Review: Weird Al – Poodle Hat
Weird Al Yankovic, the Prince of Parody, returns with his latest studio album, Poodle Hat, and it sure to please any Al fan as well as anyone who loves a good laugh. Poodle Hat is filled with 12 tracks that poke fun at everything from constipation to the selling of pure crap on online auction site eBay. While some of the songs Al chooses to parody are rather old (the Backstreet Boys namely) they never fail to hit their mark and bring a smile to your face. Be warned, listening to this CD in the car is liable to cause an accident.
If more than anything Al’s last three CDs have been his best, in my opinion. While the stuff from the 1980s was more heavy on parody, Bad Hair Day, Running with Scissors, and Poodle Hat have opened the door wider to Al’s original works. With songs like the 11 minute “Albuquerque” (which Editor entopia_john can do from memory) and “Hardware Store” we begin to see, not only does Yankovic have the ability to make fun of other people, he can write some independently funny stuff as well.
The disc starts off with the highly publicized “Couch Potato” which parodies Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” from his 2002 hit, 8 Mile. While Em gave instructions to not record the song as a single, or release a video, he did allow Al to include it on his CD. Some tend to believe this is for the better as “Couch Potato” doesn’t compare to the likes of “Amish Paradise” or “The Saga Begins.” What really stands out are the Avril Lavigne parody “A Complicated Song” and Nelly stab “Trash Day.” Both feature laugh-out-loud new lyrics which really show how talented Al is as a song writer. “Ode to a Superhero,” set to the tune of “Piano Man” reflects on the recent blockbuster Spider-Man and features some genuinely funny lyrics.
Some might be disappointed with Poodle Hat’s polka entitled “Angry White Boy Polka” as Al takes to singing songs from the likes of Disturbed, Papa Roach, and The Vines. Maybe nothing can stand up against Bad Hair Day’s awesome “The Alternative Polka.” Rounding out the last of the parodies is the previously mentioned Backstreet Boys inspired “eBay” which may contain some of the album’s funniest lyrics.
All in all the disc offers a wide variety of humor including “Bob” which is a song made up entirely of palindromes. People out there believe writing a song with lots of “power” in the lyrics is true workmanship, try writing a song where every line is the same backwards and forwards.
If you actually decide to purchase the CD you get some extra content hosted by Al who greets, and thanks, you for not downloading it off the internet. While Poodle Hat may not be on the same level as a classic like Bad Hair Day it still offers the intriguingly witty humor and general “poking-fun-at” we have come to know and love from Weird Al and we couldn’t ask for anything else.
