Right when the world needs laughter the most, Weird Al comes through for us.
The last time that "Weird Al" Yankovic released a new song, other than "The Hamilton Polka" or the end credits tune from his movie, was ten years ago this week when his Mandatory Fun album dropped. That was the final album he was contracted to produce and he said at the time that he'd probably release singles via digital platforms from now on. But that hasn't happened yet...
Until today.
This morning Yankovic unleashed "Polkamania" upon the world. It's one of his polka medleys of other artists' songs. It shows how out of the loop I am though in that I can't recognize any of these tunes that Al incorporated. And I was kind of hoping his new song would be something like a straight-up parody or a style parody... but maybe it's true, that modern music has become too homogenized to be able to readily pick out any outstanding work. And so far as style parodies go, well... is there any unique style that Al hasn't done? I think the guy has spoofed every form of western music except for contemporary Christian, and the guy is too respectful than to do that.
But even so, it's a new song by my all time favorite recording artist. Just at a time when we all could use something to make us laugh and smile. For a few brief minutes, all is right with the world.
Well, anyhoo, here is "Polkamania", which despite my unfamiliarity with its components is really a quite catchy song!
I liked this. Hope this is the start of a new era of Weird Al music.
ReplyDeleteWell in all honesty I'm let down. A polka medley is too easy to pull off. I'm like, we waited ten years and this is all he has to show for it?
ReplyDeleteAl picked number-one hits to draw from for "Polkamania", spanning the ten years since Mandatory Fun was released. It made me go and hunt down the original songs so that I could "get it". I now believe it's one of his better polka medleys. If Al really is serious about releasing new songs every so often via digital delivery, this was a strong entry point for that.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I bought the song from iTunes. Not illegally downloaded you hooligan!!