Amazon.com - For those who don’t know (and if you don’t, you probably don’t know me and aren’t likely to be reading this blog to begin with), I’m a huge fan of Weird Al Yankovic. If it came down to picking my all-time favorite music artist outside of the film score industry (my true music passion), I wouldn’t hesitate to pick Weird Al. Sure, there are some other artists/groups that are high up on the list (Vangelis, Mannheim Steamroller, Jean-Michel Jarre, They Might Be Giants, Talking Heads, Enigma, Delerium, The Chemical Brothers, The Crystal Method, Orbital among many others that just didn’t spring to mind at the moment), but Al is the king. So, it goes without saying that I’m positively giddy at all the material being released lately related to Al’s new album, which hits shelves tomorrow (Tuesday, 9/26). I have to admit that I’ve been memorizing the album from the encodes of it that have leaked onto the net. I’ll still be picking up my copy tomorrow, though, for a great many reasons. For starters, and most important, I actually believe in supporting the artists I love. And to do that, I will buy their physical album on CD, or what-not. I refuse to buy digital downloads, primarily because the digital rights management (DRM) systems they use are awful beyond words, but also because (believe it or not) the artists barely make a fraction of the money on legally purchased digital downloads as they do on actual CD sales. Also, Al understands one thing that most artists/labels don’t - give the fans something extra on the legit CD copies of the material. And do that, he has. There’s a great amount of special content on the disc release, and I look forward to it all, to be able to get more out of the CD than the music that I’ve memorized much of already. At any rate, after constant listening over the last couple weeks, here’s the list of tracks on the disc, in order of how much I’ve grown to like them. For the first time in the history of Al’s releases, I think he’s finally done a parody that I simply can’t stand listening to, despite how great of a job he may have done with it. And that would be for the lead single, “White & Nerdy.” I just can’t stand the source material, so much so that I can’t even enjoy Al’s parody. It has even destroyed my ability to watch the (beautifully parodied) music video, too. Interesting note, btw, is that for this album I prefer the originals over the parodies more than I think on any previous album. I guess that’s a sign of just how much I hate the current R&B kinda music crap. The parodies are in bold below, as an indicator (I’m not going to count the polka medley as a parody for quasi-obvious reasons). Anyway, on to the list (favorite on top, least on bottom - the last of which is the only one I don’t like, though second to last is one I don’t like too much):

1. Weasel Stomping Day
2. Don’t Download This Song
3. Trapped In The Drive-Thru
4. I’ll Sue Ya
5. Pancreas
6. Close But No Cigar
7. Polkarama!
   the polka medleys always grow on me over time, as I recognize more of the originals
8. Virus Alert
9. Do I Creap You Out
10. Canadian Idiot
11. Confessions Part III
12. White & Nerdy