Straight Outta Lynwood - Yankovic, Weird Al

Weird Al returns with another studio album. I've been following him since 1983, and have bought all of his new albums of material he's released. I do NOT consider myself a casual Weird Al fan. Weird Al has the same sort of pattern that Saturday Night Live has over the years. Several good ones, then a low/bad one or two, and then back up again. The last few albums before this (Poodle Hat, Running with Scissors) have been really really good. So it was with some eagerness, and trepidation that I approached this one. Pattern said that this one would be a letdown. It was.

Now it's not like it's crap, but even the parodies are not up to snuff. Having said that, there is one seriously good original (Don't Download this song) and one seriously good parody (White & Nerdy) on this album. Both of those are EXTREMELY funny. The video for White & Nerdy is a complete triumph. Unfortunately, the majority of the rest of the album is just boring. I realize as I grow older, and lose touch with "current" music that the parodies become less relevant to me, as I don't know the original. However, if the original song is decent, I'll enjoy it. I admit to knowing almost none of the parody original songs on the last album, but they were awesome because the base music was good. Not this time. Only White & Nerdy was a good parody song - the rest (Canadian Idiot, Confessions, Trapped in the Drive Through) are all, well, BORING. As for the originals, Virus Alert is OK, and I'll Sue Ya is somewhat funny, but not awesome. It's a shame, as the stuff that works is extremely brilliant, up there with the best of Al's past, but the other stuff is such a huge drop off, I have a seriously hard time recommending this album.

There's also the fact that it's a DualDisc - I hate these things as they do not play in most of my CD players. Of all the DualDisc's I own (about a dozen), only Ian Gillan's "Gillans' Inn" plays - makes me wonder why they're not all made the same way. Sigh. Side 2 of the DualDisc does have a bunch of animated music videos for some of the songs on the album - but not "the" video (White & Nerdy). The animated ones were not my cup of tea. I applaud the attempt to add extra value to the disc like that, but I personally did not enjoy them.

If you're an Al completist, you'll get it. But if you don't own any Al, I recommend other albums before this one. There is an additional song that's available for free (You're Pitiful), you can get that at his Myspace page, too. Below is the video for White & Nerdy, which is linked from Weird Al's Myspace page.