New Weird Al Tribute Album on Sale Now!

[JCM]

Then, oh boy, will you enjoy next year's all new Weird Al tribute album, "Why Settle for Those Silly Style Parodies When You Can Get the Real Thing!"

Are you seriously doing that? That will be so awesome. I don't think Prince will be that easy to get, though.

[oddaustin]

Did you neglect to read this part of my post.

I mean, we did just put a year's worth of effort into making THIS tribute album... but ya know, who cares about that.

Is it just me, or is that obviously sarcastic?

[JCM]

I know that part was sarcastic, but the real thing thing would have still been cool.

[Way_Moby]

Then, oh boy, will you enjoy next year's all new Weird Al tribute album, "Why Settle for Those Silly Style Parodies When You Can Get the Real Thing!"

Are you seriously doing that? That will be so awesome. I don't think Prince will be that easy to get, though.

^ This...

[oddaustin]

Hey people, we got our first professional review!

http://www.covermesongs.com/2011/06/rev ... kovic.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

To those of you who have heard the album, please feel encouraged to leave a review on iTunes (preferred) or as a post on this topic. We're eager for feedback on all the songs, cause as you can clearly see, the above review doesn't quite cover every track (odd considering the site name).

[TMBJon]

Happy to say I just came home from Alabama to find my copy of Twenty Six And A Half sitting in the mailbox. And it was personally addressed by hand by one Jace McLain! Woooo!! Thanks for sending it, guys!

[giantlobsterrobot]

A track by track review eh? Although I may not know the inner workings of each artist's purposes, I will at least give my feedback then.

Track 1: Steve Goodie's vocals are fun and full of energy here. Musically, he made the song even more upbeat and fun to listen to. It's almost like the live versions of "First Kiss" and "The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas" by TMBG ... so it still sounds TMBGish.

Track 2: It's no better or worse than Al's version. It rocks a little harder, so if you're into a harder rock version of CNR, this might be preferred. It's nice to hear an alternate version. Kobi has quite a bit of emotion here too.

Track 3: Double Down does an awesome job with this song! It's like the late '90's revival of swing music. It's got the Brian Setzer/Squirrel Nut Zippers feel. I love the vocals. This is better than Al's version. I do love this style of music, and it's one of my favorite Al songs. Double Down did so awesome with this one. It's definitely one of the album highlights.

Track 4: MC Lars does "I Can't Watch This" and his take on it is well done. I don't like this version better than Al's. MC Lars has some good vocals for it and it's actually easier to understand than Al's was the first time I heard it, but it worked better when it was closer to MC Hammer's (I can't believe I credited him for the music) music. The break-down parts were well done too. Al's is better though. This is just a slower-groove type version. For some reason, he reminds me of Atom and His Package with this.

Track 5: TV's Kyle's songs are so much fun. I think this was a perfect song for him. He seemed to model it after the theme song to "Bonkers" from Disney. He's already got a very cartoonish feel to his songs, and it's exactly what I'd expect from him. I prefer this version over Al's.

Track 6: Lager Rhythms have a great sound with this. I am however a HUGE ska fan. This vocal version is a lot of fun, but isn't as good as Al's ska version, but that's probably just because ska's my favorite genre of music. I like the female vocals for the song though. It's fun to listen to. I enjoy it. It still sounds a bit like Dance Hall Crashers, which is cool.

Track 7: Insane Ian usually produces tracks that I really enjoy. His version of "That Boy Could Dance" is very unique. I like how he turned it into a song people would dance to at clubs. I however, am not a fan of that style of music. For what he was going for, he did it well, but it's not really my thing. I love the original version though. There was a part in here where Insane Ian made it sound like the end of the Wizards of Waverly Place theme song.

Track 8: Raymond and Scum turn "One More Minute" into a rock love/hate song. I loved their extended "Again and again and again..." It's no better or worse than Al's. It's just different. For those wanting a rock version, this will fulfill those desires.

Track 9: "Don't Wear Those Shoes" is one of my favorite Al originals. MC Frontalot does this in a traditional British New-Wave sound. It sounds very "The Cure" and is great. Once again, it's not better than Al's but does offer a unique take that is still well done. It doesn't have the energy that Al's had, but replaces it with more of a woe-filled pleading and is what his approach calls for.

Track 10: Dino-Mike's take on "You Make Me" is one of my least favorite covers on the album. It was a little boring in comparison to Al's. It might be because I really love Oingo Boingo. It's just too sad musically and drags on a bit.

Track 11: Worm Quartet's version of "I'll Be Mellow When I'm Dead" is AWESOME! I love their sound, every aspect of it. It's one of my favorite tracks on this album! It's better than Al's, which is saying a lot because it's one of Al's best originals. It might actually be my favorite track on this album. Very well done and right up my alley.

Track 12: Smashy Claw (NOT RYCEHAT as I may have mis-stated before) doing "Close, But No Cigar" was interesting. He took a classic rock approach. This would normally be a bad thing for me, because I'm not a huge fan of 60's-70's rock, but he happened to pick a style of some of the better rock from that era to perform this song as. It's another track that's just SLIGHTLY worse than Al's. It's only because of the style he chose. Smashy Claw did perform it well.

Track 13: MC Chris doing "I Lost on Jeopardy" was okay. I liked his vocal performance/style. It's no worse or better than Al's. Some of his ad-libs/changes were pretty good too. They got a smile out of me. "Clone Wars the Sanfranciso treat" was very amusing. I like Al's and I like MC Chris's.

Track 14: Dumbledore! This song has been around for a while, but fits the album well. Steve Goodie has some great material. This is some of that! As a parody of "Hardware Store" he made it stay enjoyable. The "Look at all this stuff" portion was extremely well done. Great job once again for Steve Goodie.

Track 15: Nuclear Bubble Wrap makes some good songs. They covered Al's "Pac-Man" song. This is 100% how it should've sounded had it made it onto one of Al's older releases. This is a great sign if it's one of those songs you wished Al had released, but didn't. I am not one of those. Beatles songs usually bug me. Not all of them do though.

Track 16: Devo Spice has some great rap songs. I love the message, and I'm sure we have all run into this issue and had this conversation with people. It's another one of the songs on here that is very good and I enjoy it. "There is no H in Yankovic" was my favorite part because he makes sure people repeat it and memorize it! The Nickelback line was also very good. Devo Spice amused me quite a bit here.

Track 17: Musically, Luke Ski did very well with the keyboard instead of the accordion. The tones were very good. Having a song about Jon Bermuda is funny in itself. Including things like "Drum Solo" among other things we know Jon for was a great idea. It's an extremely fun song. "May the Schwartz be with you" was a great ending line.

Track 18: Marc with a C... by the first couple words, I liked it better than Al's. It takes out the country twang that I don't care for and keeps the feel of the original. I really like this track. "Good Enough For Now" is underestimated. I'm glad that it was redone, and done so very well. Great job.

Track 19: A "Melanie" cover. I liked the added keyboards. I like Al's vocals better and overall, this one is not quite as good as Al's. It's still good... I like it better musically, but not vocally.

Track 20: Al's Band. I am probably going to be hit for saying this, but I don't care for this one very much. The lyrics are pretty good, but I don't care for the performance and music. I did like the instrumental portion. It sounds like it would fit in with a Tim Burton movie though.

So that's a review of the album Twenty-Six and a Half.
It is a well-done album. Some tracks even exceed Al's own.
I hope this review is helpful in some way to someone.

[Elvis]

Got my copy today too! Gonna go listen now...

Dave

[Elvis]

I don't have time for a full in depth review right now, but I will say the music sounded great and the vocals were really good. The lyrics were kind of meh.

Dave

[giantlobsterrobot]

The lyrics were kind of meh.

Dave

Well, that made me laugh a bit.