Thursday, July 17, 2014

Mandatory Fun [Music Album Review]


Well this will be a first. I never reviewed a music album before, and I doubt I'll be doing many afterwards. There are not many artists that I actually even buy whole albums for. Heck, most of my music is from the 80s, and that too is something I do not foresee changing any time soon.



Having never reviewed a music album before, the best thing I can surmise to do is a song by song review. I'll give song my star rating, and at the end a full album rating.

Handy
2.5 stars out of 5
This is the first song on the album and I'll be honest, it did not initially grab me as all that great. It's an okay song. There are a few good lines in it, but overall this parody song just didn't explode out of the gates for me. 

Lame Claim to Fame
3 out of 5 stars
This is a better song content wise. I don't think it is a parody song, and that is okay by me. Sometimes his original works are better than his parodies. The tune on this song is agreeable, but not fantastic.

Foil
4 out of 5 stars
Now at last we've hit real gold. This parody song is quite funny thanks to it's tremendous use of juxtaposition. The tune is good, the words are just plain funny. In fact here is a link to the video: Foil.

Sports Song
2.5 out of 5 stars
And we're back to a less than stellar song. As a fan of many kinds of sports, I just found this song banal. It was not that great of a tune, which is sad for what I think is an original song, and honestly the lyrics were not funny nor were they all that inspired.

Word Crimes
4 out of 5 stars
Now here is another fun song. The music is actually only okay, but the lyrics are simply funny. And yet again, it is a parody song that I have no clue about the original song. I've been told this is a good thing. Here's the video for Word Crimes.

My Own Eyes
4.5 out of 5 stars
This might be one of the best songs on the album, just for the chorus. It is all about things that once seen cannot be unseen. Hello Futurama reference! I wonder if this one will be getting a video?

NOW That What I Call Polka
4 out of 5 stars
Wow. I am so unfamiliar with modern music. I recognized roughly four, maybe five, songs all total in this polka. I am not sure if that is a good thing or a bad. Still pretty fun, after all, it is the signature polka song!

Mission Statement
3 out of 5 stars
This is the most terrifying song I've ever heard. The lyrics are just corporate buzz words and empty statements. It is the most vacuous song since Friday, however in this case it was intentional and therefore achieved the songs goal.

Inactive
4.5 out of 5 stars
A parody song covering Imagine Dragon's Radioactive. I like the original, I like this parody, alot. It's a great parody too, perfectly contrasted against the original. I hope this one receives one of the eight music videos.

First World Problems
3.5 out of 5 stars
The lyrics in this song are what makes it good. The tune is only so-so, at least after one listen. Sometimes it takes more than one listen to actually appreciate everything about one of Weird Al's songs. The lyrics are pretty self explanatory, and I love em.

Tacky
3.5 out of 5 stars
I enjoy this song, but the music video was just bad. Even with actors and television personalities wearing really really tacky clothes, it could not be redeemed. Bad video, acceptable song.

Jackson Park Express
2.5 out of 5 stars
I have no freaking idea why this song needed to be as long as Albuquerque. This might be the longest extended metaphor song ever written, and I'm not sure I'm even right in calling it that. Albuquerque was a good story song... this one is just, meh.

The overall album was pretty good, but just not as good as some of his other works. Alpocalypse was excellent, Running with Scissors is very memorable, Alapalooza was brilliant, and so many others. Maybe it is me getting older, or maybe it is modern music becoming more difficult to parody. I suspect the later since so much modern music is already a parody of real music.

So here is my final rating. Mandatory Fun gets a...

3.5 out of 5 stars





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