Weird Al Wednesday – January 2016

Readers!  Holy crap, Batman, how did 2016 sneak up so fast?!  I apologize for my delays in posts, as the holidays proved to do the opposite of give me lots of time to write up some things.  Well, it’s a new year, and the first Wednesday of that year (it’s still ~6:15pm as I write this), so let’s dive in with a song that sort of applies to all those holiday leftovers that should probably be gone by now: Foil from the album Mandatory Fun.

This is probably my favorite song from Al’s final contract album.  It’s a fantastic parody of Lorde’s Royals song about everyone’s favorite metallic food cover.  The first verse is more or less the kind of subject matter I expected when I first saw the title and listened to the song.  The second verse?  Well, that took a hard left turn into ‘what the hell is going on’ territory before finally arriving at it’s connection to foil.  I actually laughed out loud when the second chorus started!

To me, this is one of the best examples in Al’s entire discography of his brilliance as a song writer.  I would have loved to be in the meeting with the rest of his band the first time they talked about this.   Honestly, were you wondering how he was going to make a three minute song about food storage that didn’t get old after the first verse?  I know I was.  Thankfully, this is Weird Al we’re talking about, so the writing was in good hands.

Let me know what you think of this song in the comments.  Do you agree with me about how this song reflects on his career as a whole?  What’s your favorite song from Mandatory Fun?  Until next month, stay weird, my friends!

Weird Al Wednesday – December 2015

My apologies, dear readers. Thanksgiving and many hours devoted to Star Wars: Battlefront have put me a week behind, but I now present to you December’s Weird Al Wednesday!  In honor of the holiday season, we have a fantastic song from the album Polka Party!

This song is full of nuances that tie it to the classic rock ‘n roll Christmas songs of the 1940s and 50s.  Everything from the upbeat rhythms, to the bleating tenor saxophone is the same kind of thing you expect from songs like Jingle Bell Rock or Run Run Rudolph.  It also pairs stylistically with the constant mindset of the 1950s and the threat of nuclear war.  This pairing is brilliantly illustrated in this music video as the happy music is played against images of classic Christmas and classic paranoia.

Another reason I picked this song is how well it goes with one of the most popular games out there.  It’s similar enough, stylistically, to the soundtrack for Bethesda’s Fallout 4 that it could easily be the Christmas song of the game.  That also ties in my Unboxing of November’s Loot Crate, which features a Vault-Tec bobble head.  I hope to enjoy the game whilst playing this song in the coming weeks, as I hope you will too.  Merry Christmas to you and yours!  Enjoy whatever holiday you celebrate this month, and remember to stay weird!