STRAIGHT OUTTA LYNWOOD - “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC
At this point in his 23-year (!) career, it’d be fun to compute the percentage of parody marks Yankovic has outlasted (whither now, Greg Kihn, the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, or, uh, Michael Jackson?). The big single here is the Chamillionaire riff “White and Nerdy,” which Yankovic speed-raps pretty effectively. The never-less-than-magnificent polka medley reveals that 50 Cent lyrics are boring even when laid over accordion, and in his original “style parodies,” Yankovic compresses “Smile” into the four-minute “Pancreas” and pleads “Don’t Download This Song” in a steroidal showstopper that’d fit snugly into “Bat Out of Hell III.” But the killer is a full 11-minute parody of “Trapped in the Closet,” which illustrates what may actually be Yankovic’s greatest skill — the power to reveal the often bewildering ridiculousness of pop music. Billboard
