The album leads off with "Couch Potato",  (A parody of Eminem's "Lose Yourself") one of the most buzzed about songs of the year, thanks to Eminem, who declined Al permission to do a video.  The story could've gone quietly into the night, but as soon as MTV and CNN got a hold of it, this almost non issue seemed to be everywhere.  Thanks to Eminem, "Poodle Hat" will probably debut in the top 10, instead of the mid 20s early 30s, where it probably would've wound up.  So, maybe Al should send Eminem a fruit basket.  The song itself is great, a state of the televised union address which references almost everything ever on television, past and present (And anything he doesn't reference has probably already been referenced in other Al songs).  As usual,   Al makes the seemingly unlikely subject matter of "Couch Potato" fit with the completly incompatible subject matter of "Lose Yourself" perfectly.

 

It bears repeating in every review of an Al album:  Yes, he does originals.  "Hardware Store", the second track, is just plain fun.  Yes, the idea of standing in line waiting for a hardware store to open seems, quite frankly, unfunny and boring...but it isn't.  Al makes it sound like a weird hybrid of a more poppish Linkin Park and a cartoon theme song.  Very strange, very effective.  And the "rap" has to be one of the most completly insane things ever put on a cd.  It's like the rap breakdown in Madonna's new song "American Life", only good, and intentionally funny.

 

Perhaps my only disapointment with this cd was "Trash Day", a parody of Nelly's "Hot in Herre".  But like any of Al's parodies that I'm disappointed with at first, I'm sure it will grow on me.  Perhaps the best part of this parody is the definitive proof that Al is a much better rapper then Nelly.  Much, much better.

 

You like puns?  There's plenty in the "hand jive-ish" original "Party at the Leper Colony".  The song is..exactly what you'd expect from the title.  The music saves this one joke song from becoming forgettable....although it is funny.

 

Easilly the highlight of this album is the traditional polka medley, taking popular songs from the last three or so years, and just absolutly tearing them to bits.  The title "Angry White Boy Polka" alone is reason enough to buy this album, and it doesn't stop there.  Al skewers just about every scene in rock in recent memory, "New Metal" (The renditions of System of a Down's "Chop Suey!" and Disturbed's "Down With the Sickness" are priceless), "The" bands (The "Mt. Rushmore" of The bands is covered, with the Vines, the Hives, the White Stripes, and the Strokes all getting the treatment, including an absolutly golden doo wop rendition of the Strokes' "Last Night") and well, angry white boys (Papa Roach, Limp Bizkit, and that Marshall Mathers kid shows up again).

 

"Wanna B Ur Lovr" fits perfectly with his jabs at his "lifelong nemesis" Prince (Or as a lost track on Beck's "Midnite Vultures" album, for that matter).  The song features a guy trying out some of the worst pick up lines on a girl, think of a less risque Bloodhound Gang (Although at some points, very risque for Al).  Very funny stuff.

 

If there was any song in the last year that deserved an Al parody more then that absolutly horrible Avril Lavigne song "Complicated", I haven't heard it.  The song is absolutly perfect parody fodder...to maybe everyone but Al.  He just couldn't come up with a good concept...so he just went with all of them!  The first verse about eating too much pizza and getting CONSTIPATED would not have made for a very good song if he used the concept entirely, but adding dating a girl and finding out they were RELATED and getting DECAPATED just add so much more to it.  Probably the funniest parody on the album.

 

"Why Does This Always Happen to Me?"  didn't have to be funny, it could've sucked beyond belief...it wouldn't have mattered.  The song features a guest performance by Ben Folds, which makes the song instantly cool.  And it's a great song to boot, continuing Al's concept of songs about a bummed out guy.

 

Maybe it's a commentary on the sorry state of today's music scene, or maybe it's just a great coincedence...but Al has done some of his  strongest work on his last two albums taking classic rock songs and turning them into the story of big budget movies.  This time it's Billy Joel's "Pianoman".  In "Ode to a Superhero", Al flawlessly turns "Pianoman" into the plot of last summer's "Spiderman".  Like the Star Wars Episode One themed "The Saga Begins" (The parody of Don Maclaen's "American Pie") it's more clever than funny. 

 

And so is the next track, "Bob", a song poking fun at the incoherentness of Bob Dylan....with a great twist:  Every line of the song is a palindrome.  Is Weird Al an underrated songwriter or what?

 

I was very skeptical about "Ebay" a parody of "I Want it That Way" by the very stale Backstreet Boys, a group that hasn't even charted in the last two or so years, but it turns out to be a very funny parody about the ways of the world's largest garage sale.  No wonders Al chose to parody this song, the parody fits dead on perfectly with the original.  His struggling to hold the note at the end is classic.

 

And finally, the album ends much like Running With Scissors did....a long drawn out, rambling original that's funny as hell.  The song is called "Genius in France", a song very much in the incredible style of quite the genious himself, Frank Zappa (And in a nice touch, Frank's son Dweezil plays guitar).  A great tribute to one of Al's heroes.

 

All in all (or maybe Al in Al), "Poodle Hat" ranks as one of Al's best albums, and maybe could even be his best. 

 

And remember, don't stand when riding that roller coaster!!!