Alapalooza (1993) "Weird Al" Yankovic Review
Alapalooza was released on October 5, 1993 in the United States. Globally, some versions included a notice distinguishing it from the official Jurassic Park film soundtrack, as the two cover designs were similar. The Japanese edition contained a bonus track of Yankovic singing "Jurassic Park" in Japanese. A music video compilation for the album, entitled Alapalooza: the Videos, was released in February 1994 and contained four videos, only two of which ("Jurassic Park" and "Bedrock Anthem") were from Alapalooza.
Alapalooza contains seven original songs among its twelve tracks, although "Young, Dumb & Ugly" and "Frank's 2000" TV" were meant to be stylistic parodies of AC/DC and the early work of R.E.M., respectively. For the former, Yankovic wanted to parody the heavy metal music genre while at the same time avoiding a repetition of what had already been done by Spinal Tap. He ended up disliking the final product because he sang it "in a register that was really too high for (his) singing voice". The latter was a song about consumerism and modern electronics that described the neighborhood's envy of the eponymous character's new television.
The song "Talk Soup", which is about a man who desires to go on television to tell the world about his strange life, was originally commissioned as a new theme for the E! Entertainment Television show of the same name. Although the producers approved the lyrics and enjoyed the final result, they decided against using it. "Waffle King", the track that had been intended for Off the Deep End, was written as "a song about a guy who becomes incredibly famous for doing something kinda stupid, and then starts taking himself way too seriously". Yankovic included "Harvey the Wonder Hamster", a short tune from one of his Al TV appearances, after receiving numerous requests to include it on an album.
Having always wanted to write a tribute to The Flintstones, Yankovic next focused his energy on creating a song that he hoped would be current with the impending release of The Flintstones live action film in 1994. In order to collect sound bites and animation and "re-familiarize" himself with the characters, Yankovic watched over 100 episodes of the original show. A parody of both Red Hot Chili Peppers's "Under the Bridge" and "Give It Away", the resulting song was a comedic tribute to the program. It ended up becoming the second single released from Alapalooza. Yankovic directed the video for the single, which featured scenes of band members playing the song in Bedrock dressed as characters from the show.
In the third and final single, "Achy Breaky Song", a parody of Billy Ray Cyrus' "Achy Breaky Heart", Yankovic lists things he would rather experience than having to listen to the original track. The parody received radio play on country music stations in the United States. The proceeds from the track were donated to United Cerebral Palsy, as both Don Von Tress (the songwriter of "Achy Breaky Heart") and Yankovic felt that the parody was "a little bit mean-spirited".
Yankovic's first single from Alapalooza was "Jurassic Park", a parody of the Jimmy Webb song "MacArthur Park" that was first performed by Richard Harris in 1968. After hearing "Lola" by The Kinks on the radio and recalling how much he had enjoyed his previous pairing of a contemporary film with a classic song (1985's "Yoda"), Yankovic came up with the idea for a tune based around the recently released Jurassic Park film. He received permission from Webb, Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton, and director Steven Spielberg to produce the track. For the music video Yankovic collaborated with animators Mark Osborne and Scott Nordlund to produce a claymation feature that parodied scenes from the movie; the song itself was a comedic retelling of the film's plot interspersed with the gripes about his visit to the park. The music video was directed by Osborne and Nordlund, while Yankovic came up with the original concept and ideas for some of the shots; Osborne said that the directors "came up with about half the ideas in collaboration" with Yankovic.
"Livin' in the Fridge", a parody of Aerosmith's "Livin' on the Edge" that discusses leftovers that have grown sentient in the refrigerator, was the last song to be recorded for the album. With a deadline looming, Yankovic sent requests to several artists to do parodies of their songs. He ultimately went with Aerosmith because they replied first. It was recorded a month after the rest of the tracks had been finalized and less than two months prior to the album's release. The album includes a polka medley, a staple of Yankovic's albums, called "Bohemian Polka". Unlike previous medleys, which had featured portions of multiple songs, "Bohemian Polka" contains only one tune, Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", and is a rearrangement of the entire song as a polka.
Sometimes I still listen to this album thanks to Spotify. It's certainly not something I would listen to everyday, but still is extremely catchy. I remembered most the songs the first time I listened to it after 24 years which still makes most of these songs classics, especially the singles. It was somewhat of an experimental album for Yankovic and not even he enjoyed the final product to it's full potential. He especially didn't care for some of the singing notes he used as they weren't withing his natural singing spectrum which made some of his singing a bit awkward. Overall I give the album a 2.5 out of 5.
⭐⭐1/2
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