"Weird Al" Yankovic- Straight Outta Lynwood (2006)

[Eric T. Jones]

As much as I hate to say it, the only Weird Al album I actually own is a Greatest Hits collection compiled in the 80s.

Now, I own two, and almost everything in "Straight Outta Lynwood" is better than the stuff in his Greatest Hits album. Like that compilation has a good share of Michael Jackson parodies, his latest has a good share of hip-hop parodies.

Let's start with "White and Nerdy", a laugh-out-loud parody of one of the most annoying rap songs in history, and move from there.

Some of the songs are concepts that look good on paper, but don't work as well on execution. They are "Canadian Idiot" and "I'll Sue Ya".

The one that works perfectly, though, is the one that sounds like it would grow tiresome very easily- "Trapped in the Drive Thru". The turn-off? It's 10 minutes long. But it's a hilarious story that I'm sure all of you have experienced some sort of variation of, and it's a pity this isn't one of the music videos included on the DVD side of this DualDisc.

Then again, there's little visuals can add to it- it's the song itself that's the effective storytelling medium in this case.

As for those who don't listen to the radio a lot, you probably won't get "Polkarama!", which contains zero modified lyrics. It is various overplayed songs, like "Feel Good, Inc." and "Let's Get it Started", simply set to polka beat, and is easily the best song in the album.

Actually, the best one is the one that didn't make it- "You're Pitiful", which you've all probably heard by now. If not, it's available for free download on Weird Al's website (along with the ironically-titled "Don't Download this Song"). Mr. Blunt approved of this parody [and he is, overall, a very good sport], but his record company did not.

The album as it is, is absolutely worth buying.

No, I have not looked at anything on the DVD side yet- it has music videos, and I'm delighted to see that it does contain a 5.1 surround sound track (some record labels put the same 2-channel stereo mix you hear on the CD side). I wouldn't be surprised if some crazy things were done with this mix (some out-of-place stuff), or if it just drives the effect further for "Don't Download this Song".

Rating just for the music (the DualDisc is the only version available anyway- I'm not aware of any standard CD edition out), this album is a *** out of four.

[Eric T. Jones]

Listened to the album in 5.1- some of the mixing is over-the-top (sometimes you will hear Al's vocals in both the front-center speaker and one of the surrounds), and be warned the overall disc is L-O-U-D (normal movies, -30dB is a good setting. In this album, though, even at -50dB it was too loud), but there are four songs which benefit from the mixing:

-Panceras (I don't know if this was intentional, but as the song progresses, you feel like you're being surrounded by these crazy people dancing in a circle around you. It was an odd effect that made me look forward to...)
-Polkarama! (obviously, next to "Don't Download this Song", this would be one to really take advantage of the surrounds. Another mix that just puts you there, with the vocalists in the rear speakers and Al + the instruments in the front)
-Weasel Stomping Day (uses all but .1 of your home theater setup at that one moment of the song)
-Don't Download this Song (as expected, the choral effect is enhanced. Al sometimes gets placed in the rear speakers with everyone else)

"Trapped in the Drive-Thru", being that it's only the main vocalist and very simple musical background, obviously doesn't benefit much from the 5.1. [as a side-note, though, one reference to a person's "brights" did have me rolling on the floor... well, based on recent personal experience] But there's another wonderful feature I didn't expect to enhance the experience in this DualDisc:

Subtitles! Plenty of lyrics that were missed were caught; sure, you can pull out the lyrics sheet, but it's easier to read the lyrics in synchronization with the music, and more fun! Obviously meant to be in conjunction with an instrumental Karaoke track, also on the disc.

I thought it could have been more useful if they had used the music videos as a visual through the music, instead of being placed separately. (the other DualDisc which I partially listened to, Rob Thomas' "Something to Be", simply had the track list- "Straight Outta Lynwood" has one childhood pic of Yankovic per song) Sure, there isn't a video for every song, but still would have provide more of a visual experience.

One of the special features, I viewed- the "making-of" featurette. While it is documented with shakycam almost always, it is an interesting look into not really Yankovic's creative practice, but what it takes to construct a song in a recording studio.

The music videos I will view later. I don't like listening to a song more than once in a day.

[tank]

There's no questioning it Practically anything made by Al is a 4/4 because from the writing of the lyrics to the protection of the songs from would-be copyright infringers Weird Al never does a half-assed job. You'd be surprised, in spite of the generally funny approach to music he takes his job very seriously. He even asks artists before parodying their songs even though he's not required to. He's even a good friend of most of the people he lampooned including Mike Jackson.

[Eric T. Jones]

I don't give high grades just for effort [e.g., "Russian Ark" being one 92-minute unbroken take does not excuse it from being butt-numbingly boring crap], but will agree that Al does get the job done most of the time. And yes, I am aware of how seriously he takes his job, and even more aware that most of the artists he parodies actually enjoy them (Prince is one of the few artists who did not want his songs parodied).