Alpocalypse Deluxe Edt - CD DVD

"Weird Al" Yankovic is by far the greatest Parody artist in the history of the world; let him in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame!!! -No Joke! This album is hilarious, why, because modern music is SO ridiculous, and you are truly reminded of that fact when you hear these tracks... His versions of modern songs are often better than the originals on many levels. This album has the Polka, the Parody, the Comedy, and the Musicality, plus everything that you expect from Al. It will rank it up with some of Al's greatest, although I'm not trying to have that debate. Just Eat It!

Everybody will love the video for "Perform This Way," without the vid, the song holds up just fine as well. "TMZ," goes beyond simple musical parody as it parodies the entire modern world of pop culture. "Another Tattoo," "Party in the CIA," & "Whatever You Like," are fun. His originals are not so much filler as they make quality additions to the album as a whole, and have influence ranging from Queen, to The White Stripes. The only real low point of the album comes with the track "Isn't That Love," for my tastes anyways. My favorite track by far and away, however, is "Polka Face," as he continues the tradition of dropping a bad-ass Polka track on every album!!! Would love to hear an all out Polka-jam album from Al , one day.

Come on people, give it up to Al, he has proven time and time again that he is the sole master of this medium over the last 28+ years, he deserves respect. If you don't give him the respect of the R&R Hall of Fame, at least afford him the respect of changing your cheesy "Ringtone" and "Stop Forwarding..." that crap e-mail to him, he really can't take it!!! He is passionate about it, he's not kidding, and while you are at it "Stop Forwarding That Crap To Me," and everybody else too. Dare to Be Stupid and buy this album!

Weird Al Yankovic's latest mix of parody songs and original tunes is not his best offering. But he probably does almost as well as he can do here, given the poor grist that today's popular music scene provides for a parodist. I give it a mixed and cautious four stars; the album will definitely appeal sufficiently to longtime Al fans. But for those who would need it to contain the next breakout White & Nerdy in order to buy a whole Weird Al album, this collection is not for you.

The album's biggest weakness is its centerpiece track, Perform This Way. The parody is complicated by the fact that Lady Gaga's "original" Born This Way is already an unintentional (though still unadmitted) parody of Madonna's Express Yourself, as the singer herself is already a bad parody of Ms. Ciccone. In his lyrics Al does not even attempt to out-bleat Gaga's pious PC cant about the wonders of tolerance; instead he attempts to ridicule the antics of the singer herself. But Gaga is essentially beyond parodying; once someone has worn a dress made of meat to a major public function... Al's attempts to ratchet up the megalomania can never really exceed what might be plausible in this particular case. Beyond that, the song is just dreary.

More successful is TMZ, which twists Taylor Swift's You Belong With Me (probably the catchiest pop song parodied here) into a look at celebrity culture, bemoaning the fact that today's celebs can't even go off on a racist rant without being captured on Youtube. TMZ is the closest that Alpocalypse comes to having a truly standout parody track. Miley Cyrus's sugary Party in the USA is redone as Party at the CIA, and the clash between the saccharine original and Al's lyrics about waterboarding and political assassination is amusing. Two other full-length parodies are largely unmemorable. The usual polka medley covers a large number of songs, but I found it a bit less entertaining than the prior two albums' similar tracks, thanks to the overrepresentation here of bad bubblegum and hip-hop.

Al's original songs, as usual, contain more inventive and biting lyrics than many of the pure parodies do. There is a bit of a stale feeling to a few of them - Craigslist essentially updates Al's song eBay into the early 2010s instead of eBay's early 2000s. Several of Alpocalypse's "relationship from hell" songs could practically stand as reworkings of Do I Creep You Out? or similar offerings. And I feel that of late Al has labored too hard on the style aspect of his style parodies at the expense of pure humor. Craigslist is a reverent reworking of a typical Doors song (e.g., 20th Century Fox), complete with the Doors' Ray Manzarek on keyboards. But it's not very funny. Stop Forwarding That Crap To Me is a heartfelt plea to do just as the title requests, in the style of a bombastic Meatloaf ballad as written by Jim Steinman. It ends the album on a very strong note. Al wisely does not attempt to duplicate the operatic stylings of Meatloaf.

Nor does he try to vocally compete with the memory of Freddy Mercury in his low-key homage to the melodic side of Queen, Ringtone. Skipper Dan (the story of a once-promising thespian, eventually relegated to conducting a theme park's Jungle Cruise tour 34 times daily) is billed as a style parody of Weezer, but I did not even recognize it as such at first. It is more reminiscent of recent stripped-down Weezer (think Pork and Beans) than of In the Garage, Buddy Holly, or Pink Triangle.

Despite the lack of any one standout track, overall the album contains more than enough humorous and sharp observations of contemporary fads and practices to justify its existence - and its purchase, for those of us of the generation to be in Al's wheelhouse. There is no Smells Like Nirvana here, but Weird Al is at the mercy of the music industry, and what they have done to mainstream music since he first rode to prominence on Queen's bus has really hampered his or anyone's abilities to create truly great musical parodies. Of course, White & Nerdy proved that Al does not need great music to make a classic parody. He probably just needs something better than Gaga can provide.

Another excellent album from Weird Al. While I don't think this is quite as good as Straight Outta Lynwood, Alpocalypse is a must have for any Weird Al fan and proves that the parody master still has it.
One of my personal favorites on the album is "TMZ", which is a parody of Taylor Swift's "You Belong to Me" and probably the best song on the album. While this parody is sure to be overlooked, it's really funny and completely bashes the tabloid website that the song is about.
The polka melody is definitely the greatest yet and is really catchy. Weird Al even accomplishes the impossible by making "Baby" sound bearable.
Of course, the song receiving the most attention in the media is the Lady Gaga parody, "Preform This Way". "Preform This Way" is a funny enough song but it's certainly not an instant classic like "White and Nerdy" was. Still, it's a worthy lead single and a first-rate song at that.
I greatly enjoyed Alpocalypse and it lives up to my expectations. I'm sure all of Weird Al's fans will be satisfied by it. My only complaint is five of the songs were released nearly two years ago and it would have been nice if all twelve songs had been completely new. Regardless, Alpocalypse is a good edition to Weird Al's long list of superb albums.

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