Published on Oct 29, 2002
After his disappointing third album
Dare To Be Stupid, “Weird Al” Yankovic had two choices for
his fourth album: release something that would raise the bar of
expectations for his kind of comedy, or put out something that
could well relegate him to “Trivial Pursuit” material.
From the cover of
Polka Party!, one can almost guess which route Yankovic
took. If
Dare To Be Stupid was merely disappointing,
Polka Party! is almost a complete flop. One almost wishes
that this one was merely a “contractual obligation” album.
Granted, there wasn’t much in the form of popular music which
was deserving of Yankovic’s style of parody in 1986 – quick,
without referencing any book or website, name a major hit from that
year. ‘Nuff said. Yet Yankovic and his dedicated backing band
continue to hack away at the dreck that passed for pop music at
this time. Unfortunately, the saying “garbage in, garbage out”
proves to be true.
Yankovic tries to put a good spin on DeBarge’s “Who’s Johnny”
with his tribute to Johnny Carson, “Here’s Johnny”. Yawn. Yankovic
tries to take an already piss-poor attempt at pop with “Ruthless
People” and turns it into “Toothless People”. Yuck. Yankovic even
falls flat tackling the “hardest working man in show business,”
parodying James Brown on “Living With A Hernia”. It’s almost enough
to make you wish that death was imminent.
Normally, Yankovic can pull his fat out of the fire when the
parodies fall flat through his original compositions. Yet even
these can’t save
Polka Party! from itself. “Dog Eat Dog” has its moments as a
Talking Heads-style number, while “Good Enough For Now” is a
half-baked attempt at humorous country. Even the “legendary”
“Christmas At Ground Zero” fails to impress. (Post-9/11 reference:
The “Ground Zero” reference is to nuclear war.)
Like its predecessor,
Polka Party! sounds like Yankovic is going through the
motions, churning out product just to have it on the shelves.
Rightfully so, Yankovic would take a break for a few years after
this turkey hit – and would revitalize his career with his parody
of Michael Jackson’s “Bad”. But
Polka Party! seemed like it could well have been the “last
call” for Yankovic, and you’d be wise to avoid it.