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Weird Al is Back

Published by marco on

 Straight Outta LynwoodIt seems that the world, through the Internet, has finally developed a place where Weird Al Yankovic’s special genius can shine. A truly talented performer is becoming more mainstream than he ever was. And his new stuff is just as good as he’s ever been, from the free song download done in the style of “Save the World” charity songs from the 80s, Don’t Download this Song (video drawn by Bill Plimpton and also available for free online at his MySpace page) to the brutal parody of James Blunt called You’re Pitiful. “White and Nerdy”, a rap parody, is the first single off of his latest album (video (YouTube)), Straight Outta Lynwood and it’s been in the top 5 downloads at iTunes for weeks. The album itself debuted on the Billboard charts at number 10, way higher than he’s ever been before.

Internet propels Weird Al’s album into Billboard Top 10 (Ars Technica) has more details, noting that spreading videos on YouTube and being featured prominently in iTunes helped him a lot, as well as a MySpace page, which, at last count, has over 325,000 friends. Even the extremely popular cartoon/Flash toon site, JibJab got in on the act and premiered his video for Do I Creep You Out (JibJab), an awesome rip, with Taylor Hicks as a stalker.

Al deserves it. He’s been doing his thing for years: he sings well, performing respectably all over the genre spectrum[1], he plays the accordian with the best of them (and includes a screaming medley polka on every album), he writes really good parodies (and stays clean doing so) and he throws everything he’s got at his projects. That shines right through and is what sells it: he plays his roles so well. Take a look at the White and Nerdy video; it nails the both subcultures perfectly, with the strange candle lighting, hoodie sweatshirt, the grill and the pseudo-violent delivery and arm movements. The nerd jokes aren’t even just cliché; some are pretty good in-jokes. In the videos where he doesn’t appear in person, like in “Do I Creep You Out”, the production values are spot-on and the lyrics shine. It’s funny and is probably on tens of thousands of video iPods right now.

To be fair to Al, it’s not like he’s improved at what he does so much as he’s gotten better at marketing himself.[2] He’s had lots of good stuff in between, like the offbeat BOB (A palindromic tribute to Bob Dylan) from his 2003 album, Poodle Hat[3]. Again, this just nails Bob’s sounds and his style and, then, to top it all off, parodies Bob’s at-times confusing lyrics by speak-singing only in complex palindromes the whole time. He even looks like Dylan; it’s just damned funny[4]. The video is included below:

BOB (A palindromic tribute to Bob Dylan)

With his 20th album, and at 47 years old, it seems the world is finally ready for him.


[1] He even holds his own when mimicking Blunt’s plaintive bleat on “You’re Pitiful”, which is a ballad performed with very few instruments to mask the voice.
[2] In case it was difficult to distinguish from the text, the author got on board with Weird Al on his second album, in 3D, with Eat It, his previous best hit, and the overlooked Nature Trail to Hell.
[3] Interesting as well is to take a look at the musicians who perform with him: on Poodle Hat, Ben Folds plays piano and Dweezil Zappa plays guitar on one song.
[4] And, according to Wikipedia, this is the hastily-shot consolation video after Eminem threw a hissy fit and wouldn’t let him use the parody “Couch Potato”.