Pledge Music (2017)
Over the next several weeks, we're going to celebrate Weird Al Wednesday as I go through each of the 15 albums in the Squeeze Box accordion box set. There are many albums in this set that were hugely influential to me as a young kid and there are no shortage of incredible songs throughout. Weird Al and The Blues Brothers are definitely the building blocks for my earliest appreciation of music.
Alapalooza is one of the Weird Al albums I have the least connection to. It's another one that came out when I was in high school when I was particularly deep into my early 90s hip hop obsession. None of the parodies really hit for me, despite the fact that I've always had a soft spot for the song "MacArthur Park" that I can't really explain. "Jurassic Park" doesn't really live up to the ridiculousness of the original. Other than that we have Red Hot Chili Peppers parodies about the Flintstones and a parody of Billy Ray Cyrus that was a lot easier to skip on the CD version I had.
Even the originals aren't particularly great. "Frank's 2000" TV" is probably the highlight with it's breezy R.E.M. vibe, but others like "Young, Dumb & Ugly" and "She Never Told Me She Was A Mime" kind of fall flat for me. Even the album's polka song isn't that great as it's just a polka style version of one song, "Bohemian Rhapsody." It's not bad, it just isn't very exciting. If forced to choose, I'd say this is my least favorite Weird Al record. There are a couple of good moments, but it's mostly skippable.
"Weird Al" Yankovic - "Frank's 2000" TV":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQJ4v8QkEAw
"Weird Al" Yankovic - "Traffic Jam":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyGaqmvdvZY
"Weird Al" Yankovic - "Harvey The Wonder Hamster":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2-LxoVR2dU
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