Well “Weird Al” just said in this interview at NPR that “Mandatory Fun” could be his final album in his career. Why? It’s because his 30 year contract with the label he’s under is just about up, his longtime label Way Moby/Volcano that he have been at for more than a few decades. It doesn’t mean he’s retiring from music, though. He doesn’t plan on signing with a different label. He’s gonna continue to release music digitally. He doesn’t agree with releasing 12 songs all at once and he plans on doing things differently which is a good idea.

Listen to his interview at NPR about it.

http://www.npr.org/2014/07/12/329873481/weird-al-yankovic-on-parody-in-the-age-of-youtube

Kev

“Weird Al” just announced that he’s going to do an AMA Reddit chat July 15th which is the official release date for “Mandatory Fun”.

This should be a great chat. Weird Al does the best Q&A’s. Why? Because not only that he’ll give some funny and entertaining responses, he’s also very honest and smart!

This one should be an entertaining as hell chat! Can’t wait for “Mandatory Fun”.

Kev

Weird Al released the track listing for “Mandatory Fun” and it turns out he is parodying songs by Iggy Azalea, Lorde, Pharrell Williams and others.

http://www.fuse.tv/2014/07/weird-al-mandatory-fun-tracklist-album?campaign=scl|fbk|fsc

I’m not a big fan of rap music too much but I actually like Iggy and Pharrell. I’m thinking about getting both of their albums. Probably will. I do like rap and pop music sometimes. Just not all of it. If that stuff catches my ear enough, I’ll get into it. Sometimes rap and pop music is great music to work out to. That’s why I need to listen to that stuff sometimes.

Looking forward to the new album! I’m sure we’ll hear the new parodies soon when Al Yankovic releases those 8 videos. I’m sure Al won’t disappoint.

Kev

Usually when ever Weird Al releases a new album, he usually releases a single for the album’s release but it appears that he’s not doing it that way for this one. For this album he’s doing things a little differently. He’s not releasing any singles for this new album. He wants us to hear all the songs on July 15th, the album’s release date and he’s letting us decide which songs are the hits.

Plus he has 8 music videos for the album that he plans on releasing starting on July 14th and will release a music video every day for 8 days straight.

“Mandatory Fun” sounds lie a concept album to me and Al might have a message to send out with this one. Is this album going to be about dictators? That’s what it’s looking like.

I’m sure this album will have a mix of parodies and original songs like he does for every album. I’m looking forward to hearing his new music. I’m sure his new album won’t disappoint. I enjoyed his previous album, “Alpocalypse”.

As you can see Al Yankovic is being secretive with the track listing for “Mandatory Fun”. He’s careful on not giving away too much this early. He’s probably got some big surprises up his sleeve. We can all guess what parodies he’s gonna do but we’re all probably gonna be wrong.

Kev

So Weird Al’s new album is coming out soon and as soon as Weird Al himself announced the news it immediately sparked a lot of internet buzz. The news crashed his official website and it’s already a best selling album on amazon.com with all the pre-orders. My own blog posts about the new album have gotten more blog views.

This is just proof that the world still LOVES Weird Al no matter how much time off he takes in between albums.

I wonder what parodies he’s planning to do for this one??? He’s probably gonna end up doing most of the current pop stuff. Every Weird Al album he usually does parodies of music that’s out currently. For this album he’s probably gonna do a parody of Miley Cyrus “Wrecking Ball”. I think he’s gonna do a Lorde parody like maybe parody “Royals” or “Glory and Gore”. He’ll probably do some Lady Gaga and Katy Perry maybe. Justin Bieber? Kanye West? I can see him doing Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines”. I can see Weird Al doing a hilarious parody of Psy’s “Gangnam Style”.

He’ll do any of that stuff.

He’s also gonna do some kind of polka medley with his accordion like he always does every album.

You’ll never know what Weird Al have planned for his upcoming albums. He’s always unpredictable and it’s always fun to predict what parodies he’s planning to do.

I’m sure he’s gonna release a single and a video soon before the album release. I’ll be getting the album. I have every Weird Al album except for “Bad Hair Day” which is the only one I don’t have.

He’s a genius, though. Can’t wait for the new album!

Kev

Edit to add: Speaking of Weird Al, I figure it would be fun to do a top 10 list of my favorite parodies of his over the years. I’ll come up with that list soon. Maybe later or tomorrow.