Spoofing the title to the popular concert festival 'Lollapalooza,' 'Alapalooza' contains four parodies, a polka medley, and seven original tunes as a follow-up to the prior year's 'Off The Deep End.' While a couple of the parodies are a little strained, Al's original songs are stronger here than his last effort.
'Jurassic Park' leads off the album, and is a parody of Richard Harris' 'MacArthur Park.' Unlike the original, Al's version makes sense. This song continues a trend of Al using older songs as source music for movie-related humor, first seen with 'Yoda,' and continued in future albums with 'The Saga Begins' and 'Ode to a Superhero.' The video was done in claymation, and spoofs a lot of the scenes from the film 'Jurassic Park' and includes a cheer-inducing scene where a dinosaur much like PBS's Barney gets his head bitten off. I think the claymation allowed Al's dinosaurs to do a bit more squishing and bloodletting than might have been acceptable in a (very expensive) live action version or a more traditionally animated video.
'Young, Dumb, and Ugly' is meant to be a heavy metal, AC-DC-ish original. The protagonist's ideas of bad behavior ('We drink milk right from the carton/ And save our library books til they're WAY overdue') is fun, though Al's voice is stretched a bit too thin on the track.
'Bedrock Anthem,' a parody medley of The Red Hot Chili Peppers' 'Under The Bridge' and 'Give It Away' is a tribute to The Flintstones. For whatever reason, this song doesn't really work for me. There's a lack of humor in his description of the Flinstone's world, and more just fitting ideas into the rhyme scheme of the song.
'Frank's 2000" TV' is, in my opinion, the album's best track. With a cheery sound reminiscent of R.E.M.'s less serious material, Al describes a TV that would (at a 16:9 HD ratio) be approximately 81 feet high and 145 feet wide. Yeah, I did the math. While you may not be able to 'watch the Simpsons from thirty miles away,' it is conceivable that Robert DeNiro's mole might actually be 10 feet wide.
'Achy Breaky Song' is a parody of Billy Ray Cyrus' 'Achy Breaky Heart,' and Al's first country music parody. Al picks on how obnoxious that song got in the previous years, being played way too much on country radio. Proceeds from the song were donated to the United Cerebral Palsy Association, as Al thought it was a bit 'mean-spirited.' I kinda like it for that, though, and it reminds me of the unreleased 'It's Still Billy Joel To Me.'
'Traffic Jam,' an Al original, owes a lot to Prince's up-tempo material, particularly 'Let's Go Crazy.' As the once-symbol-named musician has routinely turned down Al for a parody, this is the closest we'll get to one. When I'm playing it in my car, I honk along in the appropriate spots, to the dismay of fellow drivers (and sometimes my passengers as well).
'Talk Soup' was commissioned by E! to be the new theme song for their show of the same name, but wasn't used. In some ways, it's the late 90s equivalent of 'Midnight Star,' but I think the subject matter was covered more entertainingly by Al a few records later with 'Jerry Springer.'
'Livin' in the Fridge' is a food parody of Aerosmith's 'Livin' on the Edge.' As the song puts it, 'There's something gross in the fridge today, I don't know what it is.' We've all been there. Or at least I have. I might be there right now. Let me go check...
...yup. Unidentified frozen objects. Luckily, I have important stuff to do like blogging about "Weird Al" Yankovic, so I don't think I'll be cleaning the fridge today.
'She Never Told Me She Was a Mime' is, in my opinion, the weakest track on the album. Like 'Airline Amy,' apparently being in love with a person in a specific occupation just doesn't lend itself to a whole lot of laughs.
'Harvey The Wonder Hamster' is a quick little ditty previously featured on Al-TV specials, and included by numerous fan requests. Probably 14 or so. Anyway, it probably didn't cost much to do, as it had already been recorded, so why not. It makes my kids laugh, and its brevity works in its favor.
'Waffle King' is my favorite parody on the album. While musically similar to 'Talk Soup,' the growing sense of megalomania as the song builds is subtly handled, becoming more and more ridiculous. It may not be inconceivable that a waffle chef could get his picture in People magazine, but by the end, he's asking people to grovel at his feet for his waffles. I love the use of the horn section, the background singers ('He's the wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-waffle king', and the ad libs as the song fades. This was originally slated for 'Off The Deep End,' and was originally included as the B-side to the 'Smells Like Nirvana' single.
'Bohemian Polka' is the only time since 'George of the Jungle' that Al has covered someone else's material in full. Here, Al takes the Queen song recently re-popularized by the movie 'Wayne's World,' and rearranges it to a polka beat. Like 'The Hot Rocks Polka,' sticking with one artist (and in this case, one song) means the novelty wears thin after a bit, and is my least favorite of Al's polkas. Still, trying to do an outright parody of the song might have proven difficult, especially with another song from the 70s already parodied on the album.
Next album, Al has a bad hair day, but manages to release one of my favorite CDs anyway.
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