After 2011’s Alpocalypse, “Weird Al” Yankovic has been relatively quiet about his next album. Sure, he’s hinted here and there, but there hadn’t been anything concrete about what would be next for the song parody master, outside of his appearances in web series like Puddin‘ and 5 Second Films.
Then, this past weekend, Yankovic tweeted this semi-cryptic announcement:
— Al Yankovic (@alyankovic) June 14, 2014
Luckily, he didn’t keep us guessing for long and followed up with this much more declarative tweet:
The New Album. MANDATORY FUN. Out July 15. pic.twitter.com/wHNjUJvwKQ
— Al Yankovic (@alyankovic) June 17, 2014
After a three-year wait, “Weird Al” will officially have a new batch of song parodies for us to savor. Mandatory Fun‘s cover art features Al as a decorated Soviet general leading his very own army, complete with tanks and fighter planes. Considering the horses-riding-through-fire cover for his last album, Alpocalypse, Al seems to be following a motif of silly destruction, which is fitting for a song parodist.
We also have a little teaser info from Patton Oswalt. Before taking his summer off social media, Oswalt tweeted the following:
Just listened to @alyankovic‘s upcoming album & I am in awe. He satirizes a band I’ve worshiped since the 90s & it…is…beautiful.
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) May 16, 2014
Do you have any idea what band Oswalt could be talking about? What other artists do you think would or could be on Mandatory Fun? Let us know in the comments below.
I’m wondering if “Mandatory Fun” is a head nod to a Fun. parody.
Now this is just a guess… Laibach? They have always been famous for their Soviet and nazi PR style imagery and I also found a tweet by Patton back in 2011 in which he mentioned them. Also, it would make sense to cover them now since Laibach has just released a new album after a 7 year break and they’ve also got to publicity with their soundtrack to the 2012 film “Iron Sky”.
That’s the firs thing i thought.