Internet Leaks, Weird Al Yankovic's long promised digital only release EP has finally arrived, after a thrilling summer for his fans; each track appearing in turn, creating a frenzy of anticipation and excitement as well as wild speculation that lasted for many weeks.
The lead-off track "Whatever You Like" a song parody of the T.I song of the same name was conceived and recorded back in September 2008 whilst T.I was still heading the charts with it. This was a first for Al, and very experimental. One could say that the rushed production and, crucially, the absence of a video may have been something of a drawback; for despite initial interest, it failed to thrive as it might have had a video existed. Having said that WYL is a clever and very funny song poking fun at the boastfulness and conspicuous consumption of the original by presenting a very low budget version of the inducements a poor man might make to his girlfriend.
Jumping to June 16th of this year and Craigslist appeared. This is one of the very finest rock records Al has ever made. It is a self-penned original, in the style of The Doors and even has Doors keys-man Ray Manzarek adding that authentic Doors sound. The subject parodies the online small-ads site Craigslist, picking several crazy examples of the type of advertisements to be found there. A fantastic Liam Lynch (Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny) live video gave this a much bigger push than the previous song, and the sight of Al in tight leather pants makes this all WIN really
Into July, and out came "Skipper Dan" another original song, in the style of Weezer. The subject? The thwarted ambition of a failed actor who works on Disneyland's Jungle Cruise ride. (An attractive animated video from Divya Srinivasan for this) Skipper Dan is a big hit with many long time fans, appearing to hark back to several older hits like "Melanie" from his "Even Worse" album. The catchy tune is hard to ignore
Next up was the White Stripes style parody CNR celebrating US TV personality Charles Nelson Reilly by casting him as a superhuman cult figure in the manner of the "Chuck Norris Facts" Internet meme. Personally I feel this is among the very best things Al has ever done. Not only is the music just fantastic,and every line a real belly laugh , but the strong animated video by Jib Jab is visually stunning.
Finally "Ringtone", a Queen style parody which is just spot-on. This was launched with a video by Current.TV's SuperNews team featuring cartoons of famous people uniting in their hatred of the Ringtone of the title. This one grew on me rapidly after some initial hesitation, as I am no Queen fan, but as usual, Al owns every genre he takes on, and there was never really much chance of me hating it for long. Now its right up there with the others, but for me, CNR and Craigslist remain the stand-out tracks of this really accomplished collection. For me they are the best songs I have heard from any rock musician this year so far

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Not too stupid....Just stupid enough