Your BOTTOM 5 Albums!

Love the music and CD's of Weird Al? Do you have comments on it? You can post it here!

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Yankomaniac
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Re: Your BOTTOM 5 Albums!

Post by Yankomaniac »

Sorry Freaky, gotta disagree with just about EVERY COMMENT in your last two posts. You're cut! -_- :bad:
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Re: Your BOTTOM 5 Albums!

Post by WeirdMary0427 »

Hmmm...

1. In-3D (sorry...I know "Eat It" is what really made him famous, but this album doesn't really interest me as a whole)
2. Off The Deep End
3. Polka Party
4. Even Worse
5. "Weird Al" Yankovic

Now, like Jon said in the first post, those albums have some of his best songs, but they have a lot of "meh" songs on them too.

And what do you people have against the UHF soundtrack?? I really enjoy that album. Even the little snippets from the movie. Spam? Fun Zone? AOTRHFAPNM? UHF? Generic Blues? Great stuff!
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Re: Your BOTTOM 5 Albums!

Post by Yankomaniac »

Pretty sure it was just Freaky Geeky. He also said he was eleven or something so no worries there.
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Re: Your BOTTOM 5 Albums!

Post by weirdojace »

There's no doubt that every Weird Al album has good songs on them. Even some of Al's "worst" albums have classics that are beloved by the fans. But when listening to an album, you have to think about what that album is trying to do, and how well it holds up as a collective body of work.

1. "Weird Al" Yankovic
Al's debut album is probably his worst one, and there's a lot of good reasons for that. I'm sure even Al himself would attest to this. In some interviews, he's mentioned how if he could, he would like to go back and George Lucas the whole album. But then doesn't that override what this album is? It's his first album, so of course it has imperfections. It's immature. It's Al starting out. He hasn't quite figured out what he wanted to do yet. There's a reason a lot of musicians don't speak highly of their first albums, and it's because if they're good musicians, then they should have gotten a lot better since their first. And we all know Al has. The debut album was rushed through the recording process. There are parts where Al sings flat and never fixed it. The production isn't as good as other albums. He also used accordion on every song, including the parodies. While a lot of the fans love this, it was probably best for Al to stop doing that, in the long run.

Let's talk about what's good about the album. It has some decent parodies like Ricky and I Love Rocky Road, and of course, contains Al's claim to fame, Another One Rides the Bus. It also contains one of the best original songs from Al's early days: I'll Be Mellow When I'm Dead. On the flipside, the album has Gotta Boogie as the lead-off original, making the listener wonder if the entire album is going to be kiddy toilet humor. Buckingham Blues is a failed parody that Al desperately tried to turn into an original song, but it just falls flat. Songs like The Check's in the Mail and Such a Groovy Guy just don't show off Al's real talent as a songwriter. And Mr. Frump is cute, but it's one joke idea and probably isn't the best closer to an album. As a whole, the album doesn't come together all that well and it's no surprise that Al looks down on it. But I think every artist should look down on their early work. Because if they don't, how can they improve?

2. Polka Party!
First of all, what a stupid album title. It's no wonder nobody bought this album. Who in their right mind would buy an album called that? Yeah, the cover's pretty funny, but even with that cover Al could have gone with a title that might not scare people away.

At this stage, Al was under a lot of pressure from Scotti Bros. to keep putting out an album every year. And so Al just had to write and record whatever came to mind. After the fiasco with the label demanding that Al write "Girls Just Wanna Have Lunch" combined with this, Al must have felt emotionally exhausted and probably a bit pissed at this company telling him how he should be an artist. The reason "Christmas at Ground Zero" is one of Al's best songs is because he probably wrote it in anger towards his record label. Remember, the song came from the label demanding that Al write a Christmas song for his next record, and so he wrote that song as a "smurf you" to the label. "smurf you" songs end up being some of the best of an artist's career. (See: One More Minute. Also, Cee-Lo Green.)

In fact, most of what's good about this album comes from the original songs. Dog Eat Dog is a fantastic tribute to the Talking Heads. Don't Wear Those Shoes? Splendid. Good Enough for Now? Probably one of the finest love songs Al's written. And we know Christmas at Ground Zero is good. So where does this album fall flat?

Polka Party doesn't have a single good parody on it. Al knew "Living with a Hernia" wasn't material for a lead single even when he put it out. He just didn't have anything else. "Addicted to Spuds" is just another dumb food parody. Maybe "Here's Johnny" was a funny, clever idea when Al made the song but the reference is just too dated now for anybody to care. "Toothless People" is utter garbage and is only on the album because Al asked permission to parody a song that ended up failing and didn't want to dishonor Mick Jagger. And since Al's entire career pretty much revolves around the success of his song parodies, it's no wonder this album failed. It didn't have any good parodies on it for people to latch onto! Also, I just want to say I think the polka medley on this album is the most forgettable of any polka medley Al's ever made, which isn't helped by the fact that the album is called friggin' Polka Party.

3. Alapalooza
Alapalooza is an album that's just kind of sitting there in Al's catalog. It's a dud that came in between two massive successes. So what happened?

There's good stuff on Alapalooza. In fact, this album is where the parodies probably outshine the originals. "Jurassic Park" and "Bedrock Anthem" both proved to be worthy singles. "Achy Breaky Song" is a fun little jab at Billy Ray Cyrus. "Livin' in the Fridge," while obviously a song Al threw together just so he could have one more parody, is actually really good. And of course, the idea of doing a full on polka cover of "Bohemian Rhapsody" is probably one of the best ideas Al has ever had. On the subject of good songs, "Frank's 2000" TV" has become a fan favorite, and is probably the best original on the album.

But let's look at the weak songs. "Young, Dumb & Ugly" is okay, but forgettable. "Traffic Jam" is stupid and forgettable. "She Never Told Me She Was a Mime" wears out its welcome by dragging out the joke to damn near five minutes. "Waffle King," a leftover track off the Off the Deep End sessions does as much good on this album as it would have on the other: absolutely none.

So here we have some good songs and some bad songs, all mixed up on a CD that has no real flow to it because it's generally a good song followed by a mediocre song for the entire thing. Why did this album come out one year after Off the Deep End, anyway? It seems like it was a rush job just so Al could get a song about Jurassic Park done on time for the movie. And it probably was.

4. Dare To Be Stupid
This album suffers from having a really strong first half and a really weak second half. So let's see what happened.

Al just released In 3-D and it was a massive success. He's a parody artist and therefore, if he wants to stay fresh in the public eye, he needs to keep making parodies and releasing them on albums! So a year later, we get this one. You can tell Al is still having a good time and coming up with good ideas. The album's title track has become one of Al's most known original songs and a favorite among the fanbase. "Like a Surgeon" is a smash hit parody. "One More Minute" is one the most amazing and honest songs Al's ever written. "Yoda" is perfect. "I Want a New Duck" does a great job of being both silly and clever. These are all songs from the first half of the album and we all know they're good. Al must have known those first 5 songs were the best and deliberately put them there so people wouldn't turn the record off. This is a good tactic. Would anybody care if "Cable TV" was the 2nd song? Probably not.

So the 2nd half of the album kicks off with a cover of the George of the Jungle theme song. Enter phase one of executive meddling. Al's label wanted him to release a cover song and that's what he chose, probably because he didn't give a smurf. But in that situation, Al should have thought about it more. What good would covering George of the Jungle do? Al was inspired by so many comedy musicians. Shouldn't he have covered a song by somebody he looked up to? What if he just decided to cover, say, Tom Lehrer's "The Elements" right there on the album, utilizing his band and the power of a recording studio? He could have done it, considering it was a song Al was known to cover during his early days. A song like that could have easily taken on a new life on a Weird Al record.

"Slime Creatures" comes on next to reassure the listener that maybe the album won't turn to crap but that notion goes away when "Girls Just Wanna Have Lunch" starts. And we all know what a piece of garbage that song is. But hey, Al was pissed so he's excused. Next is "This is the Life" which is good, but then "Cable TV" falls flat and "Hooked on Polkas" ends the album. Why would you go out on a polka medley? Not to mention Al hasn't really found the awesome polka medley format yet. He was still toying around with it.

Dare to be Stupid isn't terrible but it's not good either.

5. Poodle Hat
I know this forum has a lot of Poodle Hat lovers, so I'm gonna try to formulate some good reasons I think it's a weak album. Notice I said weak, not bad. Beyond Polka Party, I don't think Al has anymore bad albums. It's just that some aren't as good as others. But this album is basically "The Album of List Songs and One Joke Ideas."

First off, good things about Poodle Hat: Hardware smurfin' Store. That song is one of the best originals Al has ever written, hands down. I don't think anyone here would question that. Angry White Boy Polka is actually a pretty memorable polka medley, and I think it works so well mainly because of how so many of the songs are just so freakin angry. It's a good juxtaposition. "A Complicated Song" is a fun parody. "Why Does This Always Happen to Me" is a great homage to Ben Folds, and Ben himself does some brilliant piano playing. And "eBay," while pretty much being a list song and a one-joke idea, holds up pretty well, even though the original song was 4 years old by the time this album hit. I interpreted it as, "Oh hey guys, sorry I missed out on the whole boy band thing in the 90s... here, I'll throw this onto the end of the album to make up for it!"

So Poodle Hat starts with a weak parody nobody cares about called Couch Potato. Eminem didn't let Al do a video, but even if he did, do you think this song would have gone anywhere, really? It's just a list of TV shows and a remark about some of them every once in a while. Why should we care about this? It's not all that funny. Al should have come up with something better. I know the lack of a video is the main reason Poodle Hat didn't sell, but come on, Al was still trying to get the song played everywhere and still, nobody cared. I think the the fact that the song itself just isn't very good had a bit to do with it as well.

"Trash Day" is a stupid parody of a stupid song. Does anybody even remember, or care about Hot in Herre? Al tends to do a good job of parodying songs with staying power, but he dropped the ball on this one. "Party at the Leper Colony" is a good idea but somewhere it just... *snicker*... falls apart. "Wanna B Ur Lovr," while a great song live, is a one joke idea that runs too long on the album. "Bob" is also a one joke list song idea that doesn't hold up well for repeat listens. And finally, "Genius in France" is a one joke idea that gets stretched out for eight freaking minutes. I know Al was paying homage to Frank Zappa and trying to fit as many Zappa-esque styles of music into the song as possible, but couldn't he have done more with the song idea? Don't get me wrong, I think the music is perfect and shows off Al's musicianship wonderfully. But it just isn't a song I feel like listening to often because the lyrics don't have much originality to them.

Also, to anybody who put Even Worse in your bottom 5: Crazies, all of you!

I feel like the UHF Soundtrack gets too much hate, too. It's a soundtrack album with extra goodies on it. And if you take it for what it's supposed to be, it's actually pretty cool. The fact that Gandhi II and Spatula City are on it makes for a fun listening experience because it brings you back into the movie. It's also got a song about radioactive hamsters, She Drives Like Crazy, Generic Blues, a Rolling Stones polka, a 7-minute epic about a twine ball, and Fun Zone. The only weak song on it is Isle Thing. As a soundtrack album, it's great. As a Weird Al album, it's still very good.
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Re: Your BOTTOM 5 Albums!

Post by minnick27 »

Jace, fantastic post! I want to see you do this for every album!
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Re: Your BOTTOM 5 Albums!

Post by Iamabrawler »

I have to admit, it`s alittle complicated to do the Bottom 5 albums, because I`m not a harsh critic when it comes to something I really enjoy. Darn you favoritism.
But I thought I`d try. Basically, I agree with Jace on his choices, but I put them in a different order. I won`t repeat most of his arguments.

1-Polka Party
Just the name is a coolness repellent. "In 3D" was cool for the reference to 3D movies, Alapalooza`s title was already better for comparing to that rock festival, and Alpocalypse... I don`t even need to explain.

2-First album
Now, the argument that it`s his first album still holds. But for a first album, it`s much better than some other humble beginnings. Al fans from after the second album are usually surprised of all this acordion on the album. Well, I was when I listened to the album`s songs the first time.

3-Poodle Hat
My main problem with that album is: Why so many unsubtle toilet jokes? On his eleventh album, at that! It`s as if the Simpsons, at their twenty-third season, giving a whole part of an episode to flatulence jokes-... Never mind. However, I enjoy his long songs on the album.

4-Alapalooza
Okay... that one is actually good in my opinion, but compared to the others it doesn`t hold so well together. Some are really awesome, but others just don`t seem to have been such great ideas. I could have done without that mime song for sure.

5-Dare to be Stupid
I feel like I`ve put that one in the top 5 because I had no other album to put in this place. It has great moments. But no matter how brilliant it is, I just don`t like Like a Surgeon. The many problematic songs caused by Scotti Bros also caused this album to win its place in the Bottom 5. There are a few songs I am not a fan of, but a number of songs are great anyway. It`s just another proof that you might dislike an album if you don`t like more than half of it.
"So I went in my garaage, got in my care
And I drived, talking with my blue teeth
My boyfreind told me don't cree
Come to my houss, don't worraye,
we'll talk about this togeedurr."
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Re: Your BOTTOM 5 Albums!

Post by Yankomaniac »

I can very much appreciate all of those points.
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Re: Your BOTTOM 5 Albums!

Post by Iamabrawler »

I mean, yes, Alpocalypse had a number of toilet jokes as well. But many of them were subtle, in contrary to PH.
I was of course referencing Treehouse of Horror XXII, in which Homer gets paralyzed and learns to communicate through gases. We REALLY didn`t need that.
I`ll add another ppint to the first album: Mr. Frump is really not good in my opinion. He could have used another song to end it and instead use School Cafeteria somewhere and I would have been happier with it.
"So I went in my garaage, got in my care
And I drived, talking with my blue teeth
My boyfreind told me don't cree
Come to my houss, don't worraye,
we'll talk about this togeedurr."
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Re: Your BOTTOM 5 Albums!

Post by Killingsworth »

I enjoyed reading your post, Jace. I'm glad someone agrees with me that "Poodle Hat" had some of his weakest parodies in recent memory and served as a better showcase for originals (and for me that includes "Bob" and "Genius In France" just for the production value alone on both songs).
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Re: Your BOTTOM 5 Albums!

Post by weirdojace »

Glad you guys liked my post. I enjoy being overly analytical about things.
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