The Future of Weird Al Releases

[TMBJon]

Mandatory Fun is out July 15!!!!


After that great day comes, Al will be out of a record contract and free to release material whenever he wants, rather than every few years in groups of 12 at a time. In my opinion, this is great news. Given the timeliness of what Al does, this release schedule will allow Al to stay more current and release parodies while the original is still #1 on the charts. Do you view this potential shift in release model as a positive or negative development? Do you believe Mandatory Fun is really the last time we will see an album released with 12 new songs?

And the big question - If you only include the 14 Weird Al studio albums between 1983 and 2014, Al will have released approximately 5.2 songs per year by the end of his record contract. Do you think Al's rate of releasing songs will increase or decrease if he switches to releasing songs whenever he feels like it rather than fitting the 12-song album format? And under this new model, do you anticipate the Weird Al Golden Ratio of 5:6:1 (parody:original:polka) to change, and if so, what do you think the new ratio will be?

[OneWAY]

Part of me wants to say it will increase, but it worries me a little when I think about how the live show will be handled. Then again, I have no idea what will happen to the live show, considering there probably won't be an "album tour" anymore.

All the same, this means Al gets more and more exposure, and could lead to his being in the public eye as much as he was in 80s and 90s. Al would never "go away" for a couple of years and come back. Sounds cool!

[Kevbo1987]

I see it as a positive development because it will allow Al to be more current and timely. It would be awesome to see him release a parody of a song while the original is in the height of its popularity. I think Al would really get a lot of notoriety if he did that. I see the number of songs per year decreasing from that 5.2 average; I just don't see Al putting that many songs out per year. I think it's more likely that we will see 2 or 3 songs per year.

I don't know what will happen to the originals, though I would assume Al will keep doing them. I'm also wondering whether we might see some EP-type releases in the future.

[Skippy]

There are a lot of ways he could go with it. I think we'll see some releases that are "immediate" parodies like he's talked about and others where there's a parody and a couple of originals that come out together. And I even think we could still see physical album releases that collect all the digital releases and look similar to what we see now. I don't know how feasible that really is for Al to do that independently but I just get a feeling it could happen.

As for the frequency of songs, I think it will stay the same. 2-3 parodies and a few originals doesn't really seem like that much.

[Mystik Tomato]

The most likely scenario I see is an inverse Internet Leaks/Alpocalypse style of album, where the album is a collection of parodies he's released over however long with the polka and originals being brand new.

[tomatochives]

Independent releasing seems like a double-edged sword. On one hand, he stays relevant in everyone's minds. On the other hand, the constant struggle to stay relevant may lead to a decline in quality. I don't doubt his abilities, but when you look at the countless amateur parodists on the Internet, it's clear why their work doesn't hold up. Their ideas often come from knee-jerk impulses, the writing and recording is done halfheartedly, and the only real effort goes into producing a video for the song, because otherwise, who's going to listen to it? (I can't remember where, but Al once remarked that the parody is now a two-button process; record and upload.) There's more that goes into music than being timely and topical. Personally, I never had an issue with the time span between albums. However, if he is capable of churning out high-caliber material on a bimonthly basis, more power to him!

[minnick27]

I see several possibilties. One being he releases whatever, whenever and just has a.set touring schedule of 2 on, 2 off. Or he could release songs that he feels are more likely to be track 11s when he gets an idea for them and then does a self pressed album of 12 when he feels like it.

[Big Spoon]

I'm very excited for whatever's next! Definitely a positive development. It means we get more releases much faster, instead of having to wait years between albums. I do hope we also get some originals peppered in with the parodies, though.

However, I am a little concerned at the same time. As tomatochives pointed out, the pressure to get things out faster could definitely lead to a decline in quality. Even as someone who likes the song, I still feel that Whatever You Like suffered from this.

[OneWAY]

There was pressure for Internet Leaks, but if there's no "album goal," there shouldn't be any pressure to begin with.

Al can do whatever he wants now; even if he chooses to record a lot more than usual, he's probably not gonna stress over it.

[Skippy]

I don't really think there will be any pressure to get things out quickly (look how long it took to get the "Fancy" parody done), but pressure (whether real or imagined) to stay relevant. That could lead to cranking out a half-baked idea just because a song is really hot. Hopefully Al won't succumb to this (and I have a lot of faith that he won't) but it's certainly a valid concern.