Oingo Boingo

Boingo

just a shadow of what they used to be

Review Score:

(8/10)
In 1990, oingo boingo came out with dark at the end of the tunnel. This contained many synthesized tunes from what used to be an 80's party band. But here, we are transported back to the year 1994 and presented with Boingo in an era when bands like Nirvana were more dominant.

Where "Dark at the End of the Tunnel" had a lot of irresistable guitar riffs and synthesizers, this effort seems to play out more like a theatrical piece choosing grunge guitars over synthesizers, bells, or xylophones. The french horns do an admireable job of accomodating the melodies during the opening track "Insanity". Insanity sounds more close to an Elfman solo Batman or Nightbreed score than a Boingo original. The "Nightmare before Christmas" assimilatiion ballad "Spider" complements "Insanity" very well, but the problem with the album lies in the remaining parts.

The remaining parts sound like either Nirvana or Beatles . . . . If that's your thing well likely it works but this stuff is not identifiably Oingo Boingo on the surface. "I am the Walrus" actually works very nicely as a John Lennon cover / tribute. Hey! is my personal favorite and sounds graet but I criticize it as well for sounding like an obvious Nirvana rip-off.

It seems that not only has Danny Elfman confused his composer world (which incidently balanced nicely a throughout "Tunnel" in 1990) but he's also hoarded Oingo's piece of pie which forced the integrity of the rest of Oingo Boingo into a corner (making the current OB into just a shadow of what they used to be). That's not to say lead guitarist Steve Bartek had no input into this specific album. By putting in his own abstract ideas. Those ideas often work, but they are often too calm in the tracks found here.

To sum Boingo up, it was a great place for Oingo Boingo to stop making albums (not because they were bad at it) but because it was apparent both Elfman already fell off on a where the feel of OB was more like Batman than Boingo.

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