#14 Weird Al Yankovic - (a) Handy + (b) Foil
As has become tradition over the past two years, there have been albums with multiple songs that I felt absolutely necessary to include in the countdown. The 2014 double feature comes from arguably the best album of the year, Weird Al's "Mandatory Fun". After 20+ years of relative obscurity and only claiming fame in the most nerdy of circuits, Weird Al scored a fairly big hit in 2006 with "White & Nerdy". But it wasn't until 2014's "Mandatory Fun" that he truly struck gold. Unless you were living under a rock, you knew that Weird Al was releasing a big album this year. The reason behind this with a brilliant marketing strategy that featured a daily music video for 8 days leading up to the album's release date. Each video premiered on a different platform (YouTube, Yahoo, Funny or Die, etc) and each were met with humongous support and adoration. "Mandatory Fun" immediately shot up to #1 and Yankovic was given his long overdue day in the sun. As far as the best tracks off this album, where should I begin? I can't think of an album that I don't love, so let's skip to my two favorites.
First and foremost, my favorite video was Al's spoof of Iggy Azalea's "Fancy", entitled "Handy". The song is basically a 3 minute advertisement for a jack-of-all-traders, of which Al plays in the video, dancing with two other middle aged plumbers in the video. The song was actually cobbled together after Yankovic had already put together a solid album. In interviews he said that the most unfortunate thing about making his albums was that he had to wait to release them and allow the songs to date themselves, so he took a fairly popular song from 2014 and made a solid track from it.
Secondly, we have a parody of Lorde's mega 2013 hit "Royals". In the first verse, Yankovic starts by singing about how he uses aluminum foil to keep all of his leftovers fresh, before jumping into a second verse laced with conspiracy and finishing with the silly singer stating that he covers his head with aluminum foil to keep his brain from being probed. It features Patton Oswalt as the director of a cooking show in which Al takes center stage. It's great. It's amazing. It's pure Weird Al. I've written enough. Enjoy!
Title: Foil, Handy
Artist: Weird Al Yankovic
Album: Mandatory Fun
Previous 14s
2013: Atlas Genius - If So
2012: Metric - Clone
2011: Crystal Castles - Not In Love (ft Robert Smith)
2010: Nevermore - Moonrise (Through Mirrors of Death)
2009: Red - Out From Under
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