A new Weird Al album excites two groups of people. 13 year old boys and comedy music artists. Professionally I'm the latter and inside, the former. So needless to say, I listened to this one right away. :)

Half the tracks are straight parodies, which are well done as usual. Though I find myself losing something on them since I'm no longer as hip to the originals as I used to be. Fortunately, you can get plenty of joy just from the lyrics even if you don't know the original.

There's also Craigslist, which isn't a parody of a particular song, but of The Doors in general. And the inevitable polka-pop medley, this time called Polka Face, lampooning a zillion pop songs in three minutes.

Skipper Dan will be in rotation in my library a lot. A song about a Jungle Cruise captain at Disneyland? Yes...

A couple of these songs have seen release already. Skipper Dan and Craigslist, at least. But even if you've heard those, there's plenty of new stuff here to laugh at. And the closing track "Stop Forwarding That Crap To Me" is as epic as any performance of Purple Rain.

Weird Al does two things really right. He stays on top of pop culture, always remaining relevant. And the musicianship and production on his albums is always top notch. Albums like this are the reason I only write original comedy music and never do parody. Al's a tough one to beat.

Phil Johnson
www.PhilJohnsonComedy.com