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“Weird Al” - Straight Outta Lynwood
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2006
Oct 05
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Now being the good nerd that I am I went out and bought the newest offering of “Weird Al” on the day it came out (which was a few days after I bought the “Weird Al” Show on DVD). Due to the media blitz that had occurred I had already heard two of the songs on the album (Three if you count “you’re pitiful” but that will be covered later). That might have set my expectations a little higher than they should have been but hey. So here is a song by song review on the new album
Track one - White and nerdy
The “Title” track and the lead off parody. Having heard the song already and seen the video it was nothing new. While a good song in its own right it seems a little to in the vein of “It’s all about the Pentiums”. The video was clever and you have to give credit for the cameo from Donny Osmond. If you haven’t seen the video it’s on youtube or on weird al’s myspace page. All in all it will be the most remembered song from the album
Track two - Pancreas
This is a style parody of the beach boys. Not that great. Credit for the squeezing in of obscure medical references. Generally gets skipped on the relisten.
Track three - Canadian Idiot
Parody of “American Idiot” by Green Day. The lyrics are kind of hard to hear but once you get them its not that great. Very standard “Weird Al”. Take a popular song, toss in some insults to someone, and pepper in multiple “Weird Al” vocals. Gets skipped on the replay.
Track four - I’ll Sue Ya
Style parody of current hard metal. One of the better songs on the album.
Track five - Polkarama
The polka…..not the best one he’s done
Track six - Virus Alert
Style parody of early David Bowie / early brit rock. This will get stuck in your head. Musically and lyrically the song is great. Tied with white and nerdy for best song.
Track seven - Confessions Part III
Interesting parody idea. Gets kind of old though. Good the first time or two but not much relisten.
Track eight - Weasel Stomping Day
Think seriously disturbed Disney song. The video is almost too much to watch. It was done by the Robot Chicken people and was shown as part of an episode. The video is also on the disk.
Track nine - Close But No Cigar
If you don’t know who Cake is then this one will go over your head. It’s a style parody but pokes fun at Cake. Lyrically it’s not too shabby. High relisten level.
Track ten - Do I Creep You Out
Parody of Taylor Hicks “Do I Make You Proud”. I really think this song was just created to draw in the American idol crowd. Not my favorite.
Track eleven - Trapped in a Drive-Thru
Longest “Weird Al” song ever. But, it doesn’t seem that long. Poking fun at both the “show your soft side” gangster rap songs and drive thru’s everywhere. Good song but you most likely will not listen to it that much.
Track twelve - Don’t Download This Song
Part of the media blitz for the album this song was put up for download on “Weird Al’s” myspace. Clever little song in the 80’s save the world power ballad style peppered with a hefty handful of pop culture references that makes for a good song. However, replay level is going to be low on this one.
The Album in general was fairly weak. A few good songs but nothing like the “weird al” albums of the nineties. The disk itself though is a pain. It’s a dual disk, which for those not in the know is one side CD and one side DVD, which has trouble playing in every CD and DVD drive I own. Except for the old 12x Creative DVD drive in my computer. (Why is it the most archaic piece of equipment always works) While it allowed me to get the songs out to my iPod it doesn’t allow for the best feature of the disk. 5.1 surround sound. The little bits I can hear sound great and the album was mixed in surround so it’s not just the same thing in all the speakers. Sounded great…… worked like crap. Now this could just be my gear (although I would think Sony would be a mainstay in terms of compatibility) but it seems to be a common issue with the album. My other beef is of the touted 7 videos for this album 5 are flash animated junk. Although one is animated by John Kricfalusi of “Ren and Stimpy” fame. The best video, “White and Nerdy” isn’t even on the disk. You do get the robot chicken video which is ok. Overall, I am a bit let down by this album. It comes across as something Al was contractually obligated to put out. Add in the fact that the best song of the album wasn’t even released on the album (”Your pitiful” was cut because the record labels started having a ego contest, follow the link to find out more) and it almost becomes not worth the money (remember your paying more on this one because its dual disk). I hope there are more “Weird Al” Albums but this one isn’t ever going to be at the top of the catalog.
-Lorkin-