| Halloween Hits
List price: $13.96
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Leave it to Rhino Records to come up with the best party music for Halloween rave-ups. In contrast to New Wave Halloween, this set of 10 tunes is aimed squarely at the family listening environment. "Monster Mash," sung by Bobby Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers, is a hoot decades after its origin. And Screamin' Jay Hawkins's "I Put a Spell on You" is aptly eerie, if not a tad funny in this setting--considering that "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" comes after and the Addams Family theme comes before. And lest you think this set of tunes is mired in the depths of Halloween tunes from generations ago, it also has "Ghostbusters"--which reeks of datedness anywhere but here. --Andrew Bartlett
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| Straight Outta Lynwood
List price: $19.98
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Brand: Sony
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"Weird Al" continues to reward his countless fans around the globe with yet another collection of insanely incisive musical comedy. As a special bonus, Straight Outta Lynwood will be available on DualDisc. which will include all original animations of all Al's original tracks! All-star animations include Academy Award nominee Bill Plympton, John Kricfalusi (Ren and Stimpy), Seth Green and Matt Senreich (Robot Chicken/Adult Swim, Family Guy). Also featured are Karaoke versions of the entire album including a scrolling lyric sheet for each track. As if that wasn't enough the Dual Disc also contains a behind-the-scenes featurette. All of this in a 5.1 Dolby mix of the entire album!
All hail the return of novelty music's reigning king! Straight Outta Lynwood easily bests 2003's Poodle Hat and shows that Yankovic does know what he does best. Part of the secret to Weird Al's success is that he's never been very weird at all, and very rarely are his satires in any way "biting"--or even satires, really. The 11-minute parody of R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet" is funny at least for the first listen, but it's hard to ridicule something so largely ridiculous in the first place (plus Jimmy Kimmel totally got the jump on him). The best thing Mr. Yankovic has always done is to take some decent pop tune, change a word or phrase, invent an entirely new premise for the tune, and make an inspired video to go along with it. He does that several times here; Green Day's "American Idiot" becomes the hockey-obsessed "Canadian Idiot," and "White & Nerdy" is a truly inspired take on Chamillionaire's "Ridin'." That song is breakneck-paced and so funny it's a disservice to quote from it at all. "Polkarama!" is a return to W.A.'s novelty roots: a handful of mildly dated hit songs (50 Cent to Modest Mouse!) delivered in straight-ahead, sped-up polka style. It's toe-tapping and sweet. Hopefully we'll not have to wait three years for another Weird Al record. --Mike McGonigal
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| Even Worse
List price: $7.99
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| An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer
List price: $11.98
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"If, after hearing my songs," Lehrer says in this disc's liner notes, "just one human being is inspired to say something nasty to a friend, or perhaps strike a loved one, it will all have been worth the while." Makes him sound like a modern punk, eh? Not so, though. Lehrer, ever the king of jolly vitriol, recorded these still potent parodies in the '50s--and the best of them, "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park," "The Masochism Tango," and "The Elements" (which joins science with Gilbert & Sullivan) remain both nasty and striking. Musically, Lehrer comes across like a demented Cole Porter, wrapping sophisticated, showy tunes around his acerbic jokes. Lyrically, he's a clear forebear to folks like Phil Ochs and Barry Crimmins, who also cloak their commentary in comedy. --Michael Ruby
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| Schoolhouse Rock Rocks
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The beauty of Schoolhouse Rock in its original Saturday morning run (1973-85) was that kids watching couldn't tell whether the catchy three-minute cartoon jingles were meant to be commercials, shows, or something else entirely. That enabled overexposed TV youth to learn without realizing it between episodes of Scooby Doo and Fat Albert. Then the Brady Bunch generation became the alternative nation, and the innocence with which they took in these grammar, history, and math lessons was lost. Now comes the obligatory tribute album, Schoolhouse Rock Rocks--pleasant enough, but full of postmodern yuks and missed-the-point nostalgia that aim to celebrate but instead drain the joy from childhood memories. Though it's somewhat interesting to hear Pavement turn "Mo More Kings" into lo-fi krautrock or Moby make "Verb: That's What's Happening" into industrial techno-pop, the performers who most successfully preserve Schoolhouse Rock's edutainment viability are those who are most cartoonish to begin with: Ween ("The Shot Heard 'round the World"), Biz Markie ("The Energy Blues"), and Daniel Johnston ("Unpack Your Adjectives"). The problem remains, nonetheless: Any revamping of these songs implies Schoolhouse Rock somehow needed to be made hipper. That none of these songs is better than its original proves how very unhip '70s kids have grown up to be. --Roni Sarig
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| A Prairie Home Companion With Garrison Keillor (30th Anniversary Season Celebration)
List price: $19.98
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Brand: Uni
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Studio: Uni Dist Corp (music) Release Date: 11/09/2004
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| Greatest Hits
List price: $9.98
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Lowest used price: $4.78
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| Weird Al Yankovic - Live
List price: $11.98
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Brand: Bmg
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WEIRD AL YANKOVIC LIVE - DVD Movie
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| Snoopy Vs. Red Baron / Snoopy & His Friends
List price: $16.97
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Royal Guardsmen, Snoopy vs. The Red Baron/Snoopy & His Friends
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| Bad Hair Day
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This CD serves up a mix of parodies and a batch of Yankovic originals. Weird Al's setting of Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise" in Amish country is inspired. What better way to send up the swaggering ways of hip-hop and contemporary R&B than to transpose them to this humble, traditionalist world? Yankovic turns U2's "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" into a song about an unpleasant visit to the dentist's office. Here drills, not deep feelings, cause screams. "The Alternative Polka," a medley of eleven mid-'90s alternative hits, drains the songs of any cool factor in five minutes flat. Listening to send-ups is like hearing two songs at once; the gap in tone cracks you up. It's fun to hear Weird Al deflate the cool attitudes, grandeur, and emotionalism of pop hits. Yankovic's generic originals, despite some funny ideas and lines, have limited appeal. --Fred Cisterna
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