I got half way through that one. It's really weak compared to the genius video of Word Crimes.
Having listened to the entire album, I think he came out swinging in terms of the videos he released first. IN plainer words, Tacky and Word Crimes are, IMHO the best songs on the album.
I'm also now playing a little game with myself. The "What are the remaining 5 videos going to be?" game.
It's a pretty weak album, as Yankovic's albums go. It may not help that I only recognized half the songs he was parodying, and had to go to Wikiped to find who two of the style parodies were.
It's a pretty weak album, as Yankovic's albums go. It may not help that I only recognized half the songs he was parodying, and had to go to Wikiped to find who two of the style parodies were.
Your old man attitude sent me off to see what kinda songs were on the album which led me to realizing that Iggy Azalea is from Australia. Kinda blew my mind because I only thought American idiots were capable of making incredibly shallow pop rap that gets popular.
It's a pretty weak album, as Yankovic's albums go. It may not help that I only recognized half the songs he was parodying, and had to go to Wikiped to find who two of the style parodies were.
Your old man attitude sent me off to see what kinda songs were on the album which led me to realizing that Iggy Azalea is from Australia. Kinda blew my mind because I only thought American idiots were capable of making incredibly shallow pop rap that gets popular.
It's not an old man attitude, it's a hipster attitude. There's a difference.
My first comment on these videos was more about Jack Black than Al Yankovic, as in "If I find out Jack Black is in something, I'm less likely to watch it rather than more." I was burned by the new Muppet Movie in this way. Who the hell put Jack Black in my nostalgia? GTFO.
It's average by Weird Al standards but that's still a damn sight better than many others could produce.
The thing is that I disagree on just about every level. Not only do I think many others could produce something a damn sight better than Weird Al's average output, I think most people could.
1. Musically Weird Al only ever detracts from the original. His production technique is literally "How close to the original backing track can I make my backing track?" He doesn't make allowances for how well his own voice fits with the track. He also has one of the blandest voices, so removes any distinctness of the original.
2. In terms of comedy, I think any comedian could come up with funnier re-writes than Weird Al. Tacky? Foil? They are words that kinda sound similar, but there is no joke in either. Bringing in conspiracy theories into the Foil topic doesn't make the song funnier. It makes for a mildly more amusing character video, but isn't anything to do with anything in the original song.
3. Lyrically Weird Al doesn't only seems to know about rhyme and not meter. His lines just don't scan.
The only reason Weird Al keeps putting this shit out is because his cover versions are always the epitome of bland and inoffensive. No musical artist he is going to cover is ever going to object to anything. And they give permission or blessing to him to do the covers.
It's one of those "rich get richer" things for me. He can keep doing this because he's already doing it. And he keeps doing it shittily. And now, why would anyone else want to do the same thing and just get compared to Weird Al?
The reason this bugs me so much is because Word Crimes is really, really good. I know he has some talent in him, but his average output is just sooooo poor.
Well up until now he had a contract to keep pumping out albums. Now that this is the last album under that contract I think he'll move the direction a little. His whole deal is that it's mostly family-friendly work, so I don't see him going off that train, but there might be room to grow by doing more timely, internet distribution?
I don't see him changing his music style much regardless, but that's his deal: consistently O.K. but never really exceptional, fast-food-tier, covers with new lyrics.
Plenty of people do parodies on YouTube and elsewhere. Few people do it and actually nail the level of consistency or overall quality of the Al. Some might hit a better musical mark or better vocal match, or better back-tracks, or better jokes/lines/lyrics... but all of it? for decades? across almost any genre?
And half the joke I'd say is that it is a corny take on the original. It knows it's corny music that 10 year-olds think is goddamn hilarious, and grown-ups can chuckle about; enough so when that actual stupid song comes on, that you hate, you can mentally overdub the dumber but funnier version.
He doesn't do genre! He takes the existing backing track, copies it exactly as possible, and does exactly the same kind of humor over the top. Genre is not even a consideration for him.
Sure, we could say parody is it's own genre, and it's his main thing, with elements of mash-up and comedy-music added in. But covering Iggy Azalea Trap-Rap has gotta have different aspects of production and sound than covering American Pie classic rock type stuff.
And to have a rather small band that can take the whole deal live and not only be able to obtain the sound through meticulous editing or sampling.
And sure you get examples of parodies or mashup-covers from the likes of, say, Pomplemoose, where the cover musically stands on it's own, and combined with a cool video is a great work on its own merits. Pomplemoose can cover EW&F, Lady Gaga, and Simon & Garfunkel, but they channel all the songs through mostly the same filter so it all sounds... Like them. That gives it more of a homogenous sound where you wouldn't say they're electric or folk or rock or whatever the original was... They're just something. But even without lyrics, it'd sound fresh but with a familiar tune.
Where with Al, Each parody is squarely still in the genre of the original, where if you were to omit lyrical content, it'd almost sound like cheap karaoke versions of the originals.
So should he work on altering the sound so it sounds less like the original so that half the cool is that even if the lyrics were unchanged the music would be fresh?
But, yes, I know what you mean that Al isn't exactly the epitome of music, covers, humor, or what-ever else. I find most of his stuff pretty corny in light of... Well most internet humor.
But maybe there's that nostalgic enjoyment his stuff brings out, of remembering when you were like 5 singing "jingle bells batman smells" thinking it was choice funs.
My point isn't that he doesn't do an okay job in his chosen field, it's that there is now way at all you can say he is doing something that is "a damn sight better than many others could produce".
I don't know of any musician who would be happy to do anything like him, a comedy musician or not. There is no pride to be taken in making the way he does. There aren't any world famous "cheap karaoke version backing track" artists, and nobody aspires to be one. Everyone wants to make the music their own in some way. That's what being an artist is all about!
I guess I don't know what Weird is actually bringing to the project. Does he do all the production on his music? If so, I guess he does an okay job in his aim to get as close to the original tracks as possible. Does he direct his own music videos? If so, I guess that's his main talent, and he's pretty good at it. It's a pity his face is most of them. Are his new lyrics his main contribution? If so, I have a very hard time believing any other comedian couldn't do something more funny or clever than 99% of Weird Al's final versions.
I love Weird Al. I think he's clever and a genuinely good guy, which helps. I have a lot of trouble following him these days, though, because my awareness of current popular music is nil and so I can only appreciate each piece at face value, and it really loses something without the parody aspect.
Of course there's nothing WRONG with that, parody is what he does.
I dunno what, but, I did just receive a joystick grip handle from a WWII Navy fighter plane, to put on my scaled-down Hellcat replica, and it feels awesome, and heavy, like something from the 40s should.
Comments
I'm also now playing a little game with myself. The "What are the remaining 5 videos going to be?" game.
1. Musically Weird Al only ever detracts from the original. His production technique is literally "How close to the original backing track can I make my backing track?" He doesn't make allowances for how well his own voice fits with the track. He also has one of the blandest voices, so removes any distinctness of the original.
2. In terms of comedy, I think any comedian could come up with funnier re-writes than Weird Al. Tacky? Foil? They are words that kinda sound similar, but there is no joke in either. Bringing in conspiracy theories into the Foil topic doesn't make the song funnier. It makes for a mildly more amusing character video, but isn't anything to do with anything in the original song.
3. Lyrically Weird Al doesn't only seems to know about rhyme and not meter. His lines just don't scan.
The only reason Weird Al keeps putting this shit out is because his cover versions are always the epitome of bland and inoffensive. No musical artist he is going to cover is ever going to object to anything. And they give permission or blessing to him to do the covers.
It's one of those "rich get richer" things for me. He can keep doing this because he's already doing it. And he keeps doing it shittily. And now, why would anyone else want to do the same thing and just get compared to Weird Al?
The reason this bugs me so much is because Word Crimes is really, really good. I know he has some talent in him, but his average output is just sooooo poor.
I don't see him changing his music style much regardless, but that's his deal: consistently O.K. but never really exceptional, fast-food-tier, covers with new lyrics.
Plenty of people do parodies on YouTube and elsewhere. Few people do it and actually nail the level of consistency or overall quality of the Al. Some might hit a better musical mark or better vocal match, or better back-tracks, or better jokes/lines/lyrics... but all of it? for decades? across almost any genre?
And half the joke I'd say is that it is a corny take on the original. It knows it's corny music that 10 year-olds think is goddamn hilarious, and grown-ups can chuckle about; enough so when that actual stupid song comes on, that you hate, you can mentally overdub the dumber but funnier version.
And to have a rather small band that can take the whole deal live and not only be able to obtain the sound through meticulous editing or sampling.
And sure you get examples of parodies or mashup-covers from the likes of, say, Pomplemoose, where the cover musically stands on it's own, and combined with a cool video is a great work on its own merits. Pomplemoose can cover EW&F, Lady Gaga, and Simon & Garfunkel, but they channel all the songs through mostly the same filter so it all sounds... Like them. That gives it more of a homogenous sound where you wouldn't say they're electric or folk or rock or whatever the original was... They're just something. But even without lyrics, it'd sound fresh but with a familiar tune.
Where with Al, Each parody is squarely still in the genre of the original, where if you were to omit lyrical content, it'd almost sound like cheap karaoke versions of the originals.
So should he work on altering the sound so it sounds less like the original so that half the cool is that even if the lyrics were unchanged the music would be fresh?
But, yes, I know what you mean that Al isn't exactly the epitome of music, covers, humor, or what-ever else. I find most of his stuff pretty corny in light of... Well most internet humor.
But maybe there's that nostalgic enjoyment his stuff brings out, of remembering when you were like 5 singing "jingle bells batman smells" thinking it was choice funs.
I don't know of any musician who would be happy to do anything like him, a comedy musician or not. There is no pride to be taken in making the way he does. There aren't any world famous "cheap karaoke version backing track" artists, and nobody aspires to be one. Everyone wants to make the music their own in some way. That's what being an artist is all about!
I guess I don't know what Weird is actually bringing to the project. Does he do all the production on his music? If so, I guess he does an okay job in his aim to get as close to the original tracks as possible. Does he direct his own music videos? If so, I guess that's his main talent, and he's pretty good at it. It's a pity his face is most of them. Are his new lyrics his main contribution? If so, I have a very hard time believing any other comedian couldn't do something more funny or clever than 99% of Weird Al's final versions.
Of course there's nothing WRONG with that, parody is what he does.
Is it bad to say that she reminds me of BMO? Even reminding me of the voice actor? Maybe its because she's got an awesome robot arm.
And it might be because the dude in the video reminds me of BMO's Poop
Either way, I would totally love a bio arm with extra mini hands/fingers/pincers/pedipalps for certain work.
Or play...
BMO chop!