This guy just gets better and better
February 22, 2008
First, my opinion of Weird Al in general: this guy is a classic and a class act. He uses gross-out humor sometimes, but always keeps it clean--no foul language, no sexual references. And, this album proves, he only gets better with age. Yankovic won his first Grammy with Poodle Hat--can you believe he never won one before???--and I think that it should be the first of many.
A decent Weird Al Yankovic album
November 14, 2007
Poodle Hat contains the parodies and humor you'd expect from a "Weird Al" Yankovic album. On this outing, Al parodies Eminem's "Lose Yourself" ("Couch Potato"), Nelly's "Hot In Herre" ("Trash Day"), Avril Lavigne's "Complicated" ("A Complicated Song"), Billy Joel's "Piano Man" ("Ode To A Superhero"), and Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way" ("Ebay"). The strongest parody on the album is "Ebay"; hearing the ridiculous things being bid on and won by the character in the song keeps you laughing. The weakest parody is "A Complicated Song"; overall, I find it more disgusting than humorous.
"Weird Al" Yankovic also delivers some "style parodies" -- songs that don't parody a particular song, but instead parody a particular musical sound. Poodle Hat has style parodies of Bo Diddley ("Party At The Leper Colony"), Prince ("Wanna B Ur Lovr"), and Bob Dyan ("Bob"). While the style parodies on the album aren't necessarily bad, they don't exactly stand out to me, either. Al also serves up the "Angry White Boy Polka," a polka medley including songs by Papa Roach, System Of A Down, The Vines, The Hives, The White Stripes, The Strokes, Disturbed, Rage Against The Machine, Limp Bizkit, Staind, Kid Rock, P.O.D., and Eminem. For me, this wasn't one of his better medleys; but, then again, this may be due to the fact that I'm not as familiar with most of the songs included.
"Weird Al" also delivers some original songs on the album, and the best one is "Hardware Store." The vocal delivery on it is incredible; he tries to cram as many words as he can into a short amount of time, and succeeds without getting completely tongue-tied.
This is an enhanced disc with home movies, a photo gallery, bonus mixes, and song lyrics. The home movies are hilarious, and the remixes are basically instrumentals or slightly alternate versions of songs on the album.
Overall, Poodle Hat isn't a bad album. However, it's not as strong as Dare to be Stupid or Bad Hair Day.
Same Tired Formula
October 4, 2007
Weird Al sticks to the same tired formula he's been doing for 3 or 4 decades in a row now and got the two big ones here- Backstreet Boys and Emenem. Don't forget Disturbed. These sell outs deserved to be parodied because once you lose your sense of humor about something, more people will laugh AT it, but Weird Al just seems tired. And of course Ebay. What he does is he dates subjects parodied really bad the year it was made.
Just thought I'd point out . . .
(1 of 1 Found this Helpful)
June 2, 2007
that "Party at the Leper Colony" seems to be a parody (to different music, but very much in the same musical style) of Steve Taylor's "Meltdown at Madame Tussaud's."
Poodle Hat!
(3 of 3 Found this Helpful)
May 29, 2007
It may not be everyone's opinion, but it's the way I feel personally. Weird Al Yankovic has long been a fascination for me. The man is truly a genius and he puts on one heck of a show in concert. To constantly have the ability to write (for over two decades) some of the best parodies ever, and spread his talent among so many genres is simply amazing.
Poodle Hat runs the gambit as far as variety. Every song is worthy of multiple listens and suitable for sing-along.
1. Couch Potato:
A well-deserved direct parody of everything Eminem writes. Poking fun at "Lose Yourself," (the agonizing Oscar winning song) the song is based upon literally letting your television run your entire life. Everything from game shows to dramas from around the TV Guide is mentioned.
2. Hardware Store:
A whimsical song about a guy whose has one purpose in life. He wants to be the first in line and through the door when the newest hardware store in town opens. He's so excited to perhaps be one of the lucky consumers to receive a free ball peen hammer. This one will be a bit difficult to sing along with. Part of the song involves an enormously long list of everything possibly found in a hardware store. How Al got through the list in one breath, I will never know.
3. Trash Day:
If any song in the history of music deserved to be parodied, it was Nelly's "Hot in Here." Yankovic takes his turn at it by serenading the listener with the tale of how his house is a horrible, utter catastrophe. Disgusting things are happening in his abode, and he leaves no detail left unsaid.
4. Party at the Leper Colony:
Every so often, (four times on this album alone) Al takes certain jargon and turns them into comedic song. In this particular song, any and every quote you can think of containing a body part is hilariously packed into an upbeat, jazzy, toe tapping tune about (what else?) a Party at the Leper Colony! From "cat got your tongue" to "everyone cut footloose" and including "won't cost you an arm and a leg" are put to good use.
5. Angry White Boy Polka:
A few years ago, it was apparent on radio stations around the country, there are a lot of ticked off young men. In a tradition on his albums, he takes popular songs and sings them to a polka beat. Not only does it break down the fact that these singers should really stop whining and yelling so much, it also packs in a lot of decent songs and makes most of them listenable.
6. Wanna B Ur Lovr
Imagine every god awful pickup line you've either have used or heard. Now hear them with the beloved and twisted Weird Al comedic spin. With lines such as: "You must've fallen from heaven, that would explain how you messed up your face," the hilarity keeps coming nonstop.
7. A Complicated Song
A rich parody of the deservingly ludicrous song by Avril Lavigne. Weird Al takes the listener from a failed pizza party to an unfortunate accident at a local theme park. All the while, he has fun singing different and constantly hilarious rhymes to "complicated."
8. Why Does This Always Happen To Me.
Just when you think Al is going to grace us with a beautifully written and touching song about world events, he turns it around. This song is basically from the mind of one of the most selfish humans on the face of the earth. Everything that could go wrong in his life does. It's a brilliantly funny song.
9. Ode to a Superhero
One of the best parodies Al has ever done, in my eyes. This song almost beat for beat and lyric for lyric tells the story of the first Spider-Man movie to the tune of Billy Joel's Piano Man. The last few albums have had some pretty good parodies of classic songs, and this is simply the best. Lines such as: "Peter Parker was pitiful/couldn't be any shier/Mary Jane wouldn't notice him/even if his hair was on fire, makes this a song to definitely listen to over and over.
10. Bob
To me, and I feel I'm alone; this is one of Weird Al's most brilliant songs. With the first listen, it sounds just like a bunch of non-sensical lyrics. But when you listen to the style in which he's singing (like a world famous and constantly misunderstood folk singer.) Then put that Bob Dylan attitude together with the words (all palindromes,) it becomes more and more catchy.
11. EBay
If there was ever a deserving song to be made fun of, it's pretty much anyone by The Backstreet Boys. The fad boy band got what they richly deserved by Weird Al singing a tune bragging about what odd and totally useless items he's found on everyone's favorite internet auction site.
12. Genius in France
This is certainly one of Yankovic's meanest songs to date. Basically, the entire (and long) song is one big put down on all things French. According to Al, even if you're the dumbest schmuck in the world, you're still considered a genius in gay Parie!
