Running With Scissors

1. The Saga Begins- parody of "American Pie" by Don McClean. All about Star Wars Episode One. Very nice. A-

2. My Baby's In Love With Eddie Vedder- Why would Al's wife be in love with the Pearl Jam frontman anyway? C

3. Pretty Fly For A Rabbi- parody of "Pretty Fly for a White Guy" by the Offspring. Expect many odd Jewish words. B+

4. The Weird Al Show Theme- the theme to Al's dearly departed show on CBS or NBC, I forgot. Very stupid! B

5. Jerry Springer- parody of "One Week" by Barenaked Ladies. Extremely raunchy but well-sung. B

6. Germs- very dull at first but gets better at the end. C+

7. Polka Power- includes Al's renditions of songs by Spice Girls, Marcy Playground, Marilyn Manson, Hanson, Beastie Boys and more. Very good! B+

8. Your Horoscope For Today- apparently, I should get ready for an unexpected trip when I fall screaming from an open window. And I should work a little bit harder on improving my low self esteem: I'm a stupid freak. A-

9. It's All About The Pentiums- parody of "It's All About the Benjamins" by Lil Kim and some other bozos. Great work with those computer geek terms, Al! A-

10. Truck Drivin' Song- a kid in my 6th grade class (back in 1999) said this is making fun of Al's wife. Must be a cross-dressing song. Creeeeeepy. C+

11. Grapefruit Diet- parody of "Zoot Suit Riot" by Cherry Poppin' Daddies. Oh boy, get ready for ALL the fat jokes Al left out of his old hit "Fat"! B

12. Albuquerque- Get ready for 12 AND A HALF MINUTES of the sad story of Al's childhood with saurkraut, a plane crash near Albuquerque, a run-in with a huge Albanian hermaphrodite with a Flock of Seagulls haircut and only one nostril and meeting Zelda, a calligraphy entusiast with a slight overbite and hair the color of strained peaches. B

Al give us a good mixture of new material and parodies. The one knock that can be said against the paraodies is the lateness in a lot of them. The Saga Begins is a hilarious song. It came out a little to late after Star Wars Episode One. Al didn't get the MTV exposure like he did on Amish Paradise and the song flopped in that area. The song however is great writing by Al and is quite funny. It goes along great to American Pie and is one of the better parodies written by Al.

It's All About the Pentiums is a fantastic song. The one knock again is how late Al was with this song. If he had put this out right after Puffy had lost some of his popularity instead of a year this could have been a hit. The internet had also lost some it's mystic awe by this point and was available in more homes. The song however is great songwriting and Al proves again he is rap. It's got some great computer dialogue.

Grapefruit Diet is a great song. Al does a perfect job writing a perfect paraody. Everything sounds good and its a perfect parody of Zoot Suit Riot by Cherry Poppin Daddies.

I didn't like Germs. Why do you go out and paraody Nine Inch Nails at this point. Nobody is talking about them anymore. Why parody Offspring at this point. Pretty Fly for a White Guy was so overplayed on the radio and people were sick of it. Pretty Fly for a Rabbi is a wasted song. It's good song writing that will only be appreciated by his fans and not all of the public.

The new material is good. I love the polka song. It's got a lot of hits from the late 90's from semi-sonic to the spice girls and more. Jerry Springer is a great song and it's one I think should have gotten some radio play. Al could have had a field day if he had made a video for this song. Albuquerque is one of the funniest songs Al has written. It's over 11 minutes long and is full of great lines and plenty of energy.

Thi is a fantastic album. It's got lots of great material. I wish the album had come out earlier though. This could have such a big album, but despite that I love it. It's funny and has lots of great songs. Mad props to Al for making a great album.