For a performer who has been around for more than three decades, and whose career has outlasted those of many of the acts he’s parodied over the years, “Weird Al” Yankovic still never fails to deliver the laughs.
This past June, “Weird Al” released his thirteenth studio album, Alpocalypse. Debuting at number 9 on the U.S. Billboard charts, and comprised of his usual fare of popular parodies and original compositions, Alpocalyse features several songs that had been gradually “leaked”, albeit intentionally by Yankovic himself, onto the internet since 2008.
The album’s first single, “Perform This Way”, is a tongue-in-cheek parody of Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” that singles out the bizarre wardrobe choices and public behavior of the starlet and makes the statement that it’s all a performance. In much the same way Yankovic released his rejected James Blunt parody “You’re Pitiful”, the song was initially made available for free on the singer’s website after Gaga’s manager reportedly told Yankovic that she had refused permission after hearing the song. This was later determined to be a misunderstanding, and the song was included on the official album release.
“Perform This Way” is followed by an homage to Charles Nelson Riley in the style of The White Stripes called “CNR”, a parody of Taylor Swift’s “You Belong with Me” about the website TMZ, and an original entitled “Skipper Dan”, which details the less-than-impressive career of a struggling actor turned Disney Adventureland skipper.
Yankovic also pokes fun at the likes of Miley Cyrus, B.o.B., and T.I., and demonstrates both his quirky sense of humor as well as his depth as a performer with original and pastiche songs like “Craigslist”, “Ringtone”, and “If That Isn’t Love”.
Perhaps one of the most memorable tracks on the album is the polka medley, something that has been a tradition on Yankovic’s albums since the beginning, entitled “Polka Face”. The song is one of the most energetic of his medleys, pulling snippets from more than a dozen top pop tunes from the likes of Justin Beiber, Ke$ha, and Kid Cudi.
The album wraps up with an over-the-top ballad called “Stop Forwarding That Crap to Me”, bemoaning the constant stream of endless junk email the narrator’s contacts keep forward to him.
Alpocalypse is available in standard and deluxe editions, the deluxe edition offering a bonus DVD that features music videos for 10 of the 12 songs on the album. The two songs unrepresented are “Perform This Way” and “Polka Face”, although a video for “Perform This Way” debuted shortly before the album was released. Both it and a new video for “Polka Face” and will be included with Alpocalypse-HD, a Blu-Ray release of the album’s videos due to hit retail shelves on November 8, 2011.