Mandatory Fun is the fourteenth studio album
by American musician "Weird Al" Yankovic.
Self-produced, the album was released by RCA
Records in the United States on July 15, 2014.
The release includes parodies of songs by
Pharrell Williams, Robin Thicke, Iggy Azalea,
Lorde and Imagine Dragons.
It also features original songs in the form
of pastiche, imitating the styles of the Pixies;
Cat Stevens; Foo Fighters; Crosby, Stills
& Nash; and Southern Culture on the Skids.
Reviews of Mandatory Fun have been generally
positive.
Background
During the closing stages of the Alpocalypse
tour, Yankovic stated in an interview with
The Morning Call that he had one more album
on his contract; the paper and other sources
took to mean that this album would be his
last.
Yankovic later clarified that this was the
last album on the current recording contract
with his label, that he is currently "weighing
his options" for renewing the contract or
looking to another publisher, and made it
clear that he was not retiring from music
in the foreseeable future.
In a later interview with NPR's Weekend Edition,
he stated that this might be his last conventional
album, turning instead to more frequent releases
of singles and EPs, as with the time between
producing full-length albums, "chances are
a lot of the material is going to be somewhat
dated by the time it comes out".
The first tracks conceived for the album were
original songs in the style of various bands
as, compared to direct parodies, the pastiches
"age better".
Prior to composing these songs, he had been
listening to older acts such as Cat Stevens,
Foo Fighters, and Southern Culture on the
Skids for his own amusement.
His Crosby, Stills & Nash style parody "Mission
Statement" draws from his experiences attending
executive meetings in his music career.
Shortly after completing the song, Yankovic
encountered Graham Nash, who coincidentally
asked Yankovic to parody a Crosby, Stills
& Nash song.
"First World Problems" is an original composition
emulating the style of the Pixies, whom Yankovic
had performed alongside for a charity concert
two years prior.
Yankovic noted that his usual method of generating
parody ideas is to scan Billboard charts,
radio play and online buzz in order to create
a master list of candidates.
From that point, he works out possible puns
on the song titles, the potential for humor
and general direction for his versions.
Fans speculated ahead of the album's release
that Yankovic would parody "Let It Go" from
the Disney film Frozen, due to the song's
popularity.
He later explained that he considered making
a Frozen parody titled "Make It So" about
Star Trek: The Next Generation, but decided
not to after discovering such a parody already
existed.
Yankovic observed that the existing spoof
"had gotten enough attention online to make
the Disney legal department ask them to take
it down!
I couldn't think of an idea that I liked as
much as 'Make It So', so...
I gave up!".
Recording
Twelve songs were recorded for Mandatory Fun.
Most of the sessions took place at Way Station
Studio, GoDaveyGo Studio and Bedrock L.A.
in Los Angeles.
The earliest songs produced were "Mission
Statement", "Lame Claim to Fame" and "My Own
Eyes", which were recorded on September 4,
2012.
Three more songs were later recorded: "Sports
Song" on May 3, followed by "First World Problems"
and "Jackson Park Express" on May 8, 2013.
Later that month, Yankovic stated that Amanda
Palmer had recorded vocal parts for the album.
Palmer's sessions took place at Mad Oak Studios
in Allston, Massachusetts.
In September 2013, Yankovic publicly mentioned
that he was working on a new album, but gave
no details.
As usual for him, Yankovic sought permission
from the original artists for his parodies;
in contrast to previous albums, he had few
difficulties in obtaining these.
Yankovic stated "This is the first time where
I've gotten everybody that I wanted, and I
couldn't be happier about it."
He was able to get Pharrell Williams' permission
for three of the songs he represented on the
album, Williams' "Happy", Robin Thicke's "Blurred
Lines", and Daft Punk's "Get Lucky", through
a personal email to the artist after Yankovic's
manager had difficulty working this with Williams'
manager; according to Yankovic, Williams was
"honored" to have his work used by Yankovic.
Yankovic and his band got full cooperation
from Imagine Dragons, who gave permission
and advised on how to recreate some of the
sounds used in "Radioactive" for Yankovic's
sendup "Inactive".
When Yankovic decided to parody "Blurred Lines",
he was initially concerned that by the time
his version would be released a year later,
many parodies would already exist.
He therefore opted to go in a more distinct
direction by making "Word Crimes", which continues
his fascination with grammar previously expressed
in video set pieces where he corrected malformed
signage and text in public.
Yankovic acknowledged that his version eschews
the perceived misogyny associated with "Blurred
Lines" and its various existing parodies.
He also considered this "the only chance that
"Blurred Lines" will be used in the curriculum
of somebody's school".
"Word Crimes", "Inactive" and "Foil" were
all recorded in December 2013 while "Tacky"
and "NOW That's What I Call Polka!" were produced
the following April.
Lisa Popeil also revealed in April that she
would be recording with Yankovic for the album.
Comedian Patton Oswalt listened to Yankovic's
album in May 2014 and revealed that "He satirizes
a band I've worshiped since the 90s".
Yankovic later affirmed that Oswalt was referring
to his Pixies pastiche.
Yankovic recalled that he determined the saturation
point of Iggy Azalea's "Fancy" by asking his
daughter: "A couple months ago I said, 'Are
they talking about Iggy Azalea at school?'
And she says, 'Well, not so much.'
I asked the same thing two weeks later and
she said, 'Oh yeah, that's all they're talking
about now!'"
Yankovic then traveled from Los Angeles, California
to Denver, Colorado in order to ask Azalea
permission to parody her song.
The encounter was described by TMZ as an "ambush"
as he presented the potential parody lyrics
to Azalea backstage at one of her concerts.
Yankovic later clarified that the meeting
was much more polite and blown out of proportion
by TMZ.
He had previously used this approach of asking
an artist's permission during the 2013 Bonnaroo
Music Festival.
The Azalea parody "Handy" ended up being the
last recording for Mandatory Fun in June 2014,
shortly before the release of the album.
On June 12, 2014, Yankovic revealed that the
record had completed the mastering process.
Composition
Mandatory Fun consists of twelve tracks, five
of which are parodies of songs popular at
the time of the album's production.
The opening Iggy Azalea parody of "Fancy"
is "Handy", performed from the point of view
of a person described by Kenneth Partridge
of Billboard as "the world's most braggadocios
[sic] contractor".
The character portrayed in the song rhymes
about various handyman tasks including installing
countertops, tile floors, and repairing leaf
blowers.
Kevin O'Keeffe of The Wire noted that the
only direct connection between the character
and Azalea is the line "I got 99 problems
but a switch ain't one", which refers to Azalea's
appearance in the song "Problem".
The Southern Culture on the Skids pastiche
"Lame Claim to Fame" examines celebrity-obsessed
culture.
It features frequent name-drops as the singer
brags about having tangential associations
with popular people.
"Foil" is a parody of the Lorde song "Royals"
and focuses on two cases of aluminum foil
use: the first verse deals with food being
preserved with the material, while the second
verse describes the foil being used by conspiracy
theorists as a protective hat.
O'Keeffe observed that it is the shortest
parody on Mandatory Fun as it omits the bridge
and final chorus of the original song.
The original composition "Sports Song" imagines
a college marching band directly insulting
the opposing team with their fight song.
Annie Zaleski of The A.V.
Club summarized the track as a "passable but
not particularly inspired take on rabid fandom".
The following Robin Thicke parody "Word Crimes"
involves the singer pointing out grammatical
errors frequently made in online messages,
and shaming people who engage in various other
common textual misconceptions.
"My Own Eyes" is a style parody of the Foo
Fighters in which the protagonist recalls
witnessing unusual events throughout his life,
such as elderly men dying of "Bieber fever"
and a mime "hacked to death with an imaginary
cleaver".
Partridge felt that the pastiche "falls flat"
without Dave Grohl's songwriting and personality.
"NOW That's What I Call Polka!" is Yankovic's
eleventh polka medley, in which Yankovic sings
selections of various popular songs at the
time of recording, set to a polka music.
The title is a parody of the long-running
series of compilation albums released by EMI,
Now That's What I Call Music!.
The song "Mission Statement" emulates the
style of Crosby, Stills & Nash, with the lyrics
citing a series of corporate buzzwords and
executive jargon.
Zaleski noted that the song imitates the band's
layered harmonies and incorporates elements
of "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes".
"Inactive" is a spoof of the Imagine Dragons
song "Radioactive" that centers on an extremely
lethargic character covered in food residue.
O'Keeffe remarked upon the breathing sounds
of the original song being recontexualized
in the parody, as the character mentions that
he requires an inhaler.
The Pixies pastiche "First World Problems"
lampoons people who complain of various First
World problems such as the lack of gluten-free
cookies in an airport lounge.
The song features "off-kilter guitars and
a Black Francis-esque raucous vocal delivery"
with stylistic references to the Pixies songs
"Debaser" and "Hang Wire".
The sendup of Pharrell William's "Happy" is
the song "Tacky", in which the singer boasts
of having no shame and making unfashionable
or tactless choices.
Reviews noted that the song lists various
disruptive acts associated with social media,
referencing Instagram, Twitter, and Yelp.
Following Yankovic's tradition of recording
long-form songs such as "Albuquerque", "Genius
in France", "Trapped in the Drive-Thru", he
concludes the album with a 9-minute plus track
called "Jackson Park Express" in the style
of Cat Stevens.
Zaleski described the piece as "an in-depth
vignette about a bus-ride-length romance that's
really a figment of the protagonist's imagination."
Packaging
The cover art and title of the album was first
affirmed via the RCA Records website.
The artwork is designed to resemble a propaganda
poster, and Yankovic is described by Rolling
Stone as wearing a Russian military costume
over a font resembling Soviet text.
Communist propaganda imagery typically uses
shades of red, centers around a march of people,
and is supported in the background by an image
of a leader.
Yankovic stated that the cover image was photographed
as early as August 2013.
Regarding the title of the album, he mentioned
that, "That was just an oxymoron that I've
always been amused by.
It's used a lot in corporate retreats and,
I'm told, in the military."
Yankovic also acknowledged that the name is
speculated to be a reference to the album
marking the end of his 32-year-long label
contract.
Promotion
Yankovic started hinting at the release of
Mandatory Fun using social media in mid-June
2014.
On June 14, he posted a self-described "cryptic"
image of himself with the message "July 15",
which Rolling Stone specified as being the
album release date.
Yankovic used a series of short trailers to
tease the album, using stock footage of historical
communism and military propaganda films interspersed
with imagery from the album's artwork.
Yankovic announced that there would be no
pre-album single for Mandatory Fun, and instead
he would let the listeners decide which songs
are the hits.
He also revealed that he would participate
in a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" session on the
day of the album release.
Yankovic elaborated that the pre-release campaign
deliberately withheld song information, since
he felt it has become more difficult to establish
a unique take on a parody in the age of YouTube
content creation.
Music videos
To help promote Mandatory Fun in social media
circles, Yankovic produced eight music videos
for the album; one will be revealed each day
starting on July 14, 2014, a day prior to
the album's release.
When asked if this video strategy was influenced
by Beyoncé Knowles' marketing for her album
Beyoncé, Yankovic pointed out that his previous
record Alpocalypse featured videos for every
song at the time of release: "Nobody said
to Beyoncé, 'Hey, you're doing a Weird Al,
aren't ya?'
So for the record, I was first."
Director and animator Tim Thompson revealed
that the video he created would debut on July
20.
The first music video debuted on July 14,
featuring the song "Tacky".
Produced by Nerdist Industries, the one-shot
video features Aisha Tyler, Margaret Cho,
Eric Stonestreet, Kristen Schaal, Jack Black,
and Yankovic dressed in tacky clothes and
dancing purposely poorly while lip-synching
to the song reflecting on the song's lyrics
about a person who brags on about his obnoxious
clothes and other questionable style choices.
The video was filmed at Palace Theatre in
downtown Los Angeles, previously featured
as Julianne Moore’s apartment in 1998 film
The Big Lebowski.
Yankovic specified that during each continuous
take, he would have to rush down five flights
of stairs while changing his outfit in order
to appear in the beginning and end of the
video.
The video for "Word Crimes" features kinetic
typography created by Jarrett Heather, reflecting
the song's theme of proper grammar, spelling,
and punctuation.
"Foil"'s video, produced in conjunction with
the website CollegeHumor, shows Yankovic as
a host of a cooking show obsessing on the
use of aluminium foil, slowly descending into
conspiracy theories; it also includes guest
appearances by Patton Oswalt, Tom Lennon,
and Robert Ben Garant.
"Handy" was released through Yahoo!
Screen's "Sketchy" channel, and is presented
in the style of a late-night informercial
with Yankovic performing as a residential
general contractor; the video also includes
Eddie Pepitone, Justin Giddings, and Ted Hollis.
Reception
The Los Angeles Times called Mandatory Fun
a "stone cold masterpiece", praising how the
album's parody tracks work well from their
original material with Yankovic's take on
the lyrics.
The A.V.
Club considered the album successful with
only a few missteps, with "smart meta-commentary
on pop music and a collection that never takes
itself too seriously".
Rolling Stone reviewed the song "Tacky" stating
that "Weird Al is in fine form throughout
the track".
ABC News's Allan Raible described the album
as among his best work, writing, "What makes
this one sharp is that it really captures
the current culture in a bubble in a way that
is more pinpointed than on previous records."
Billboard considered the record's original
songs its best material, and "Word Crimes"
the best parody.
Paste similarly agreed that Yankovic's original
materials were the highlight of the album,
and that as a whole, Mandatory Fun is "a good,
humorous album that shows that Yankovic is
not slowing down in the slightest".
Track listing
The following is adapted from the album liner
notes.
Personnel
Adapted from Mandatory Fun liner notes.
Release history
References
External links
Official music videos from "Weird Al" Yankovic's
YouTube account:
"Word Crimes"
"Foil"
