Track Listing

1. Fat
2. Stuck in a Closet With Vanna White
3. (This Song's Just) Six Words Long
4. You Make Me
5. I Think I'm a Clone Now
6. Lasagna
7. Melanie
8. Alimony
9. Velvet Elvis
10. Twister
11. Good Old Days

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11316 in Music
• Released on: 1991-03-12
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Customer Reviews

"Weird Al" Yankovic gets even better by being "Even Worse"
On his first four albums "Weird Al" Yankovic fell into something of a rut. Perhaps it was the demands of putting out one album a year for four straight years, but when the best song on a "Weird Al" album is the polka medley, that is not a good sign. So after skipping a year Yankovic made his first "comeback" in 1988 with "Even Worse." There were those who thought it was dangerous for "Weird Al" to go back to another parody of Michael Jackson again after the success of "Eat It," but funny is funny and that is the bottom line in the musical satire business. With "Even Worse" Yankovic adds the movie cover parody to his repertoire, proving that if a curly haired guy wearing classes and a thin mustache dresses up with the King of Pop it is going to get a laugh. Of course, "Even Worse" plays well off of "Bad" as a title as well and this is one of those albums where a lot of sales can be traced to the successful music video.

"Even Worse" was the best "Weird Al" album to date. After his self-title debut album Yankovic put together his own band and while the accordion still announced its presence with authority (e.g., "Lasagna"), a key element in his musical satires was that the music sounded as good as the original; only the words had been changed, to humorous effect. With this fifth album the key lesson "Weird Al" learned was that he did not have to look at the current Billboard charts for this targets. The inspiration for "I Think I'm a Clone Now" might come from contemporary scientific speculation, but the song goes back to Tommy James & the Shondells (with a retro fit from Tiffany) and is a clear example of where Yankovic's effort is better than the original. Yankovic is a master of irony, shown by combining the music of the Beastie Boys with that subtle dance of teenage sexuality "Twister." Yes, the title of "This Song is Just Six Words Long" is proven untrue by the time you get to the end of that first line, but lampooning George Harrison's final hit is just another piece of evidence that there are no sacred cows in the "Weird Al" universe.

The other important change that we find in the songs on "Even Worse" is that for the first time there are a couple of pretty good original songs by Yankovic. "Good Old Days" is dead on in the style of James Taylor while "Stuck in a Closet With Vanna White" is as funny as the parodies. The only thing that stops "Even Worse" from grading out at a straight 5 is that it is missing a polka medley, but even at 4.5 it is clearly the best "Weird Al" album to date and I have to round up to distinguish it from his earlier efforts.

Not his best but still damned good
I would have to say Al's best album is his first, self-titled one (although despite all its bashing "Polka Party" must be high simply because it includes "Living With a Hernia," easily his greatest achievement), but this is not bad at all. I have yet to hear a Weird Al album that rates lower than five stars, and this album, despite having a couple low points, would be top rated if all it had on it was "(This Song's Just) Six Words Long." Here's a breakdown of the songs:

Fat--What can be said? This is not as good as "Eat It," but has the distinction of being the only song that can claim to be the "second by the same artist that Al has covered." To date, he has yet to send up anyone other than Michael Jackson on more than one song. Rather surprising, considering the plethora of parodiable songs over the years.

Stuck In A Closet With Vanna White--This is way to long, and could be lost without significant loss to the album as a whole. Typical surrealism for an Al original.

(This Song's Just) Six Words Long--Absolutely died laughing the first time I heard this. It is a dead-on slap in the face of the Quiet Beatle, and the lyrics are not much more inane than the original they cover...in fact, they sound like the thoughts that must have been running through the writer's head when he penned it.

You Make Me--This gets even weirder than the second song, and sets the stage for all the originals on the album with its insane lyrics and hyperactive pace.

I Think I'm A Clone Now--I've never heard the original this satirizes but what would be the point? Like "Like a Surgeon," there is no way the original could be as good (I've often found this to be the case with Al).

Lasagna--Parody of "Labamba," which was stupid in and of itself, but it's good to hear the accordian again.

Melanie--This song could have been so much better, with an average of one funny line in an entire four-line section and a very drawn-out ending. For my money, the best Weird Al song about unrequited/lost love is "You Don't Love Me Anymore," which piles on the insanity and also keeps a straight face with much better results than this one. Look upon this as practice.

Alimony--Hands down one of his best parodies, a perfect slap at whiny divorced women who take their exes to the cleaners in such a way. Okay, not always the case, but its still a funny song; lighten up, will ya?

Velvet Elvis--I could have sworn this was a Police rip-off, but now I see it's just "in their style." Anyway, it isn't very good, and when I burned this CD for myself I left it (and the next song) off.

Twister--I told you, I left it off.

The Good Old Days--People should know by now that Al's sense of humor is very sick when he lets it be. Bashing a nice guy's head in is typical, and while it is not his best "sick" song ("Christmas at Ground Zero" has to take that prize) it is still quite funny. Face it, folks, death and physical pain are really funny in the proper context (Mel Brooks once said "Tragedy is when I cut my finger; comedy is when YOU walk into an open sewer and die"), and Al has the ability to capture that. Sometimes even physical pain on one's self can be hilarious, believe me, but better when it's someone else. In any case, a dose of sick humor to close out an album is good for the soul.

Buy this album, but don't get mad if every song after the third one sounds grossly substandard by comparison (he must have put "Fat" first so it wouldn't encounter that fate).

Even Better
I remember playing some Weird Al for my friends at college. We had just finished listening to one tape (yes, cassette) and they were surprised how much they liked it and wanted to hear more. "Well," I said, "I only brought one other with me, and it's Even Worse". When they realized I was referring to the title, everyone bust out laughing. Funny how juxtaposition can be hilarious.

Of course, that's what makes great parodies, such as turning the latin sounds of "La Bamba" into the Italian "Lasagna". Or even better, "(This Song's Just) Six Words Long", whose repetitive lyrics about how hard it is to actually write a song joyfully deflates its inspiration "(Got My Heart) Set on You".

The original songs are fun as well. A song about a "Velvet Elvis" is odd enough, but to set it to music remniscent of The Police? And I know I'm probably in the minority, but "You Make Me" is so offbeat I have to love it ("When I'm with you I don't know whether I should study neurosurgery or go and see the Care Bears movie"). My only complaint is that there's no polka medley!

If you're not too sure about this whole "Al thing", give this album a listening, it doesn't have any major hits, but it'll give you a good feel for the man. If you're an Al fan, you've already got this one. Right?