“Weird Al” Yankovic’s next album Mandatory Fun — his first since 2011’s Alpocalypse — arrives on July 15th from RCA, right smack dab in the middle of the summer, where it’s guaranteed to chase the long, hot dog days away. But Mandatory Fun could also be his final studio album. The comic songwriter posted on his blog last year that, since the album is his last under his current record contract, he’s “weighing his options.” All of which is to say that he may just move to digitally distributing his work himself and continue to fill us with joy and happiness in a slightly different way. In any case, Al has unveiled the full list of tracks on Mandatory Fun, but not the songs these tracks will be parodying, prompting his many fans to formulate a multitude of theories.
Stereogum has already shared a few more-than-likely ideas. As the website points out, the expected Iggy Azalea parody “has to be” ‘Handy.’ While ‘Foil’ must be his send-up of Lorde’s ‘Royals’ (of which, to be fair, Yahoo’s Sketchy already did a fair parody in ‘White Girls’), “Word Crimes” Robyn Thick’s ‘Blurred Lines,’ and ‘Tacky’ Pharrell’s ‘Happy.'” I myself really don’t care which songs “Weird Al” parodies as long as the end result is as funny as Yankovic classics like “The Night Santa Went Crazy” and the anthemic “White and Nerdy.” One thing’s for certain — with the number of music videos Al has planned (eight, debuting one per day starting on July 14th), he’s as confident as ever in his work.
After checking out the full track list for Mandatory Fun below, let us know what you think the Clown Prince of Pop has in store for us.
01 “Handyâ€
02 “Lame Claim To Fameâ€
03 “Foilâ€
04 “Sports Songâ€
05 “Word Crimesâ€
06 “My Own Eyesâ€
07 “NOW That’s What I Call Polka!â€
08 “Mission Statementâ€
09 “Inactiveâ€
10 “First World Problemsâ€
11 “Tackyâ€
12 “Jackson Park Expressâ€
Music will ALWAYS be worth parodying. That’s what makes it fun, funny and catchy! Love Weird Al!
Weird Al`s parodies are a vast improvement over most of the new so called pop music today. Looking forward to getting my LP copy soon š
I’ve been a Weird Al fan since his first album in 1983. “Weird Al” in 3D was my very first album (vinyl) as a kid. It had so many greats on it; Eat It, I lost on Jeopardy!, King of Suede, Brady Bunch, The Rye or the Kaiser.
The only thing I’m not crazy about on his new albums is source music he’s parodying. It’s hard to listen to Katy Perry, Lady GaGa, Miley Cyrus, etc. without cringing or being tempted to jab a pencil through your ears.
Oh, and I highly recommend his live Blu-Ray concert. He, and his band, put on an amazing and entertaining show.
Um, this I not his final album. It’s simply his final album with the current label.
Do you really think he would retire like some lame sports athlete? š
I hope Manditory Fun does well for Al.
It IS his final album. But no, he’s not retiring. He will move on to releasing 2 or 3 tracks at a time, digitally, when he feels like it.
He thinks that’s the best way to go for him. That way if he wants to parody something, he won’t have to wait 3 years when that song is not as popular.
Lolol yayyy. I was hoping hed stop soon… I love weird Al but new music sucks too much to make fun of. I saw “happy”Blurred lines And radioactiveBut now I’m stumped
Before calling someone names, you might want to check your facts. It IS his last album, he said it himself. He will record new songs, but it’s his last 12 songs traditional album. From now on, he’ll go digital with 2 or 3 songs at a time.
BTW, even if you were right, that’s not an excuse to act like a jerk, internet or not.