2019d rather listen to what is usually declared a style parody of the Doors on \u201cCraigslist\u201d (featuring Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek) than his parody of T.I. on \u201cWhatever You Like\u201d. And as for \u201cPolka Face,\u201d the obligatory polka medley? Well \u2013 it\u2019s exactly what one would expect on a \u201cWeird Al\u201d album, breaking new ground, but kinda fun to listen to.<\/p>\n
If anything, Internet Leaks<\/i> material proves to be some of the best on this disc, especially when bookended with songs like \u201cTMZ\u201d and \u201cStop Forwarding This Crap To Me\u201d. Some fans might balk at buying these tracks a second time \u2013 but they can be comforted by the knowledge that with the deluxe edition of this disc, they get a DVD with specially-made videos of several of the songs.<\/p>\n
Alpocalypse<\/i> isn\u2019t the earth-shaking harbinger of doom that one might have expected, but coming off as strong an album as Straight Outta Lynwood<\/i> was, it\u2019s a slightly weaker, but suitable, counterpart, and does indeed contain some of Yankovic\u2019s best work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6172],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-42367","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-weird-al-yankovic","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42367","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42367"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}