<Rainbow Heron>

Friday, May 23, 2003

I FINALLY GOT POODLE HAT!!!!

And as promised (ObeeKris), here's my review! I even c/p'd it from AMWA for your enjoyment:

Okie-dokie, time for me to jump on ze bandwagon here. I know I'm late but I wasn't able to buy it until today and even then it was the last one there! I've tried not to read any reviews until I've heard it and I know there are about a billion of us posting these things but anyway, here goes:

#! THE AL-BUM:

===Couch Potato:
Eminem- LET AL MAKE THIS VIDEO!
Al managed to slip in a lot of really good hints of Eminem in here like "If you had one shot..." and "eyes are bloodshot", as well as single words like reality, boring, aching, Order, Madonna, forgot, and spot being in their original slots or really darn close. I liked hearing some of my faves getting mentions but I still don't get the "Mahna Mahna"one. The mising up of some shows like the "Touched by an Uncle" title would have made for very interesting visuals in the video had it been made.
My only grievence is that the tempo is much slower than the original but I can understand why.

===Hardware Store:
Wow- that's a lot of words Al! Next to the rap song that's a lot of fast words. Considering how often my family can be found in Lowe's for various reasons, this is pretty funny. It's also funny for another reason: I bought the Al-bum at the brand-new Super Wal-Mart (opened one day after the release of PH) and you wouldn't believe the crowd there just days later. We supposedly have a small town...but back to the hardware store: there's a larger Lowe's (another upgrade) right across the street from the Super Wal-Mart.
I love the beat and rhythm to this song! Whoever said it sounds like "Dig My Grave" is right, but there's something else it reminds me of and it has to do with that speedy tempo and the super-fast "would you look at all that stuff..." verse. What oh what is it?...
I would have added more fake merchandise but the automatic circumcisor? Ouch! :-D The 27 returns too!

===Trash Day:
Either this or Ebay should be the 'second' single! I was kinda wondering if Al was gonna drop in some themes related to marriage or parenthood and here's the first one. Honey, take out the trash! :-D
I absolutely hate the original so this is a welcome relief to that "other" song. ;-)
This song reminds me of "Livin' In the Fridge" but at least this is something that's more accessible when it rots, as opposed to a fridge where you can just close the door. Oh no, this presents much more funny situations to it.
The first mention of a dog is in the song. Bela is a famous pooch. Btw, is that "ick ick " supposed to be someone vomiting? Sounds like it...

===Party At The Leper Colony:
This was the first "new song" we had from Al thanks to the OC Fair. I remember reading the lyrics back then and thinking it was really good, but for some reason, I thought there were more body part puns in there than there were. Don't get me wrong, I'm a MAJOR pun freak, it's just that I thought there were more for some reason. Must be my memory again...anyway.
This song sounds a lot like "Darkside" as in "gonna save me from a love that's blind"/"Saturday night it's the place to be". The saxophone reminds me of something else too altho I don't remember what. Maybe the theme to Whose Line Is It Anyway? Something else it sounds like too but I can't remember...
Run your butt off to that party!

===Angry White Boy Polka:
I can't really say. I only know 4 of the songs here (I haven't been that clueless about the songs on a polka aside from the Hot Rocks Polka before) and is it just me or is the tempo slower on this one? The "come here come here" is close to "here I come I come I come" from the Alternative Polka. Love the way the last 5 songs were done- probably because 4 of those 5 were the 4 I knew. :-)
Gotta love Slim Shady as a Polka! I'd love to hear the whole song done that way a la Bohemian Rapshody!

===Wanna B Ur Lovr:
Don't think this is a chat room thing at all, but then again I don't do chat rooms anymore.
This song is a concept that I was waiting for for awhile that again wasn't likely to happen unless/until he finally got himself a steady gal: the anti-anti-love song!!!! He doesn't have the girl yet (similar to Airline Amy) but she hasn't rejected him yet. It's the closest thing to a real love song (alright alright- lust) that I've heard from him, but is it a *serious* love song? PLEASE! ;-D
Just don't care for innuendo, but if you didn't get the "self-service pumps" from way back, then you'll probably get it now.
The line "I hope I'm not being forward but do you mind if I chew on your butt?" is the funniest line from this one!
Yugoslavian hands eh? ;-)

===A Complicated Song:
Al's right, Complicated is complicated. But the 3 starts he had going were good. I had a feeling "constipated" would be a way to go, but I'm glad I didn't hear a whole song about being in the bathroom on the toilet for hours on end. Talk about potty humor. ;-) The incestuous (girlfriend/marriage mention) verse as an entire song? Nope. Good call in keeping it just a verse and chorus, Al.
Decapitated- now THERE'S the winner! This would've been my choice as the full parody! Can he squawk like a chicken like that? :-D Loving the visual on this one! Maybe he could join that leper party...
This was the easiest for me to hum/sing to probably because I've got Avril's album.

===Why Does This Always Happen To Me?:
This concept all by itself has the potential to go about a billion and one different ways, but sadly I was disappointed on this one. If WDTAHTM and One Of Those Days had a battle, OOTD would win.
Very nice piano work tho!
I saw that Simpsons mention. :-) Al got stuck in another traffic jam and I see he can drive his car without the rabid wolverine in his underwear now. Why did the stabbing of his boss remind me of the evil twin verse of EYKIW? Must be the disembodied head...must've come from the complicated song via the leper colony.
Still good to hum too...and where oh where does the "bah bah bahs"come from? I'm thinking Beach Boys cuz the first song that popped into my head was "Brian Wilson Said" by Tears For Fears. Yeah, don't ask.

===Ode To A Superhero:
Please just call it "Spider-Man"!
This was well put-together I thought and yes it is an awful lot like The Saga Begins in more ways than one so I have a bad feeling about that. That said, this one isn't single material but is definately concert material! I can see the lighters already...
I like the verse about Norman the best.
Sling us a web you're teh Spider-Man! Say Al, you gonna wear that costume? ;-D You could modify that Hooded Avenger costume for it. I have a feeling he's more likely to give it a concert video treatment like Gump for it. It'd be cool if he did both the costume and video. Hey Al, throw one of those small pumpkin squashes!

===Bob:
I LOVE the concept! Now we just need at least 2 or 3 more verse like this! I wish it didn't stop. There are a couple palindromes I know that weren't in there that might've been nice.
"Nurse, I see gypsies-run!" is my fav of this bunch. :-D
The instrumental version of this is so good I can see people getting up and dancing to this! Reminds me a bit of TDS because there's a hint of country in it. I know this is supposed to be Dylan but I don't know Dylan and there's too much country where I live.

===Ebay:
The biggest laughs I got off of the album was from this one. This would make a great single, especially since that "Do it Ebay" commercial still gets played. In fact, I half expected part of that jingle to end up here.
Twice in the past 3 years I can remember going cross-country with Dad (I was there for the heck of it) to go pick something up which he got off Ebay. This is a good partner for IAATP.
I wonder what some folks with ocd would think if you put this next to Germs (the ones *I* know are cool with this). Bring that bubble paper to the concert!!!
If you turn up the volume, you can hear Al dragging out that last "Ebay" a long time tho choppily and then after a pause, he finishes it. It's like the opposite of Spy Hard in that he can't hold the note this time.
Another good one to hum to even if you hate BSB. Fav line is the kleenex used by Dr. Dre. :-)

===Genius In France:
No folks it's not about Jerry Lewis. And yes it's an epic like Alberquerque.
But for the life of me, I do not get this joke. This is a first for me. Why is a guy who's stupid supposed to be a genius in France? I know this can't be war-related (shut up right now) so there's some culture thing going on here I obviously don't know about. I wonder if Gump would be considered a genius in France?
Don't get me wrong, I like hearing Al speaking/singing in French and it's like Taco Grande in that aspect, but I wish there were more of it. Wouldn't it be super-cool if he translated the whole thing?!?! The first half of it reminded me of TBCD and the ending of it reminded me of Waffle King with the ego trip.
"Hoom chaka laka..." and "hemenene humenene..."came right out of the Yoda Chant. I hope that doesn't mean they'll take that part out. :-( "Bow diddy..."reminds me of something else too but I can't think of what it is just now.
Bela gets both another mention as a dog and a poodle but upon first listening, I couldn't hear her bark!!! Where's Bela?!?! Oh wait, she's with the croissants. How'd she get way over there?
The sounds effects, vocals, and instrumentation of this are very good! Isn't that Clair De Lune starting up on "chic-est of the chic"? Lots of Steve in here and the rest of the album. The group harmonies on this (and that banjo) are very nice indeed! Where'd that banjo come from anyway? Alabama with that girlfriend with the same coat of arms tattoo?
The calling of Frenchies "Frogs" at one point makes me rethink "Nobody Here But Us Frogs" just a little bit but I think it's just a coincidence. But if the French like disgusting food, then maybe they'll eat that purple snow. Who knows?
Even tho I don't get the overall joke here, some of the lines are really good like "too much chlorine in my gene pool" and "as French as apple pie". And I can't imagine a 'biggest dork' not being allowed into a Star Trek convention! :-D
I loved the song, but I'd love it even more if someone would explain the part as to why Al's considered a genius in France. But then again, maybe the line "how did this happen? I don't have a clue" is all we really need to know. I just know I don't know Zappa. Also don't know Dylan or Prince so I'm afraid I'm lost on more humor on this Al-bum. :-( I need an education here folks! Please help me out!

#2 THE EXTRAS:

===Home Movies:
Those were so CUTE!!!
I guess there are two things Al hates getting in this world: saurkraut and NOTEBOOK PAPER!!! :-D I wonder if he'll be signing any this tour... This home movie thing was part of TWAS (don't know if it was ever a part of Al-tv or not) and it was one of the things I missed the most about it so I was glad to see it back.
So he still likes to dance until he nearly throws up and run in circles...and he's still got a thing for chickens too I see...

===Photo Gallery:
Those are nice!!! Wait, that's all there is? :-( Nah, I'm not being ungrateful, I love them!!! I guess the question now is: which one will make it onto the tour shirts?!
And yes I did have to read another post to figure out how to get to the pic of Al, Suzanne, and unborn Nena. I was hoping there's be a pic like that around even if we didn't get to see it. Also happy to see Suzanne mentioned in the 'thank yous'!!!
I do think that looks like unborn Nena underneath the helmet-and-arm of the construction guy. You can see it better on the computer than on the cover. Well, there's your hidden Nena y'all! :-D

===Bonus Mixes:
I LOVE hearing instrumentals!!! Just wish I could put it on a compilation tape like for Callin' In Sick so I could have it in the car (no I wouldn't put it online). Heck with the compilation tape- just gimme the WHOLE ALBUM done in instrumental as a second disk!!! Heck, do that with ALL of them!!!!
I LOVE IT!!!! (moremoremoremoremoremoremoremoremore...)

The vocals-only for HS is WONDERFUL as well! I think I like hearing the instrumentals and vocals as the 2 seperate tracks rather than together actually. There's a nice soft AP-ish chorus just before "look at all that stuff" that I couldn't hear otherwise.

The Al & Ben mix is VERY -dare I say it?- beautiful! It's increased my opinion of the song dramatically! Why can't I hear these bonus mixes in my cd player? :.-( Pleeeeeeeeeease put them on a seperate cd to sell at the concerts! Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease?!?! And what does this version of the boss-stabbing verse remind me of?

===Lyrics:
It's a cool karaoke!!!
I love that font too! What is it and where can I get it?!
(I'm a font freak okay)

#3 OVERALL:

Al-bumwise: I think most of it will need to grow on me but most albums of any kind do that nowadays for me anyway. The tempos on most of these are much slower than normal for Al so I guess I'll just have to play the cd faster and listen to the voices go higher. :-) The accordian is always great and it's nice to hear it be used a little more here. GIF makes good use of that.
Al's scissors are still sharpened so I don't think he's likely to put those away anytime soon so if you aren't used to it or don't like it, you have a problem. A dominant theme for the album is marriage but seeing as how he just *got* married, I reckon that's been on his mind these days. :-D One thing absent in that theme is something I was hoping Al would do if he had to do another food song: the strange things his wife eats while she's pregnant. And now that I've opened my mouth, he probably won't ever do it, which is fine cuz it might sound better coming from a girl but anyway...
Overall, it's a very good listen. Note to self: next time play it louder and without the surround sound so I can get into it more

Extraswise:
We need more of everything! :-D
The home movies were a welcome return routine. The bonus mixes were EXCELLENT and need to be put on their own disc so you can listen to them in the car. The photo gallery was very nice too. I love alternate shots! And finally, I think Al should do the karaoke thing for ALL his albums! If he could also put in extra visuals while the text is scolling that'd be good too but let's not push it just yet. It's a great way to listen to the Al-bum on your computer!

Okayokayokay I know that was really long, but I think I got most of it.

...*think*. ;-D

Now, as to *how* I got PH...well, first I wanted to goto the new Super Wal-mart that opened the day after PH was released but even tho we're "a small town" we all knew it'd be PACKED! We just weren't sure it'd be PACKED days later, but then again, we *are* a major artery for Myrtle Beach... Anyway, we drove past it, gave up, and went to Fye in the mall, only they didn't have it!!!!! I combed the store and they didn't have it!!!! So we drove back to the SWM, Mom dropped me off and I went inside to not only get the Al-bum but to scope out the place. Most importantly, I need to know where to find my most-used sections of the store. So when I found the music/electronics dept, I couldn't find Al again! After combing the place, I went back towards the way I'd come in, and wedged in between the latin and Christian sections was this iiiiiiiitty bitty section for Comedy. Guess what was the first album on the bottom row that there was only 1 left of? Well, it was MINE!!!! ALL MINE BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! <*ahem*>

Anyway, I got it, it's got computerized extras, BUY IT!! DON'T DOWNLOAD IT YOU HOOLIGAN!!!!!! :-D

posted @ 10:44 PM  |   0 comments  |