Yes, its Weird Al. Before you pass this off as commercial schtick you better take a second look. This stuff is ingenious, if not a work of genius. There are few forms of comedy higher than spoof (see TheOnion, A Mighty Wind, Spinal Tap, etc) andWeird Al is certainly well versed in the art form. As time goes on it seems like Al has more and better subjects, and this time around Eminem, Nelly, Avril Lavinge, Bob Dylan and even Frank Zappa get it. His silly polka medly this time, “Angry White Boy Polka” spoofs pop punk nu metal emo garage types from the Hives to White Stripes to RATM to Limp Bizkit. Great stuff. Al does a good job disassembling society’s ills such as TV, rampant consumerism, summer Hollywood “blockbusters” and the rise of big box hardware stores. If Al bent it just a tad he could be pretty subversive, but admittedly he always takes the edge off and remains family fare. Nonetheless, this really is a work of a genius, as is the work of all great comedians. On “Bob” every line of the song is a palindrome (e.g. “A Toyota’s a Toyota”) and when sung in a faux Bob Dylan style it comes across as esoteric far out Dylanesque poetry. Hilarity! The climax of the cd is a 9 minute “opus”, in fact a tribute to Frank Zappa. Dweezle Zappa guests on the opening guitar lead. Excellent stuff, undeniably. Every song is a winner.

1) Eminem spoof: brilliant slam on how terrible TV is nowadays
2) original tune, upbeat with great samples, freakishly talented rapid fire lyrics about being excited about another Lowes/Home Depot opening
3) Nelly spoof: hilarious trash song
4) original tune, every leper joke/pun imaginable is not spared here
5) Al’s trademark silly polka style takes on Limp Bizkit to White Stripes, this is great
6) original tune, Zappa’esque, every bad pick-up line imaginable is not spared here, plus a few new ones
7) Avril Lavine spoof: just plain silly, painting a mustache on bad commercial poop, er, pop
8) original tune that sounds as commercial poop as anything but pokes fun at every whiney emo dork alive
9) hilarious commentary on the movie Spiderman set to Billy Joel’s “Piano Man”, great
10) Bob Dylan spoof- every line of the song is a palindrome, genius
11) Backstreet Boys spoof: hilarious poke at the “world wide garage sale” that is E-Bay, Al does all the vocals and its pretty damn impressive
12) tribute to Frank Zappa: musically he covers every Zappa trademark spanning his career with a heavy lean toward Joes Garage, Shiek Yerbouti era. Dweezle Zappa plays opening guitar lead. Priceless.