Poodle Hat [Import]

On the CD are:

1. Couch Potato - A solid parody of Eminem's 'Lose Yourself', themed on popular TV shows and rituals. The rhyming is good and the name drops are well-worked into the song.

Four out of five.

2. Hardware Store - My personal favourite track on 'Poodle Hat', Hardware Store is an original song with a tempo that seems pretty fast as it is until...BAM - Al runs off an insanely pacy list of stuff you find in a hardware store. Never mind the lyrical genius present here; Al's vocals are amazing and have to be heard to be believed!

Five out of five!

3. Trash Day - A straight parody of Nelly's 'Hot In Here' (yes, that '...so baby take off your clothes' one :|). The original song was garbage, so perhaps the trash-ridden song has a hidden meaning??? ;)

Two out of five.

4. Party at the Leper Colony - Original Weird Al song about what might happen if some lepers had a social gathering. A gruesome song, but with a nice, soothing tone and a great finish.

Three out of five.

5. Angry White Boy Polka - The token Weird Al Polka. This is one of his better ones, as the idea is great: what could be funnier than singing some angst-ridden nu-metal/rock in a Polka style-ee, accompanied by the accordion?!? Not much!

Five out of five!

6. Wanna B Ur Lover - Very clever idea from Al. It's basically a song that consists of wall-to-wall chat-up lines! The cheese factor is enormous, but it's difficult not to laugh since we've all been here before...admit it!

Four out of five.

7. A Complicated Song - An excellent rendition of Avryl Lavine's 'Complicated', Al sings about three humourous situations. I'll give you a clue - they rhyme with the song's title!

Four out of five.

8. Why Does This Always Happen To Me? An original Al song, featuring Ben Folds on piano, this song is highly tongue-in-cheek, even for Al. The comedy here arises when various accidents happen around him, but is more concerned with the smaller things in life. Pretty funny.

Three out of five.

9. Ode to a Superhero - 'Poodle Hat''s movie round-up, gives the plot (and plot-holes) of Spider-Man a good once-over. The additions Al makes do the job. Best avoid this one if you don't want the film spoiled. Ode to a Superhero is set against Billy Joel’s ‘Piano Man’.

Two out of five.

10. Bob - Another gimmick track. The attraction about this short 'n' sweet song is...well...I'll let you work that one out for yourself. The title is a hint :)

The writing is tremendous here, I think.

Three out of five.

11. eBay - Brilliant modern satire about the internet's most famous e-commerce site. Al chronics the best and worst (mostly the worst) features of the online bidding web site. If you've never heard of eBay before, pretty much all of the jokes will go over your head.

And by the way...it's to the tune of 'I Want It That Way' by no-one's favourite boy band, the Backstreet Boys.

Five out of five!

12. Genius in France - After the success of his last album's finale, the epic 'Albuquerque', Al turns to the most current of events gripping the US today, the almost universal hatred of all things France. I'm pretty sure I don't have to explain that, so on with the song itself:

The title stems from the narrator's apparent idiot and stupid nature back at home but the twist is that the French think he's a genius. So once that's set up, prepare for a barrage of backward humour targeted towards Frenchies.

It's a good song but slow in places so it tends to drag on a bit, but if you hate the French, you'll love this!

Four out of five.

Well that covers the album itself, overall a great addition for Weird Al fans, and I'd definitely recommend to anyone in need of a good laugh but that's not all! For when you pop this into your PC, you get the following extra material:

- Picture gallery. This is some promotional shots used for making the inlay art that accompanies Poodle Hat.

- Bonus mixes. Including instrumental tracks of all of Al's original, non-parody songs, a vocal-only track for Hardware Store (listen in awe to this!) and also a special mix of Why Does This Always Happen To Me that allows Ben Folds's beautiful piano playing to shine. No nasty reverb to drown it out!

- Song lyrics. A karaoke style graphical representation of all the lyrics for the entire album, presented line-by-line. The lyrics are also featured in the album inlay sheet, but this is a very handy addition.

- Al's home videos. Ahh yes last but definitely not least. This is a reasonably long compilation of Al Yankovic's home videos, with a commentary by Al himself. He basically makes fun of his childhood throughout and this is a hilarious addition to the album! Don't forget to watch it...

...right after you buy it!

Album score: FOUR out of FIVE! (Add the bonus stuff and you get a perfect score!)