Weird Al Yankovic’s next album Alpocalypse will be released on June 21st.
I cheerfully admit it, I’m a giant geek and, as probably follows, a Weird Al fan. I’ve seen him in concert several times and enjoyed it tremendously. There was a flap about his most recent single, a parody of Lady Gaga’s Born This Way called Perform This Way where Gaga’s management made him create a finished production of the song before rejecting it on her behalf, which he then put on YouTube. Gaga herself wound up approving the song. He’s been busily at work making the video to the song, and two snippets showed up on YouTube. Al had his head digitally pasted onto the body of a female dancer - either that, or he’s been a woman all along - the ultimate “Butterface”.
Looking forward to it. In a way, I’m sad that I’ve heard most of it already via the Internet Leaks EP and the Perform this Way debacle, but on the other hand, I liked/loved all of those songs (aside from Craigslist, which was meh, since it was a spot-on Doors impression and I hate the Doors). So if the rest of the album is anything close to those, it’ll be great as usual.
Al puts on a good show. I saw him perform four days after the death of his parents, before the funeral. He’d kept on with it because he said it kept him from crying.
The crowd cheered when a screen went up that said “Tonight’s performance is dedicated to the memory of Nick and Mary Yankovic.”
Perform This Way is a great parody, too. Even if it gets overexposure due to the debacle it’ll still be a great single. The video looks hilarious, too.
I was thinking maybe Yankovic was going to do a Robert Frost parody.
Some say the world will end in fire;
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to die real good,
It could die in a pile of canned dog food.
Or even something like AlPolkalypse. The puns start to write themselves.
I noticed that a certain urban legends debunking website got a shout-out in his song “Stop Forwarding That Crap To Me,” but still no Straight Dope mention. Oh, well, maybe on the next album.
Thanks for the tip! I’ve got every Al-bum up until now on cassette and/or CD, and I’ve never paid for an album download before when a CD option was available. But the price difference between the CD and MP3 version finally dragged me kicking and screaming into the 21st century.
The four videos that were released to Youtube during the lead-up to Internet Leaks are included, as well as all the other songs except “Perform This Way” and “Polka Face”.
I haven’t watched them yet, but they’re all described as being animated (except the previously released Liam Lynch directed “Craigslist”). So, I’m figuring that, much like the videos included with the last album, these aren’t so much “Official Music Video” videos and more “something extra for the fans” videos. (There were many complaints about the low budget videos on the last album, but it didn’t bother me because I looked at it as an “extra for the fans” kind of a thing).
First, it has TERRIFIC production. It’s probably the best-sounding comedy record ever.
I have to rate the songs I haven’t heard before separately from the previously-released songs. Of the new songs, I think I like “Party In The CIA” the best, followed closely by “Another Tattoo”. But the parodies don’t have a bad one in the bunch. “Whatever You Like” is a bit weak, but I think that’s because the original sucks. Of the previously-released stuff, I like “Craigslist” best.