World of Weird Al Yankovic

Posted: **Thu May 22, 2003 9:30 am**

Check out this quote from the zappa.com message board:

What's great about that song genius in france is that you can actually tell the zappa references! the solo dweezil plays at the beginning sounds a lot like I'm the Slime, there's a little riff from "Disco Boy" and "In France" on there, the snorts, odd sounds, barking, extra kinds of percussion and actual creativity on Al's part--he did a great job on this one I think. I'd suggest listening to it if you can-some of the other songs on the album make fun of some of pop's biggest stars (or wastes of time, as I like to call them, you know, products) such as Avril La-viga-nee and the hideously untalented Eminem and Nelly

Posted by CloudStrife XIII

Posted: **Thu May 22, 2003 9:34 am**

Posted: **Thu May 22, 2003 10:38 am**

And here is my review of the CD:

Cover: Reminds me of the cover for Polka Party. Don't know if that's a good thing, since it was a comercial flop, but then again was still a good album. I like it better than the cover for Running with Scissors.

But can someone please tell me where Suzanne is in the photo? Is she the one in the back wearing sunglasses so you can't tell who she is?

Back cover: an empty subway car. kind of cool looking.

well I think I'll just get right to the songs now:

First impresion: wasn't wow this is awesome, but then again it will probably grow on me like running with scissors did.

Couch Potato: Supoib. egg-cellent. okay, enough cornyness, it's about a potato, not corn. Okay, it is actually about a couch potato, really another song about TV. But don't discount it because of that, even though it does kind of sound like "I can't watch this' part 2, it is extremely funny and the best parody on the album.

The only real criticism I have is that Al could have made the intro sound more like the original. Part of what makes the parodies funny is that when you first hear them you think that you are hearing the original song, and then on comes Al with funny lyrics.

Hardware Store: The lyrics aren't especially funny, but the style is excellent. How is Al able to ryme this fast? You could call it rapping, but it doesn't sound like conventional rap, it sounds like classical Al music where Al is ryming faster than he ever did before. Along with couch potato, Al shows himself to be one of the greatest white rappers of all time, his ryming skills are up with M+M's (he may be a jerk but I still think he has skillz. And I think eminem wants people to think he is a jerk, he has a reputation to withold. more on that later.)

Trash Day- mmmmmm. . .. laaaame. sorry that was my first impression. I hit the skip button pretty fast. but the second time I heard it, it didn't sound so bad. Still, not his greatest.

Party at the Leper Colony- another that I didn't have the patience to listen all the way through the first time. I was planning on listening to the CD straight through, but I was too excited about finding out what the other songs sounded like. So I put the CD in my car and listened to the whole thing. I guess this song is okay, but I didn't think it was super-duper-fantastic.

Angry White Boy Polka- oh yea, a polka to rescue this album when it starts going downhill. pretty good, I don't know if it's his best, but it is funny. My favorite polkas are the bohemian and hot rocks polkas, which are of course different because they polkafy one song in its entirety and one groups songs respectively. And Polka your eyes out and Alternative Polka are excellent. But this still ranks above any polkas he did before UHF. I especially like the end- Stand up Shady! Stand up Shady!

given how Shady (aka m+M) dissed Al, it's pretty funny.

Wanna B UR Lovr- excellent style parody of Beck's Midnight Vultures album (some say it sounds like Prince, but the only prince I've heard is that 1999 song, which sounds nothing like this) I guess if you don't like Beck you won't like this song. Most of the humor is more subtle- okay maybe 'diarea' isn't subtle. But this mainly works as a Beck Tribute where Al adds a few funny lines when you're not expecting it.

A Complicated Song- Why are my feelings on this song so complicated? I don't know, it didn't strike me at first as something truely excelent, almost sounded like something you would download from Wierd El Yancovik. But it sounds better every time I listen to it- the end of the verse about being related made me laugh out loud.

Why does this always happen to me- very funny

Ode to a superhero- good song, because it is piano man. But Al's lyrics I don't particularly care for. He already did a classic rock n' roll parody about a movie on his last album, and even though I thought Saga Begins was a disapointment, it was way funnier than this song.

Bob- very clever. even if Al didn't think all of the palindromes up himself, it is still a pretty good song.

Ebay- I was surprised to like this song, because I hate the backstreet boys so much (or was it in stink?). But he really made it funny and gave them the Al treatment. The most pleasent surprise on this album.

Genius in France- I've already said so much about this- It is excellent. However, you probably have to know zappa's music to appreciate it fully. See previous post from zappa website. Al did a very good job at capturing zappa's style, which isn't easy to do, since Zappa had an even wider range of musical styles than weird al does- Avante Garde classical, orchestral, Hard classic rock, guitar instrumentals, funny and serious songs . . .

but even with the great job Al did on this song, you can't tell whether you would like zappa just from this song. Other zappa songs like Joe's garage and valley girl were obvious influences on weird al humor.

This song seems to be stirring up controversy because of the whole political situation with France (which started after Al made this song), and French bashing no longer seems too funny to me either, but maybe that's because I'm a pointy headed liberal. I just don't see why we should ridicule someone just because they don't want to go to war. I mean, is France crazy? Why wouldn't they want to send soldiers out to risk their lives and kill people who didn't do anything to them? You are right, the French are pretty stupid.

But anyways, this album was pretty good, even though there were some disappointments.

phillipemoz aka Freedom Poodle signing out

Posted: **Thu May 22, 2003 11:47 am**

BTW, strange coincidence...

Algerian earthquake kills 538 people last night...sad story...hope it doesn't interrupt the Simpsons *wink wink*...No, but seriously, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say earthquakes are bad.

mike

btw, are "frank's 2000" tv" and "why does this always happen to me?" the only Simpson references in Al's music? just curious

Posted: **Thu May 22, 2003 2:08 pm**

Suzanne is the one with glasses that kinda looks like Ozzy Osbourne.

Posted: **Thu May 22, 2003 2:24 pm**

Here goes nothing...

1. Couch Potato--INCREDIBLE! The lyrics are great, and he has that Eminem singing style DOWN PAT! 9/10

2. Hardware Store--I love it. I can just imagine someone sitting around thinking about a hardware store. 8/10

3. Trash Day--Fair. The "Even the roaches wear slippers" line was good. I don't think I could have thought of a song that really needed to be parodied. Full of good lines. 9/10

4. Party at the Leper Colony-- I expected the style to be completely different. I guess I'm not a fan of the style. The lyrics are also a bit corny. 5/10

5. Angry White Boy Polka--I knew all of the songs expect 2. This is just great. I can't name my favorite part. I loved it. 10/10 best polka?

6. Wanna B Ur Lovr-- Now I know why I can't stand Prince. Some lyrics pretty funny but the style just annoys me to death. 6/10

7. A Complicated Song-- Great! Every verse had me cracking up. Plus easy to sing along to. I can't get enough. 11/10

8. Why Does This Always Happen to Me?--Really funny. I personally know people who see the completely wrong side of bad things. 9/10

9. Ode to a Superhero-- Actually a couple funny lines. Incredibly accurate parody musically. I just love to sing along with it. 10/10

10. Bob- Great style parody. But I'd like to know where he got all those palindromes? 7/10

11. eBay- Beyond great. Most of that stuff really is on eBay. Funny thinking of him buying all that stuff. Just awesome. 10/10

12. GIF--I've never listened to Zappa, but I still like the style. The lyrics just don't hit it with me. 8/10

Maybe my favorite just behind In 3d.

By the way, I can't access the extras. I have Quicktime6.0 but I still can't find them. Very dissapointing.

Posted: **Thu May 22, 2003 5:15 pm**

Well, one of Bart's prank calls to Moe's replaces the rap in "Phony Calls".

I'm almost positive someone sold a used kleenex on E-Bay in the past. If I'm not mistaken, it belonged to either a Backstreet Boys or one of the N'Sync kids.

There was a story about two weeks concerning a woman who sold a Ziploc baggie containing... Paul McCartney's flu germs. It seems she met him and he was sick and she got sick shortly thereafter so she did what any rational person would do - she sneezed in a bag and sold it on the Internet.

Ain't capitalism grand?

Posted: **Thu May 22, 2003 5:16 pm**

Oh, and while no one thinks the French are getting more of a bum deal than I do, I'm fairly certain "Genius In France" is nothing more than a coincidence - and still pretty funny to boot.

Posted: **Thu May 22, 2003 5:53 pm**

I know quite a few people have been confused about what "Poodle Hat" means...I believe it is a reference to the Simpsons, someone posted something about it in another thread, I'll try to find it.

Posted: **Fri May 23, 2003 1:32 am**

Very nice review!

I know it takes me a while to get comfortable with new music before I can form an opinion.

I love Trash Day and Wanna B Ur Lovr is officially my new favorite with Al's sensuously bizarre romantic bon mots. The vocal style is very subtle and funny, too. (Ack!! Please do that in concert, Al!)

Certainly Hardware Store with that semi-religious harmonizing rising like a crescendo of worship for all things household, is a work of art, musically

very complex, lyrically...amazing. (Although I'm still wondering just what the heck an "automatic circumcisor" does. Sounds like something a moyl

would use in an assembly line. :lookround:) Yikes!

I know some fans found this song a bit harsh, but the whole point is just to remind us it's still okay to laugh at ourselves. I don't think anyone could seriously believe that it's making light of any tragedies.

It does surprise me that some folks do seem to think Al is making light of

catastrophes, when the whole point of the song is so obviously the self-centered indifference of the character in the song. He's definitely not the kind of guy you'd want for a best friend. This is what you call black humor.

Although I'm not a fan of rap or Eminem, Couch Potato is growing on me.

My sister (who is a fan of EM) told Al he was the best rapper she had ever heard, which made him giggle. (I love a man who giggles!

)

Al does a dead on Dylan in "Bob", very well nuanced. The fact that the palindromes are rather disjointed and don't make much narrative sense are an even better representation of Dylan's lyrics. I almost never knew what the heck ol' Bob was singing about anyway. :choon:

People will have to do a little homework to get the full intellectual value out of this one, but it is wonderful.

And, even though I'm not a huge fan of Frank Zappa (his musical construction seems too intellectual, [for lack of a better description] to me), I was surprised that I immediately recognized Zappa's style. I didn't think I would, but...Great Googly Moogly, Al has nailed it!

Leper Colony is great, although since it has already been previewed last year, it tends to get overlooked, but I love it. Great hand clapping, Suzanne and Jay.

Love eBay, both on the web and in the song, and Complicated Song is nice

(although a little more "bowels oriented" than appeals to me...ewwww.)

Ode to a Superhero makes me want to see Spiderman (yes, I'm the one

person on the planet who hasn't had a chance to see it yet.

)

Poodle Hat is terrific! God love ya Al and TBITB you guys are al SO GOOD!

If anyone goes outside and sees a squirrel doing backflips through the trees....that'll be me :biggrin:

sg

P. S. Poodle Hat is NOW #8 on Amazon!!! Yippee!!! Go Alfie, Go!

Take that, Craig Kilborn. You can get in line to kiss Al's feet. Pucker up, tout suite :mad:

World of Weird Al Yankovic

POODLE HAT REVIEWS!!!

re-AL eBay links