Mandatory Fun - "Weird Al" Yankovic

This is the latest ALbum.... get it? Well this features 12 new tracks that I was hoping that would blow Alpocylapse out of the water. Overall it wasn't a terrible album, but way to underwhelming considering, while 2006's Straight Outta Lynnwood was just sub-par (for me), I've dug further and 2003's Poodle Hat is fricken' awesome, at parts, setting a bar for post 90's Al. In fact I've both warmed up to that album, 2011's, and (for lack of a vast vocabulary) repulsed by it at the same time. Now repulsed is a strong word, but where repulsed is a 8/10 or higher on the scale of pushed way, I'd say I'm more of a 5/10 for my stay away-ness. But I really hope this is great. Let's just say it's better that I expected it to be. A LOT!

1. Handy: The album kicks off with a parody, far superior than, of that Fancy song. I really don't listen to the radio, so I heard this first. Still, this is funny and better in general. Though this song don't grow on me after a while, it doesn't quite fade. It may with more time, but I still think it's far superior to the original.
2. Lame Claim to Fame: This is a style parody of some group I never heard of until today, July 14th 2014. That group being Southern Culture on the Skids. I looked them up on Spotify and they look like people from MST3K. But I like this song, and think it's pretty good.
3. Foil: This is a parody of Royals. I think it's funny but I wonder if its a satire about conspiracy theorists or a real statement done humorously. Every time I hear this I laugh.
4. Sports Song: This is one of, no more than two or so, songs that I don't care for here. While I think it's funny, and great and kind of a song I'm glad was written, but I don't care for "band" music. Obviously it wouldn't be as funny without it, but I'm just not that into the music on this track. 
5. Word Crimes: This is second only to Got To Give It Up by Marvin. And unless you lived under a rock you heard of the law suit. Regardless of anything, Thicke's song was over glorified and Gaye's song was also kind of making fun of disco. That's another story, but this is a hilarious song. It's kind of like a sequel, in a way, to White & Nerdy. It's kind of a stretch, but look at this. It's kind of like a nerdy song about the Internet. Not that he didn't have nerdy songs before that, but in the age of Internet I think it fits. The reason i cant give those people crap is because I do that sometimes. I try not to, and after listening I want to learn proper English. And I love the "Nevermind I give up" line. {8/10}
6. My Own Eyes: This is a style parody of an overrated band, I think, Foo Fighters. It's not that their not talented or they suck, I just haven't really heard any songs that I've either liked at all or for longer than a few listens. This is the other song that I am not huge on. The riff later sounds just like Slither. But if this is an edificational track the I know I'd go "insane" if I saw half of this stuff. 
7. NOW That’s What I Call Polka!: The saving grace of every ALbum is his polka songs.Well with a few exceptions, the Bohemian one and Hot Rocks one. The only one that I though was bad was Polkarama!. And Damn, this is as good as the best track on Alpoclypse, Polka Face. And something I need to say is that "this is really awesome". I really don't know how not to look up to him. Not as a religious figure, but as a hero. The track begins with the best version ive ever heard of Wrecking Ball. This is followed by the best version of Pumped Up Kicks. The sad thing is that "self awareness" and "humor" in pop songs aren't really that funny. Why? Well those songs are by people who don't have any sense of humor, nor do the artists. But I laughed at that One Direction part where he makes the sounds. I mean he does literally a 1000000000x better job than they could ever at making that a joke. Al is, at the end after this it's followed by Polka Gagnam Style, Call Me Maybe, Scream & Shout, Somebody I Used To Know, Timber, I'm Sexy And I Know It, Thrift Shop and Get Lucky. This truly shows why Al is above anyone who has ever made a humorous song. He uses no profanity and he makes better and far superior versions of tracks than the originals. These last two polka tracks are fricken great.  
8. Mission Statement: This is a style parody of Crosby, Stills & Nash. I'm not familiar with the group very well outside of a few Déjà Vu and Woodstock. The back words guitar, or back-masked sounding guitar reminds me a ton of I'm Only Sleeping, a favorite of mine off Revolver and my favorite part of the track. Either that or the "do do do do" part. I'm not laughing, but I mean seriously with other great tracks not everything is on the same level. 
9. Inactive: This is a parody of a song that until this parody I couldn't sit through. It was boring and to radio pointless for my ears. This is great and is a sister track, of sorts, to Couch Potato. And in many ways this is a far superior track. Actually in just about every aspect it's better. 
10. First World Problems: This is a style parody of Pixies. There is a girl voice who I think may be Popeli.  I love how it pokes fun of the "poor me, I can't get the new iPhone" people who are like teens. I mean come on, I "literally" want to "smash a crow bar against your head". 
11. Tacky: This is a far superior parody of Happy. Where the originals happy and upbeat, it is truly kind of "tacky" and "cheesy". Not in a, funny/enjoyable unintentional way, but in a you were of RAM so he kept up that 70's sound. Hilarious in every aspect. 
12. Jackson Park Express: This is a style parody of Cat Stevens. I believe this is the 3rd longest song he's released at 9 minutes, the 1st being Albuquerque at 11:23 and Trapped in the Drive Thu at 10:55. I feel this will progressively became a favorite among the ranks of Buy Me A Condo, Albuquerque amoung others. Actually the morbidity of the latter is present here. And it just gives me the chuckles. I think that this guy would Creep Me Out instead of the other guy. I also fantasize about things, not to his extent, but I do about my future. And just everything in this song, minus the morbidity, can directly relate to me at one point or another. The only problem I have is its 9 minutes and when I drive it takes up most of my driving time. But really, that's not a real complaint. Just looking for something to say negative about the track. Why? Too much good here to find anything else wrong. I'd like to note that, this is possibly the greatest style parody Al ever made.

Overall I have to give this album a 8.5/10. I honestly, in my life, have not really heard a new Al song in my life and actually laughed. Usually it's either I enjoy it or a chuckle, even some of his older stuff I don't LOL. But gosh, I laughed over this album, but kept it in so I could hear it all. Another thing I want to give him credit for is he did every album track gets a video in 2011, Blue Ivy's mom did it over two years later. Also I should mention that anther thing I didn't like his last album was that it had 5 tracks released on an EP two years before AP. I think that's just kind of lazy on his part. But he definitely stepped it up on this album. The promotion of this album was perfect, no singles so you hear the album all at once. PS Beyoncé didn't invent that, look at Death Grips last few albums, they popped out of nowhere. Hell, Government Plates was released out of the blue the same year as Beys self titled, but a month before (and had a music video for every song come out the day of). Lets just hope if Al sees this review, there aren't any grammatical errors within the post. I've listened to this album a bunch of times in the course of three days. By far the best album since Running With Scissors. Also do you know why Al's still making worth while music, he writes his songs. There aren't outside song doctors. All lyrics are by him, half of the music is by him. Minus the parodies