Alpocalypse in Bloomington, MN

From its smattering of cute original songs to its wealth of brilliant parodies,
Weird Al
's
Alpocalypse
fits the
Yankovic
album template splendidly, offering a great gut busters-to-groaners ratio, and featuring one of the best pop-in-a-polka-style medleys in the man's catalog, "Polka Face." The inspired medley covers everyone from
Kesha
("Tik Tok") to
Owl City
("Fireflies") at breakneck speed, but the highlight has to be
Al
's take on
Kid Cudi
("Day 'N' Nite") where backpacker lyrics ("The lonely stoner seems to free himself at night") meets babushka music. "Party in the C.I.A." takes a
Miley Cyrus
cut and turns it into a glittery covert operations party ("Payin' the bribes like yeah/Pluggin' the leaks like yeah") while "Whatever You Like" is the
T.I.
track of the same name but on food stamps, promising the ladies any flavor of Top Ramen they crave. The creative high point is "CNR," which has to be the only
White Stripes
-influenced,
Charles Nelson Reilly
S&M song in the known universe, and if you've ever sold any unwanted crap online, "Craigslist" will be a close second. Only bummer for loyal fans is that five of these tracks are repeated from the
Internet Leaks
EP, but ignore that redundancy, and
remains the undisputed king of the parody song. ~ David Jeffries