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zwolanerd

I guess I just like liking things

weirdalI know I said last week I’d have “Ranking Mandatory Fun” today, but I’m not ready for it. I’ve listened to the album plenty (9-10 times) and I have an idea of my ranking, but I need to let it simmer for a bit. All my other album rankings have had the benefit of many years’ consideration, and while I’m not saying it’ll take me a few years to rank this one I don’t want it to suffer from too-hasty decisions. Worry not, I’ll do it!

Today is the last day of Al’s “#8days8videos” run (in fact, the last one will be out by the time this post is live). Al chose not to release a leading single from the album like he’s done in the past, opting instead to debut a new video every day for eight days. It’s crazy, but it seems to be working. As of last Friday, it looks like the album will be his highest ranking album debut ever. It was down to him or Jason Mraz, and that’s an easy choice, America. Get your act together!

Along with that, Al just about caused my death last night because he favorited a tweet of mine: “Dear @alyankovic: a lot of your old songs from previous albums don’t have videos. #80days80videos.” (This is now my personal Lame Claim to Fame.) I would love to see him go back and make videos for some of his classics that he didn’t have the resources to make back in the day. I bet Mark Hamill would gladly show up in a video for “Yoda.”

This album is Al’s last under his studio contract, and there’s been a lot of speculation as to whether or not it will be his last full album ever. In the Internet age where people are posting parody songs on YouTube every three seconds, it makes sense he’d want to be able to react quicker to things. I’m sure we’ve lost out on some good Al stuff just because it hit in the middle of a 2- or 3-year cycle of album making. However, I think we’d lose so much more than we’d gain if Al went to singles-only instead of albums. It’s unlikely we’d get any more polkas and originals. I also like that the albums are a snapshot of pop culture history, and I’ll miss the album art. Whatever direction he goes, I’ll still be a fan, I’m sure. I’d just like to vote for albums.

 

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