You might think that Mandatory Fun reaching No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart would reinvigorate ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic, but, just like everything else about him, always expect the unexpected.
Mandatory Fun is Yankovic’s first chart-topping album, even though he’s been the most popular parodist in the music business for three decades. The album even surpassed expectations, selling 104,000 copies.
“I didn’t think this was an option for me,” he told TIME about the No. 1 ranking. “I thought there was a glass ceiling for comedy albums. The last time a comedy album topped the Billboard charts was over half a century ago.”
Still, Yankovic is reconsidering the future of albums in his line of work. By holding off his “Blurred Lines” parody for Mandatory Fun, the track didn’t see the light of day until a year after Robin Thicke’s song was a hit. If Yankovic decided to only make singles, he could have released “Word Crimes” much sooner.
“I still think that albums for me are not the most efficient or intelligent way for me to present my music to the public,” Yankovic told TIME. “I would prefer to get my songs out in a more timely fashion.”
Related: 'Weird Al' Yankovic's 'Mandatory Fun' album review
This is not the first time that Yankovic has talked about stopped making albums. He told NPR, “I don't know that putting out 12 songs at once in this day and age is the best way for me to get my music out there, because if I'm waiting that long, chances are a lot of the material is going to be somewhat dated by the time it comes out.”
Later in his interview with TIME, Yankovic said that nothing is set in stone, so don’t expect Mandatory Fun to be the last we hear of him.
image courtesy of Larry Marano/INFevents.com