Skip to main content

"Weird Al" Yankovic: "Now You Know" (2023) and "Polkamania" (2024)

Following in the footsteps of  the Beatles and Billy Joel comes "Weird Al" Yankovic. While nothing can quite top the 30-plus year silences of the other two, consider that "Weird Al" has only given us three new songs in 10 years: 2018's "The Hamilton Polka," last year's "Now You Know" and the brand new "Polkamania." And since I've written about all of his previous music, I'm obliged to keep it going. 

I don't have a lot to say about "Now You Know," except that I really enjoyed Weird: The Al Yankovic Story and the way it skewered so many conventions of rock biopics. The song - a Dire Straits soundalike that turns into a soul rave-up - plays over the credits, and while it works well there, it's not something that stands particularly well on its own.


Now let's talk about polkas. Going all the way back to his second album (1984's In 3-D), "Weird Al" has been doing polka medleys of popular songs. As I wrote in my review of Mandatory Fun, "If you listen to all of Al's medleys from 'Polkas On 45' (1984) to present, you can get a pretty comprehensive 30 year overview of music history."   

On that first outing, "Polkas on 45" Al combined then-new songs (Talking Heads "Burning Down the House") with older ones (The Who's "My Generation"), but on future outings he tended to focus only on then current hits (exceptions include "The Hot Rocks Polka," "Bohemian Polka," and the aforementioned "The Hamilton Polka" which focused on one artist / song / musical).


"Polkamania" follows the current hits formula, but since it's been 10 years since Mandatory Fun's "NOW That's What I Call Polka" the date range is a bit larger than usual. Also, Al revealed that he limited himself to only songs that hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and songs that felt iconically representative of their respective artists. 

Anyway, here's the line-up:
Billie Eilish - "Bad Guy" (2019)
Adele - "Hello" (2015)
Miley Cyrus - "Flowers" (2023)
Encanto cast - "We Don't Talk About Bruno" (2021)
Olivia Rodrigo - "Vampire" (2023)
Lil Nas X - "Old Town Road" (2019)
Luis Fonsi feat. Daddy Yankee - "Despacito" (2019)
Ed Sheeran - "Shape of You" (2017)
Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars - "Uptown Funk" (2014)
Cardi B feat. Megan Thee Stallion - "WAP" (2020)
Ariana Grande - "Thank You, Next" (2018)
Taylor Swift - "Shake It Off" (2014)

It's very enjoyable, as the polka medleys always are, but if the song has a fault, it's that the parameters didn't allow for some of the left field inclusions that made previous iterations so enjoyable and representative. That said, I wish Al had gone all the way and added songs released in 2016 and 2022 so that every year of the past ten was represented at least once. For 2016 I'd suggest "Closer" by the Chainsmokers. For 2022, how about "Heat Waves" by Glass Animals, or "As It Was" by Harry Styles?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

REO Speedwagon: R.E.O. Speedwagon (1971)

REO Speedwagon got its start in the late 1960s on the campus of the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana. The band grew out of a friendship between a students Neal Doughty (piano/keyboard) and Alan Gratzer (drums). Joining up with a couple of other musicians, they took the name R.E.O. Speedwagon. It wasn't long before they started getting gigs at parties and bars, doing covers of the hits of the day. The band cycled through several players in its first three years, with Gratzer and Doughty as the only constants. One-by-one they added the members that would form the first "official" lineup: singer Terry Luttrell in early 1968, bassist Gregg Philbin later that summer, and guitarist Gary Richrath at the end of 1970. Richrath was a native of Peoria, 90 miles northwest of Champaign, and had essentially stalked the band until they let him join. It was a good move, as he not only an accomplished guitarist, but also a songwriter. With Richrath the band ascended to the n...
Post a Comment
Read more

Stuck, or Obsession Cessastion

You may have noticed that things have slowed down around here. I had the summer off from teaching, and I spent it with my 7 month-old son. I gave myself permission to make this blog less of a priority. Well, "less of a priority" is putting it lightly. Initially, I considered an abrupt retirement. But then I reconsidered. Maybe the proximity to Brett Favre is causing this. If you're a long time reader, this is probably not all that surprising to you. Since 2007, it has become an annual ritual for me to soul-search about my waning interest in music. First I blamed an inability to express myself and a lack of quality music . Then in 2008 I cited new technology and the death of the album . Last year I wrote about how my changing life priorities hindered my ability to seek out new music. I've done a lot of thinking about it this summer and in truth I believe this was all just dancing around the issue, a slow realization of something I didn't want to admit to myse...
7 comments
Read more

Rock Bottom: The Beach Boys

The one constant in every established artist's oeuvre is the bad album , the one that's reviled by both fans and critics. Those unlovable albums are the ones this feature, Rock Bottom , is concerned with. Here's how it works: I've consulted three sources, the AllMusic Guide and Rolling Stone (for the critical point-of-view) and Amazon.com (for the fan perspective*). The album with the lowest combined rating from both sources is the one I'll consider the worst. I may not always agree with the choice, and my reviews will reflect that. I'll also offer a considered alternative. Finally, there are some limits. The following types of albums don't count: 1) b-sides or remix compilations, 2) live albums, 3) albums recorded when the band was missing a vital member, and 4) forays into a different genres (i.e. classical). *A note about Amazon.com. I consider this the fan perspective, because most people who choose to review albums on this site are adoring fans of ...
1 comment
Read more