Mandatory Fun
Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Michael Jackson—the platinum-selling song parodist \"Weird Al\" Yankovic has had a longer career than all of them. With the release of *Mandatory Fun*, the kinky-haired satirist is approaching his fourth decade lampooning pop music. In Al\'s hands, Lorde\'s \"Royals\" becomes \"Foil,\" a song about food preservation and alien invasions (you\'ll see). Robin Thicke\'s \"Blurred Lines\" is transformed into a grammatical object lesson in \"Word Crimes,\" while \"Handy,\" a goof on Iggy Azalea\'s ubiquitous summer jam \"Fancy,\" finds Al boasting of his contractor skills (sample lyric: \"I\'ve got 99 problems but a switch ain\'t one\"). Daft Punk\'s \"Get Lucky\" makes a cameo on the requisite polka track \"Now That\'s What I Call Polka.\" The real showstopper, though, is \"Jackson Park Express\": a nine-minute Yankovic original in the style of a vintage rock opera.
The 15-disc box set of puns and polka is a monument to pop music’s once symbiotic relationship with parody—a linkage that has dissolved in the wake of the monoculture’s demise.
The 15-disc box set of puns and polka is a monument to pop music’s once symbiotic relationship with parody—a linkage that has dissolved in the wake of the monoculture’s demise.
Of all the musicians who came of age in the ’80s, the artist that’s remained the most relevant might be a surprising one: “Weird Al” Yankovic. The master accordionist/humorist has endured thanks to some savvy career diversification. Yankovic knows he’s only as good as his most recent parody, and so he’s always been a…
Of all the musicians who came of age in the ’80s, the artist that’s remained the most relevant might be a surprising one: “Weird Al” Yankovic. The master accordionist/humorist has endured thanks to some savvy career diversification. Yankovic knows he’s only as good as his most recent parody, and so he’s always been a…