After doing the first two articles, I said I would wrap things up with a third one. At this point, Weird Al's production slowed down, only doing five(-ish) albums in the next 25 years. However, his live show is bigger than ever, even touring with an orchestra for a few of them! As for the music, there is naturally less rock-oriented material here, but I'm going gonna review it anyway! Here we go!
Poodle Hat is actually my favorite album by Weird Al and his band, as this was when I was really becoming aware of what music was doing at that time. Unfortunately, it didn't do very well, as the music video for the Eminem parody got shut down, so he wasn't able to promote it as he would have liked. As for rock music, it has a few fun pieces. "Hardware Store" isn't spoofing anyone but is a great song about being excited for power tools and building materials. "Angry White Boy Polka" is an excellent medley that captures the zeitgeist of the alt rock and nu metal that was exploding at the time. "Why Does This Always Happen to Me?" is an interesting take on Ben Folds' style of piano rock (featuring the man himself!), and "Ode to a Superhero" takes Billy Joel's classic "Piano Man" and makes it about the first Spider-man move that had just come out.
However, like with Running with Scissors, the highlight is an epic track at the end, going nearly nine minutes, that really leans into the diverse and strange styles of Frank Zappa. The song goes through so many different genres, from rock to jazz to doowop to bluegrass, and yet remains fun all the way through! I don't think it's quite as good as "Albequerque," but I like that he was willing to pull another one of these together!
At this point, though, the rock music nearly disappears from his albums.
Straight Outta Lynwood features the nerd-rap anthem "White and Nerdy," but otherwise sticks to alternative rock genres. There are parodies for Green Day, Rage Against the Machine, Sparks, and Cake. The polka medley "Polkarama" adds more alt rock, with pieces from Franz Ferdinand, Weezer, Coldplay, Modest Mouse, The Killers, and Velvet Revolver. All entertaining stuff (including a bit of Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog" played by Weird Al's band for a few seconds of the ten-minute "Trapped in the Drive-Thru"), but not really the kind of rock music that my blog covers.
Rock music continues to be sparse with
Alpocalypse. You would think with an album cover like that, there would be some epic metal or something! Once again, we get a Weezer-inspired song along with a style parody of The White Stripes. However, he does pull out a few classic rock references. "Craigslist" is a curious song in the style of The Doors, "Ringtone" has some Queen-like qualities, and "Stop Forward That Crap to Me" draws upon the work of Jim Steinman, like Meatloaf's
Bat Out of Hell. Not bad pieces, but the main parodies focused on Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, and Miley Cyrus. Again, the album is plenty of fun, but I was kinda hoping a DragonForce parody about World of Warcraft. Oh well.
As Al carried on, he struggled to continue to feel relevant in an internet age where parodies come out in weeks and don't have to wait for a full album.
Mandatory Fun would end up being his last one that has all-new material, saying that he was setting aside the album format from here on. Fortunately, it's not a bad album to end on, taking on the likes of Pharrell Williams and Daft Punk (and I do like the transition from "Best Song Ever" to "Gangnam Style" in the polka medley!). As for rock music, there are style parodies for The Foo Fighters, Crosby Stills & Nash, and The Pixies, as well as giving Imagine Dragons the full treatment by turning "Radioactive" into "Inactive." However, the most rock song that's on here is "Lame Claim to Fame," a style parody of Southern Culture on the Skids, making the most of their quirky, southern-fried, roots rock sensibilities. The album ends with another big epic, this time using "Cat Stevens" as an inspiration, but I find "Jackson Park Express" doesn't click with me, and even feels a little creepy. Kind of a rough track to end on.
From here, Weird Al would focus on touring and other creative ventures. The last album to bear anything original from him was the soundtrack to the parody biography film
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. It's not a bad movie, but I don't deal with "awkward humor" well, so I didn't enjoy all of it. I think it's just what comedy was at the time. However, seeing Daniel Radcliffe's version of Al turn into an action here to go rescue his girlfriend Madonna in the South American jungles from the notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar was certainly a highlight.
Naturally, there would be music, but for some reason, instead of letting the actor sings the songs, he's overdubbed by Al himself. They are peculiar versions of his classics, and it shows how much his voice has aged, as he's not being as nasal as he was on the originals. They're not bad but do feel a little surreal to hear with modern production. And I do kind of wish Daniel's versions were available, as I would have liked to hear how he sounded. The one original track "Now You Know" is pretty solid, though, being a catchy rock song, much like what they did for UHF's theme song. The rest of the soundtrack features other tracks from the film, including some other polka artists, a fictional attempt at being a punk band called Skunk Barf, another Doors reference, and Dr. Demento's theme song. The rest are more typical movie music, and while Leo Birenberg and Zach Robinson are no Hans Zimmer, they're scoring a comedy, so the music has to match the beats of the story's humor, so it works.
Since then, Weird Al has only put out a few polka medleys and that's it! While I do respect abandoning the album format if he doesn't feel comfortable with it, but I was kind of expecting him to do more singles in order to be more timely. Perhaps that was the plan (just me speculating), but he clearly got busy doing other things (including being a father!). It's definitely been fun going over these again, but it makes sense that he wouldn't have as much melodic rock and metal, as they weren't as relevant after the 80s.
So I guess this is it! I knew I wouldn't be able to squeeze too many articles out for this, but now I have to think about what I want to do for next April Fools. Fortunately, I will have plenty of time to think of something. Until then, rock on! \m/
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