straight-outta-lynwood

I’m not a professional music critic – and don’t pretend to be. However, I’ve gotta tell you that “Straight Outta Lynwood” [SOL] is one of the best albums that “Weird Al” Yankovic has produced to date. Yes, I’m biased – having been a fan of the band ever since the seventh grade. His originals finally, in many ways, outshine his parodies. SOL nails the melodies and harmonies, as expected.

Read more on Don’t Download This Album…

Stumbled into this “gift” accidentally while assembling a total Yankovic playlist this afternoon. You can hear :30 teasers for each Straight Outta Lynwood track, so long as you have URGE and WMP11 installed (Windows only). No account necessary. MTV must’ve added his new album at some point in the past day. Do an Artist search for Yankovic (in URGE) and you should see SOL top the list. Select the album tracks as well as another track from another album (like Couch Potato from Poodle Hat), then right-click the non-SOL track and select “Play” from the context menu. This should tide you over until Tuesday morning – which is when you’ll buy the full album:

Read more on Free Preview of New Weird Al Album…

Dude. I don’t know how this bit of news slipped past my radar:

The first single from “Straight Outta Lynwood” will World Premiere on Al’s MySpace page on Monday, August 21 at 6 PM Pacific time (9 PM Eastern)! And because Al’s feeling so darn generous, he’s going to make THIS song a free download TOO!

Read more on Weird Al: Straight Outta Lynwood…