Mandatory Fun is the fourteenth and final studio album by the American parody musician "Weird Al" Yankovic. The self-produced album was released by RCA Records in the United States on July 15, 2014. Yankovic had previously released Alpocalypse in 2011 and was touring in support of it when he first spoke of his next record. When he began to work on Mandatory Fun, Yankovic found himself listening to older acts, many of which he stylistically spoofed on the album.
Recorded at studios in Los Angeles and Massachusetts from 2012 to 2014, Mandatory Fun contains twelve songs, which include 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. Yankovic composed the originals first and wrote the parodies last to allow them to be as timely as possible upon the album's release. Many artists reacted positively to being parodied; Williams remarked that he was "honored" to be spoofed by Yankovic, while Imagine Dragons advised Yankovic on how to replicate sounds in their original song.
After Yankovic's 32 years under contract, Mandatory Fun became his first and remains his only number-one album in the United States. It received positive reviews from contemporary music critics. Yankovic chose not to release a lead single and instead publicized the album by launching eight music videos online during the first week of the album release through different video content portals. Among these, "Word Crimes" became Yankovic's fourth top 40 song, making him one of few artists to achieve such a feat in four separate decades.
The album won the award for Best Comedy Album at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards, Yankovic's fourth career Grammy, and he embarked on the Mandatory World Tour during 2015 and 2016. Following the completion of his record contract obligations and the success of the video strategy, Yankovic has avoided releasing any further studio albums, preferring the more timely releases of singles and EPs of his songs.
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. For an LP, Yankovic stated that given the time lapse between the beginning of the process and the release of the finished product, "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, Yankovic had been listening to older acts such as Cat Stevens, Foo Fighters, and Southern Culture on the Skids for his own amusement.Rock and Roll Coffee: An Interview With "Weird" Al Yankovic. The Weeklings. Retrieved July 13, 2014. 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 "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes". Yankovic played a recording of his pastiche on his phone to Nash on the spot, and Nash loved the track. "First World Problems" is an original composition emulating the style of the Pixies, whom Yankovic had performed alongside for a charity concert two years earlier. The song features background vocals by Amanda Palmer, emulating the vocal style of Kim Deal (particularly from the song "Debaser"). Palmer, who cites Yankovic and the Pixies as being among her childhood heroes, explained on her personal website that she and Yankovic had met at one of her concerts in Los Angeles a few years previously. After Yankovic learned that his fans had petitioned for him to headline a Super Bowl halftime show, he realized that he lacked a sports-themed composition in his repertoire, and decided to write "Sports Song".
Yankovic described that his usual method of generating parody ideas is to scan Billboard charts, radio play and online buzz 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 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!". There were several other songs he intended to parody, but felt he was unable to develop a clever enough idea for, and instead used them in the medley "NOW That's What I Call Polka!". More specifically, Yankovic expressed that while Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" is an "iconic song", it was too repetitive for him to incorporate new lyrics into effectively.
Recording
Twelve songs were recorded for Mandatory Fun. Most of the sessions took place at Way Station, GoDaveyGo Studio and Bedrock L.A. in Los Angeles.Mandatory Fun (liner notes). "Weird Al" Yankovic. RCA Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment. 2014. Yankovic pre-recorded demos of each song on his personal laptop prior to recording, to show his bandmates the direction to go in. 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 recorded later: "Sports Song" on May 3, followed by "First World Problems" and "Jackson Park Express" on May 8, 2013."Weird Al" Yankovic: Recording Dates . weirdal.com. Retrieved June 22, 2014. Yankovic announced Amanda Palmer's involvement on the album later that month.The great and powerful @amandapalmer just recorded some amazing vocal tracks for my new album!. @alyankovic on Twitter. Retrieved July 13, 2014. Her background vocal sessions for "First World Problems" took place at Mad Oak Studios in Allston, Massachusetts, as she was unable to travel to L.A. at the time. Yankovic coached Palmer remotely via Skype as she attempted to emulate the vocal style of Kim Deal.Palmer, Amanda. I did back-ups on the new Weird Al record! now I can die . amandapalmer.net. Retrieved July 20, 2014.
Yankovic sought permission from the original artists for his parodies, as he had typically done in the past; in contrast to previous albums, he had few difficulties. 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 "Get Lucky", through a personal email to the artist after Yankovic's manager had difficulty working 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 was 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 public signage and text. Yankovic said that his version avoids the perceived misogyny of the original song 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, who appears in the video for "Foil", listened to Yankovic's album in May 2014 and revealed that "He satirizes a band I've worshiped since the 90s".'Weird Al' Yankovic Returning With New Album This Summer. Rolling Stone. Retrieved June 16, 2014. Yankovic later affirmed that Oswalt was referring to his Pixies pastiche.
Eleven tracks had been completed by early 2014, and Yankovic set the release date in the middle of the year as to keep the material "as timely as possible". However, he wished to find "the big hit of the summer" to add to the set. Yankovic recalled that he determined the saturation point of Iggy Azalea's "Fancy" by asking his daughter: "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 to Denver, Colorado in early June 2014 to ask Azalea permission to parody her song. He noted that meeting a spoof target in person is not his usual method for obtaining permission, but was necessary in this instance to meet the album deadline. The encounter was described by TMZ as an "ambush" as Yankovic presented the potential parody lyrics to Azalea backstage at one of her concerts.Iggy Azalea Gets Ambushed by Weird Al. TMZ.com. Retrieved June 16, 2014. He later clarified that the meeting was much more polite and blown out of proportion by TMZ. Yankovic recorded the Azalea parody "Handy" that same month, and announced that the album mastering process was complete on June 12.Just got done mastering. Ladies and gentlemen, here it is… my NEW ALBUM. @alyankovic on Twitter. Retrieved July 22, 2014.
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 braggadocious 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".Ranking Weird Al's 'Mandatory Fun' Parodies: Who Gets Skewered Best? . The Wire. Retrieved July 15, 2014.