Search - Oingo Boingo :: Boingo

Joseph S. (hamsterdad) from GRANTS PASS, OR
Reviewed on 9/24/2009...

This album is different than most of Oingo Boingo's other material. It is dark and bleak. It lacks the witty sometimes sarcastic charm of albums like Dead Man's Party. It starts out with two catchy tunes but ends weak with a depressing fizzle. They made a common mistake for a comeback album, they took themselves way too seriously.

1 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.

A masterpiece

C. Harris | Simi Valley, CA United States | 09/27/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I thought I'd write a review because there's one key thing about this album none of the reviews address. Elfman had been doing Oingo Boingo for a few years before he began composing movie scores. His star has faded a bit in the last decade, but in the late 80's - through much of the 90's he was one of the very biggest, busiest composer's working.



Up until this album, he had made a point of not letting his composing work cross over into his Oingo Boingo work (Elfman effectively was Oingo Boingo- he wrote pretty much everything for that band as well and his band mates were pretty much hired musicians). With this final Boingo studio album he finally decided to let his two musical worlds mix together and see what the result would be (he also fired half the band for this one). The results are simply stunning, and it's a shame he only did this the one time.



Most people will agree that this album is totally different than the bands body of work. Some love it for this reason, some hate it. The thing people forget is that the general consensus was that Oingo Boing had been slowly sliding down hill for years, sounding safer, more commercial, and arguably more bland. The band (and the man) who would right such edgey frightening songs as (I like) Little Girls and Nasty Habbits had long ago been replaced by a band that was getting dangerously close to adult contemporary. Slowly Elfman's biting sarcasm and uncomfortable humor had been becoming more and more gentle and benign. The people that call this album dark are really forgetting where it all started. Musically it was a whole new animal (and a brave, jaw dropping one), but lyrically this was the closest he'd been in a very long time to where he started.



(also of note- the Farewell live album includes 5 (or 4 if you're lucky enough to have the tape only track helpless) additional tracks written for this album that were ultimately not released. Helpless and Water are both show stoppers stronger than many of the cuts on here, their omission was criminal. Piggy, Clowns of Death, and Burn Me Up are fun but ultimitely don't amount to much.)"

Worth a revisit

D. Fick | San Jose, CA United States | 09/26/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"13 years later I've been listening to this again - after shelving it in '95 - and I think it holds up as D. Elfman's swansong to pop music. There are some engaging bits on this album. The groove set up and carried along on "Change" says it all."