OK, really? Can Danny Elfman make it any more flagrantly evident that his heart just isn’t in the Oingo Boingo project anymore? BLLLAAAAHHHHHHH. Why should I care if he doesn’t care?! HHHHHHRRRRRGGNNNNN.

All right, let’s get through this. Elfman had sorta been informally and amateurly involved with film scoring before with his brother, but shit had really started taking off once Tim Burton asked him to score Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure in 1985. Needless to say, the thrill of having a full orchestra play his compositions was overwhelmingly life-changing and he’s been very busy making music specifically for giant feature films ever since. It’s no coincidence that 1986 was the very first gap year for an Oingo Boingo studio album since 1981’s debut, and it’s no coincidence that Dark at the End of the Tunnel came out after a three-year break.

The problem with 1990 is that IF you’ve already been around a while AND your music wasn’t at all inspired by heavy metal, hardcore punk, or hip-hop, you were likely not making any music that really mattered anymore (I said “likely” goddamnit, there are a lot of exceptions but it’s mostly true). Dark at the End of the Tunnel is very much an album created in the vein of the type of music all the tired old dinosaurs of the classic rock era were cranking out in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Sappy, saccharine-y, adult contemporary pap with less teeth than your withered old grandma. I expected better from a really-good-at-making-music kinda guy like Danny Elfman, since an effort like Dark at the End of the Tunnel really showcases the unfortunate reality that he was beginning to lose touch with the trends and the times.

The biggest shame of this album is that, quite literally, all the humor is gone. Even the previous album had a one big cunnilingus joke with “Elevator Man”; this album is so goddamn serious it’s unnerving. Is this supposed to be maturity and growth? It feels more like a completely neutered Oingo Boingo with nothing relevant to say anymore. Most of these songs evoke no more than, I don’t even know…ennui? The heaviest anthem on the whole disc is the opener “When the Lights Go Out”, and while it certainly has that trademark Elfman vocal fry delivery and the staccato brass punctuations during the chorus, it comes across and limp and lacking any real energy. And from there it’s just song after lackluster song, tepid and insincere sentiment permeating the lyrical subject matter that, I think, is supposed to be poetic and deep and from the heart? I really don’t know. I’m not used to this from Boingo, why am I supposed to suspend my usual expectations now through this half-hearted effort?

Songs like “Skin” or “Long Breakdown” are fairly egregious offenders of this fence-straddling emotional ambiguity. Are they supposed to be these sad, depressive ballads? Is the music supposed to be happy? Somber? Uplifting? Melancholic? Wistful? And why? I feel nothing from these songs. The melodies are plodding, like one big itch that I can’t satisfyingly scratch. But all the while I’m hearing the complexity and the flow, I’m admiring that they’re at least competently structured and have nice little bits here and there. I like the fanciful mallet percussion of “Skin”. I like how Elfman’s voice fits nicely with the tone of the music. But there are no real hooks. Nothing to draw me in. Same with “Dream Somehow” or “Is This”. All these songs sound different from each other, but it’s all awash in this bland dad-rock sameness. It’s indescribable how frustrating it is to listen to these well-crafted songs and feel absolutely nothing from it.

I almost really like “Glory Be”. It has a strong melody, and it’s cool the way Elfman bends his voice around the minor-key shift at the end of the chorus (“They follow me, they foll-l-l-l-ow me”). Certainly no skimping on those horns. The problem here is the medium tempo and the runtime at just over five minutes. And if you really listen to the lyrics, its juvenile melodrama causes some serious cringing (“Like a bad dream I once had/Where everyone but ME knew something“).

I also almost really like “Flesh ‘n Blood”. It has a strong melody, I like that the rhythm is a little on the funky side, and I like how all the instruments take turns as they wrap themselves around the funky rhythm. Elfman’s delivery doesn’t sway too hard toward the melodrama either, or at least not at the wrong moments. The problem here lies entirely again within the lyrics. Man, are these lyrics terrible. “Every cloud has a silver lining/And every soul is tender to the touch/We are made of stone, we are made of steel/And we’re all the same when we return to dust“. Gross. Come on, man.

I actually do really like “Run Away” though. It’s the catchiest track on the album by a long shot and it brims with some of that lost old-school Boingo energy! It’s packed with musical ideas, two distinct infectious melodies, and check out that sexy saxophone too, whoa mama! If the whole album was like this one track we’d be in business!

But it’s not! “Out of Control” is so fucking full-of-shit over the top with its “don’t commit suicide, life is great” after-school special message that I’m literally having a heart attack right now as I type this and I wish I could just go kill myself! “Try to Believe” is some phony-baloney white-as-hell positive piece of second-rate gospel music and it’s the worst album closer in the history of people and albums. “Dream Somehow” is some preachy, crooning, sickly sweet sort of new age tune where Elfman belts out all he’s got like he really believes this positivity shit. It’s unreal to me that he sat down and wrote all this stuff and had the nerve to keep the wry snark out of the music around it. It’s completely embarrassing and frustrating.

And as you will now see, I’ve come right back around to the beginning on the whole overarching problem with this album: his heart isn’t really in it anymore. With respect to Elfman’s established genuine songwriting talent, an album like this is a complete waste of his time. I wouldn’t be surprised if Dark at the End of the Tunnel was merely a fulfillment of a contractual obligation with MCA records, since the next and final album Boingo on a new label, four years later, will show an obvious uptick in the effort. Completely skip over this one, it’s not worth it.

KINDA BAD