"Alpocalypse" - New Weird Al Album

You definitely are not.  I know a lot of people think he's just silly and goofy, but he's got some real songwriting talent.  He just chooses to use it in a silly and goofy way.

Always been a big fan of Weird Al. Saw him back in like 1996 in concert here, it still is one of my favorite shows I've ever been to.

I've always loved Weird Al but lost interest in the late 90's because, honestly, I didn't like the look that he's been sporting since then with the long jerrycurl. Then there was his Star Wars song, a parody of American Pie, which really irked me for some reason. Al's always kinda been "of the moment" but it really seemed like he was just being an outright parasite by doing that shitty song. His best work is when he's making fun of something or commenting on some social trend. Even when he goes out of his way to directly ape something like in his Jurassic Park song, it was usually really funny and had a great music video. But that Star Wars track was totally lifeless and the video fucking sucked. But he redeemed himself in my eyes with Straight Outta Lynwood which had some great stuff on it not to mention White and Nerdy which is a classic and has a fantastic music vid.

I love The Saga Begins.  I could probably sing the whole thing right now.  I guess if you hate American Pie (who hates on Don McLean?) I can see you totally not digging on it.  I can't remember the video but that probably means you're right about it.   I actively despised White and Nerdy.  All that being said, YAY new album!!

I was really into him during Amish Paradise around the time MTV had a special running all the time that played all of his classic music videos.  But that fandom fizzled pretty quickly.

I wonder if I could still sing Amish Paradise...

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcnooj82 

 

I wonder if I could still sing Amish Paradise...

Trust me, you can.

As I walk through the valley where I harvest my grain

I take a look at my wife and realize she's very plain!

But that's just PERFECT for an Amish like me,

because I shun fancy things like electricity!

I CAN!

As a child of the '80s, I was a huge fan of Weird Al.  I think my friends and I knew every word to every song from his self-titled debut through Off the Deep End.  Somewhere around high school, however, I checked out.  Still love the guy, though.  I can hear "That Boy Could Dance" and be 8 years old all over again.  And he is one hell of a musician.  I downloaded the aforementioned albums not so long ago and was shocked at his seemingly effortless ability to not just parody pre-existing songs, but to craft entirely new songs that mimic certain artists.  "Dare to Be Stupid", for example, is a brilliant riff on Devo.  Similarly, "Dog Eat Dog" is an excellent take on the Talking Heads, right down to Byrne's quirky vocal delivery.

Dare To Be Stupid is the greatest thing he will ever do.

I am Team Al, but that leaked first single, "Perform This Way" (a Gaga takeoff) is AWFUL.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mattioli 

As a child of the '80s, I was a huge fan of Weird Al.  I think my friends and I knew every word to every song from his self-titled debut through Off the Deep End.  Somewhere around high school, however, I checked out.  Still love the guy, though.  I can hear "That Boy Could Dance" and be 8 years old all over again.  And he is one hell of a musician.  I downloaded the aforementioned albums not so long ago and was shocked at his seemingly effortless ability to not just parody pre-existing songs, but to craft entirely new songs that mimic certain artists.  "Dare to Be Stupid", for example, is a brilliant riff on Devo.  Similarly, "Dog Eat Dog" is an excellent take on the Talking Heads, right down to Byrne's quirky vocal delivery.

He's still nailing that mimicry.  His "CNR" is the best White Stripes song they never wrote. 

I have passed my love of Weird Al on to my son.  And strikingly, we were listening to some of his songs one day, and "Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota" came on, and my son said, "I think this is my favorite Weird Al song."  Which struck a chord with me, because unbeknownst to him, that's pretty much my favorite song too.  Excuse me, I have something in my eye...

Love, love, love that song.  I still find myself walking around with that song stuck in my head from time to time: "Well, I had two weeks of vacation time coming after working all year down at Big Roy's Heating and Plumbing..."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gabe T 

Dare To Be Stupid is the greatest thing he will ever do.

 

I am Team Al, but that leaked first single, "Perform This Way" (a Gaga takeoff) is AWFUL.

Don't you mean "AL-FUL"?

"The Saga Begins" is the best thing to come out of the prequel trilogy. Actually, it's probably my all time favourite thing associated with Star Wars (not a fan of that franchise). I've never been a huge fan of Al either, but I love some of his singles and I bought "Bad Hair Day" based solely on "Amish Paradise" and "Gump". This was back when I'd buy an album for only two songs, in the more innocent times of the '90s. That was the height of my Al fandom (seems to be the same for several people here). He also was given air time to do whatever he wanted on Canada's MuchMusic channel once in awhile in the '90s, and he always put on a great show. He'd spend a few programming blocks playing his music videos, running fake interviews edited to look like him making hilarious comments in response to real celebrity interview footage, and just generally goofing off on camera. Always splendid entertainment.