Alpocalypse is the thirteenth album by "Weird Al" Yankovic, released on June 21, 2011. It is the seventh studio album produced by Yankovic himself. The musical style on the album was built around the parody and pastiches of pop and rock music from the late 2000s and early 2010s. The album's first single, "Whatever You Like" was released almost two and a half years before the album's release, and the single reached number 104 on Billboard Hot 100. The album's last single, "Do It This Way", was released digitally on April 25, 2011, but failed the chart.
Before releasing Alpocalypse , Yankovic released EP Internet Leaks (2009); EP is an experiment in using the Internet as a way to release music efficiently and on time. All tracks released on Internet Leaks will be re-released on Alpocalypse . The album was preceded by a minor controversy after Yankovic sought Lady Gaga's permission to record a parody of her song "Born This Way". Yankovic recorded a parody, but due to a communication error, almost forced to abandon him from the album.
Yankovic makes music videos for every song recorded. Most of these videos are animated, but live action videos for "Do It" are generated. The deluxe edition of the CD is then released which includes all these music videos, sans who are to "Do This Way" and "Polka Face". Yankovic later released Alpocalypse HD , a Blu-ray release featuring all 12 music videos from this album, along with three videos from the previous album, Straight Outta Lynwood (2006). Alpocalypse greeted with most positive reviews, and was nominated for a Grammy Award 2011 for Best Comedy Album. The album peaked at number 9 on Billboard 200, making it, at the time, Yankovic's highest album.
Video Alpocalypse
Recording and production
Alpocalypse follows the five-year gap that managed to release Straight Outta Lynwood . Yankovic stated that he has not set a definite date for the release of the Alpocalypse , and instead wants to wait for the right time for his release, notifies his record label that the album "will come out whenever there is a dramatic change in pop culture - when even then it happens to be ". Five of the songs from Alpocalypse were previously recorded by Yankovic and released digitally during 2008 and 2009, "Whatever You Like", "Craigslist", "Skipper Dan", "CNR", and "Ringtone "; the last four released with their own music videos. The five songs are then packaged as EP called Internet Leaks (2009), with an indication that they will eventually appear on Yankovic's next published album. Other songs on this album were recorded in January, May and October 2010. Yankovic waited to release the album until he could close it with the last parody of the pop culture song of the time; the song she chose was Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" song, which she decided to parodize as the album's main song, "Do It."
"Do This" controversy
Although Yankovic is not required to obtain permission to do parody work under United States copyright law, he seeks to obtain Lady Gaga's permission to parody in early 2011, just as he has done with all the parody songs of the past. She was told by Gaga's manager that Gaga wanted to read the lyrics before giving her approval, then she wanted to hear the recording version. After this was done, the manager said Gaga denied permission in April 2011, which was a major setback for Yankovic, as he had to pull the song off the album release and prepare and record another song in its place, which would delay the release of the album. Furthermore. Yankovic, having spent all of this extra effort (he had to do this while on an Australian tour, as well as delaying family vacations to meet Gaga's manager's request) did not want the song to be wasted, and instead posted it to YouTube and other music sites, all proceeds of sale go to charity Human Rights Campaign. Through Twitter and other social media services on posting day, Lady Gaga and her staff realized that the artist never heard the song itself and quickly granted Yankovic permission to use the song, saying that Gaga is a "big Weird Al 'fan ". Yankovic was able to set the release date of Alpocalypse ' at the end of the day, and claimed that "Twitter kept my album" based on a quick turnaround by his fans. and Lady Gaga.
Maps Alpocalypse
Composition
The album opening song, "Do It The Way", is a parody of "Born This Way" by Lady Gaga. The lyrics are told from the standpoint of Gaga and depict his style of appearance and fashion taste. The music video associated with the song shows Yankovic's face laid on a female dancer, dancing and performing in many parody clothing worn by Gaga or an artist-inspired original creations.
"CNR" is a parody of style from The White Stripes, especially the very borrowing of "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground". The lyrics of this song are about the superhuman achievements that Charles Nelson Reilly can make, similar to Chuck Norris's facts. The end of the song is also very similar to the chorus of the song "You Do not Mess Around with Jim." The video, created by JibJab, animates the lyrics of the song using JibJab's employees as actors against the green screen, punctuated by Yankovic and Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz's shots featured on the Stripes-inspired white set, dressed as Jack White and Meg White, respectively. First of all for the main recording artist, JibJab website users have the option to include themselves in the music video.
The third song on the album, "TMZ", which is a parody of "You Belong with Me" by Taylor Swift, is about a celebrity whose failure, no matter how small, appears on celebrity gossip sites TMZ.com. The music video, by Bill Plympton, is about a female celebrity whose bare butt is photographed by the TMZ paparazzo and then appears everywhere. Tom Kenny's voice and comedian actor is featured as a voice chanting tabloid titles during the instrumental solos. Yankovic performed the song on February 9, 2012 episode of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson .
"Skipper Dan" is a Weezer style parody. The lyrics depict a man who, despite having an art degree, is forced to have regular work as a tour guide on a Jungle Cruise trip at Disneyland. Yankovic was inspired to write the song after traveling with his family, where the guides "indiscriminately refer to his failed acting career". Yankovic found this idea and developed the narrator's character to write a song together. Yankovic has stated that the actual skipper on the Jungle Cruise journey has responded positively to this song. The music video was created by Divya Srinivasan. In a live performance, Yankovic wore an authentic Jungle Cruise uniform.
The fifth song on the album "Polka Face" is a polka medley, which includes the following songs: "Liechtensteiner Polka", "Poker Face" by Lady Gaga, "Womanizer" by Britney Spears, "Right Round" by Flo Rida featuring Kesha, "Day 'n' Nite" by Kid Cudi, "Need You Now" by Lady Antebellum, "Baby" by Justin Bieber featuring Ludacris, "So What" by Pink, "I Kissed a Girl" by Katy Perry, fired "by Owl City," Blame It "by Jamie Foxx featuring T-Pain," Replay "by Iyaz," Down "by Jay Sean featuring Lil Wayne," Break Your Heart "by Taio Cruz featuring Ludacris," The Tick Tock Polka "by Frankie Yankovic," Tik Tok "by Kesha, and" Whatever's Left Over Polka "by" Weird Al "Yankovic.
"Craigslist" is a parody of The Doors style. The list of lyrics mimics on Craigslist. The keyboard work was performed by former Doors member Ray Manzarek. Yankovic's low-budget video dressed up like Jim Morrison with house art effects and stock recordings produced by Liam Lynch.
The seventh song on the album, "Party in the CIA" is a parody of "Party in the US." by Miley Cyrus This song is about the CIA operative and all the missions that he is undergoing, including attempted murder and torturing "people [The CIA] do not like it." Yankovic admits that "the Party in the US is genuine". is a sensational hit, and seeks topics to distinguish "pop, bubblegum-y fluff" from the original song. It has an animated music video by a team led by Roque Ballesteros, the group responsible for Happy Tree Friends. Yankovic searched for this team, believing that their dark comedy work about "Happy Tree Friends" fits into the lyrics for "Party in the CIA".
The eighth song on the album, "Ringtone" is a parody of the Queen style. The lyrics are about the disadvantages of having an annoying cell phone ring tone. The song has an associated music video made by SuperNews!, Which aired on August 21, 2009.
The ninth song on the album, "Another Tattoo", is a parody of "Nothin 'on You" by B.o.B featuring Bruno Mars. This song is about someone who continues to get more and more odd tattoos. The video was made by Augenblick Studios and consists of showing a man a tattoo.
The tenth song on the album, "If That Is not Love", is a parody of Hanson's style, with Taylor Hanson on the piano. This song is about all the very unromantic and sometimes misdirected things the singer does to show her love for others, such as "let you warm your frozen hands inside my buttcrack." The music video is animated and directed by Brian Frisk.
The eleventh song on the album, "Whatever You Like", is a parody of T.I. "Whatever You Like". The song is about a man who seduced his girlfriend amid financial hardship. The video was made in 2010 by Cris Shapan.
The last song on the album, "Stop Forwarding That Crap to Me", is a stylistic parody of Jim Steinman's work. This song is a criticism of useless junk mail delivery. The music video is a kinetic typography representation of the lyrics made by Koos Dekker.
Title and artwork
The name Alpocalypse is a play on the words Yankovic wrote in a notebook with other potential album titles. It was chosen for this album for a parody of the recent public fears of doomsday such as the prediction of the end of May 2011 and the prediction of the doomsday of 2012; "I think that I might as well do my doomsday-themed album before the apocalypse is actually because I really do not think people will buy CDs at the end of the world", Yankovic said. The title was tied to the album cover, a parody of Yankovic who waved happily as one of the Four Death Riders. He rides the Black Horse, generally understood as Hunger, which Yankovic is associated with "all the songs I wrote about food in the 80s".
Visual
Yankovic created a music video for every song on the album. At the time of the album's release, the video for all but two tracks has been included with the physical DVD and downloadable version of the album. The live-action video for "Perform This Way" was released a day before the album's release, while the video for polka medley, "Polka Face", is scheduled to be released in late July. Finally released in late September 2011 at Comedy Central's Jokes.com. The polka medley video, especially animated but featuring some live action, is the first time Yankovic has made a video for his traditional medka polka. Yankovic later released Alpocalypse HD , featuring all 12 music videos on Blu-ray, along with three of Straight Outta Lynwood's previous albums.
Critical reception
Alpocalypse has received good reviews from critics. Allmusic's David Jeffries rated the album three and a half out of five stars, stating that the album "fits the Yankovic album template very well, offering a bowel-to-groaners gut ratio". Although he points out that "five of these traces are repeated from the Internet Leaks EP", he concludes by stating that "Al remains the undisputed king of a parody song." Matt Wild, writing for the entertainment newspaper The A.V. Club , rated it B, explaining that "Yankovic once again missed the ever-increasing pop landscape, and was barely able to keep up." However, he stated that it was "Yankovic's most compelling collection of songs since 1996's Bad Hair Day ." Jason Lipshutz from Billboard gave him a positive review. He stated that his songs "will remain an example of a very intelligent musical comedy" from time to time, and that the album "is basically the same kind of album that Yankovic has made for 20 years". Although he stated that "the parody of certain songs is slightly stronger than the original one this time out", he also said that "laughter remains as consistent as ever."
Scott Shetler, from PopCrush's music news website, rated him four of five stars. He reviews album songs individually. He calls "Do This" "[an] an impressive way to start an album." Although he states that "Skipper Dan" is "a Coret" and that "the story is actually rather sad", and that "The party at the CIA" "does not have the same unbearable vibrations of the original Miley [Cyrus]", he concludes by stating that album as a whole "is one of the better records that Weird Al made in the last few years." Hermes of Rolling Stone, however, gave it a negative review, calling it a "batch of fish in a keg" and declaring that "jokes do not always ease the earrorm's fury of Xeroxed songs."
Accolades
The album was nominated for a Grammy Award 2011 for Best Comedy Album.
Commercial performance
Alpocalypse debuted at Billboard 200 at number 9, Yankovic's highest chart position at the time, sold 44,000 copies in its first week. During the second week, the album fell to number 44, selling 10,353 copies. Until August 2014, the album has sold 139,000 copies.
Track list
DVD
The deluxe edition of Alpocalypse includes a DVD with the following music videos:
- "CNR" Directed and directed by JibJab.com
- "TMZ" Directed and directed by Bill Plympton. Production Supervisor: Desiree Stavracos/Colorist: Lindsay Woods. Executive Producer: Ron Diamond, Acme Filmworks
- "Skipper And" Directed and directed by Divya Srinivasan
- "Craigslist" Directed by Liam Lynch
- "Party in the CIA" Directed by Roque Ballesteros. Produced by Julie Moscowits & amp; Corrine Wong for Ghostbot, Inc. Art Director: Roman Laney/Animator: Sam Chi, Tony Cliff, Alan Lau, Kevin Navarro & amp; Brad Rau/Assistant Animator: Jamaica Dyer & amp; Kris Toscanini
- "Ringtone" Directed by Josh Faure-Brac for Today's SuperNews TV!/Lead Animator: Steven K.L. Olson
- "Other Tattoos" are animated and directed by Augenblick Studios
- "If That Is not Love" In-animated and directed by Brian Frisk
- "Whatever You Like" Animated and directed Cris Shapan
- "Stop Forwarding That Crap to Me" Directed and directed by Koos Dekker
Personnel
Adapted from Alpocalypse liner notes and the official website of "Weird Al" Yankovic.
Diagram
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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