And here it is, the final Oingo Boingo album. Years of film scoring had really taken its toll on Danny Elfman’s desire to keep the band going, and after unapologetically phoning it in on Dark at the End of the Tunnel he decided he needed to take drastic measures to breathe some life back into the project. He dropped the horns, dropped the keyboards, brought in a second guitarist, and most notably, dropped the “Oingo”.

It comes as no surprise to me that something like this wasn’t sustainable for the long-term, especially when reading accounts that album production kept getting stalled due to Elfman’s other projects. Elfman was clearly still trying force it, and finally admitted years later that he really just didn’t care anymore. The band dissolved after a final farewell concert on Halloween 1995 (which was released as a fantastic live album), and considering the circumstances surrounding the dissolution, even in these weird times when even the most unlikely reunions are happening, I wouldn’t count on seeing new material from Oingo Boingo ever again. ALTHOUGH, THIS FRIDAY on June 11th, 2021, Elfman is releasing his very first rock album since Boingo‘s 1994 release! So, stranger things have happened…

The total upheaval of the band was a success, there’s nothing here that sounds like the same band anymore. Boingo is packed to the nines with grungy alt-rock melodies, lush orchestral arrangements, unorthodox non-pop song structures, sullen and quiet acoustic passages, subtle vocals, and bravely long track lengths. At the time, Elfman called it “the most challenging, fun, and difficult record” they’ve ever done, although I’m sure we was trying to keep a positive attitude about it for the most part. It certainly is ambitious, I’ll give him that much, but I think a lot of the album sees the band biting off more than they can chew, and while many elements here are different than what came before, a lot of it is derivative of the times and, as a result, isn’t exciting enough to justify its 77-minute runtime.

The good stuff, though, is fantastic. Boingo opens strong with “Insanity”, a cinematic masterpiece of crisp, stark and desolate production, unnerving horror orchestration, no-holds-barred political commentary, and creepy voice effects. The song is driven by rhythmic marimba, and Danny’s voice has never sounded better as he woefully bemoans the poisonous influence of religion through media. He’s even got a children’s chorus à la “Another Brick in the Wall”! At 7:59 this song is not a second too long, and it’s likely the biggest thrill you’re going to get out of Boingo.

After “Insanity”, the record start getting muddied with one pleasant, yet ultimately disposable and overlong, tune after another. “Hey!” is Nirvana-worship, plain and simple, with similar grunge riffs and the Cobain-style “Hey-ey-ey-eyyy-eyyyyyy!” chorus. It aptly begins with “Hey, I’ve got commentary without much to say” and then continues for seven more minutes! “Mary” is a lush symphonic ballad with a rather banal melody and a dramatic story with subtle anti-religious commentary. It’s pretty, but needed some editing. I feel the same way about “Can’t See (Useless)”, which has similar tone and instrumentation and might have been more powerful placed later in the record. Part of the problem thus far is that it’s all so serious, just like Dark at the End of the Tunnel was, and while Boingo has a leg up on melodic maturity and richer instrumentation…that same nagging feeling persists, the one where I think even Elfman believes he’s completely full of shit. I don’t buy this “authentic presentation” schtick at all.

Moving on, “Pedestrian Wolves” could literally be six minutes shorter, and gets my award for The Most Generic Alt-Rock Song on Oingo Boingo’s Generic Alt-Rock Album. If your song is going to be nine minutes long then you better make it memorable, holy shit dude. And those lyrics. “I’m so exci-i-i-i-i-i-ted/About the prospects of meeting with a stranger in an alley/I’m so exci-i-i-i-i-i-ted/I hope they’re rough/I hope their skin is tough/Like Spanish leathe-e-e-e-e-e-e-rrrrrrr“, what the ever-loving fuck is this? Terrible.

Things start to pick up again musically with the next tracks: “Lost Like This”, “Spider”, and “War Again” are all solid cuts with plenty of hooks, albeit they all have some more of that cringey high school depression poetry that would make even Morrissey raise an eyebrow. I’ve caught myself belting out “I’ve never been lost like this/But I wouldn’t be HAAA-A-AA-A-PPY anywhere else” along with the Elf Man, but never in public! “Spider” has somber acoustic beauty, but a clunky chorus so try not to listen too hard to the words. “War Again”, ugh, such a kickass reverb-laden electric guitar driven moody piece that just gets undermined by the stupid lyrics (“Don’t you know this is better than any video friend/It’s an action movie/Here we go watch the bad guys get their butts kicked/Really makes me feel good!“). I know this is supposed to be satire, but it’s not very sophisticated satire. I mean, lines like these used to fit more adequately within the old herky-jerky ska-punk Boingo but it simply does not work very well with this super serious film score music. That fucking “War Again” verse doesn’t even rhyme! He’s not even trying!

OK, time to get incredibly Beatles-y, so buckle up! After a faithful “I Am the Walrus” cover, updated for the times of course, we traipse over a throwaway interlude (“Tender Lumplings”) and then jump into the mammoth 16-minute “Change”. Now, usually, a giant closer can really break a whole record for me, especially a record that already has its unfair share of ballooned-out track lengths, but “Change” is a fully-engaging psychedelic trip and a welcome stylistic shift. Symbolically, it’s not only the perfect finish to a band’s career, but it’s also the ultimate culmination of all the isolation, social outcast, anxiety, and fear-based themes running through the entire Oingo Boingo discography. Over the course of sixteen minutes we seem to go through the audio equivalent of the five stages of grief: denial (“Don’t you ever wonder why/Nothing ever seems to change?“), anger (“Oh God, here’s that question now/The one that makes me go insane“), bargaining (“I’ll gladly tear my heart out/If you never, never, never, never change“), depression (“And it kills my brain to think of all the time I wasted here/All the effort, sweat, and broken hearts, the screaming and the tears“), acceptance (“Something happened, something strange/Something it appears has changed“). Of course, this is a gross oversimplification on my part, but it works nicely and I’m sticking with it! Anyway, the song is a stew of post-Rubber Soul-era Beatles influence; a blatant Lennon/McCartney ripoff/homage/whatever you want to call it, full of familiar rock riffs, hallucinatory manipulations, psychedelic guitar solos, faux British-tinged accented singing, kaleidoscopic string quartets, odd experimental sound collages, catchy earworms, soulful balladry, you name it. I think it’s a brilliant song almost all the way through; FINALLY, the lyrics and the voice don’t sound melodramatic and dumb, FINALLY the emotion sounds genuine again.

“Change” alone is worth the admission price. OK, well, “Insanity” and “Change. Just take the first and final tracks and don’t bother with the rest unless you have the time.  I can only wonder where the band would have gone next had they continued on, but it was only a matter of time before the well would have run completely dry anyway. This is way better than Dark at the End of the Tunnel, I’m glad the band didn’t finish on their weakest note and then put out a completely embarrassing run of artistically bereft albums chock full of zombie emotions and out-of-touch dinosaur sentiments like so many other bands that should have known when to quit. At least with Boingo the dignity can stay intact. They would be wise not to regroup.

Now to brace myself for that Elfman solo album dropping in a few days. Hoo boy…

JUST OK