"Weird Al" Yankovic's 'Even Worse' is the first record I ever bought with my own money. Yes, record. The K-Mart where I bought it had run out of the cassette tape, and I was so eager to spend my birthday money, I didn't care how I got it. Al took some time off between 'Polka Party's' release and this record, and poured a lot of effort into it. After both the dismal reception and sales of his previous album, he knew that this could be his last chance to make a career of comedy music. Fun fact: The innermost circle of the record has etched into it 'The Magic Returns' on side 1 and '100,000,000' on side 2. Previous records also had etchings on them, but this was the first one I had.
'Fat' leads off the album, a parody of Michael Jackson's 'I'm Bad.' Michael was such a great sport that he even let Al use the same subway set from his original video for the parody. Al won a Grammy for his video; Michael did not.
'Stuck in a Closet With Vanna White' details a series of dreams by the narrator, performed in Al's go-to rock styling. Usually Al's 2nd track is one of my 2 favorite originals on the album, but SIACWVW, when it comes down to it, is my least favorite track on the album, though it wins for best acronym.
'This Song's Just Six Words Long' cheats a bit with its title, as the parody of George Harrison's 'I've Got My Mind Set On You' has its title sung as 7 words ('This song is just six words long'). Al perfectly captures my sentiments on the original song: 'Why is this so repetitive?' Al's answer: 'Oh I make a lot of money/ They're paying me a ton of money/ They're playing me plenty of money/ To sing this song, child/ I gotta fill time...' Finally the George Harrison version made sense.
'You Make Me' describes the crazy things Al considers doing over his attraction for a woman. The strong driving beat behind it turned this into a great live song during the AlPocalypse tour.
'I Think I'm a Clone Now' is my favorite parody on the album, a take-off on Tiffany's cover version of Tommy James and the Shondell's 'I Think We're Alone Now.' Al gets a lot of mileage out of clone-related humor, but my favorite line is probably 'Every pair of genes is a hand-me-down.'
'Lasagna' leads off side 2 of the album, and was released as a single, but with no video. I sometimes wonder if the record company cut Al's budget a bit here, or if it was spent differently, as this album is the only one other than his first to not feature a polka medley. 'Lasagna' reinterprets the folk song 'La Bamba' (originally popularized by Richie Valens and later by Los Lobos) as an Italian mother with a strong accent encouraging her son to eat. The accordion and other instrumentation is used to great effect in transforming the song.
'Melanie' is a twisted love story about a stalker in love with the titular woman. 'Now I may be dead but I still love you' shows just how far dedication can go.
'Alimony,' is the second of Tommy James and the Shondell's songs covered on the album, and is a parody of Billy Idol's reinterpretation of 'Mony Mony.' Al does a great job of making this seem like a live track, although it was all recorded in studio.
'Velvet Elvis' is an original tune with nods to The Police telling of one man's obsession with a novelty painting. Not unlike this author's obsession with a certain novelty artist. 'Check out those sideburns/ There's nothing greater/ You can tell that he's no velvet Elvis imitator.'
'Twister' takes the Beastie Boys early stylings and turns them into an ad for the popular party game. At just over a minute, it's one of Al's shortest songs.
This album concludes with my favorite original song on the album, 'Good Ol' Day.' If James Taylor was also a serial killer, this might be the result.
That's the end of this review. Go YouTube the video for 'Fat,' and then come back here next time, as we'll see what happens when Al takes on a truly classic work.
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