Retro Spins: Oingo Boingo - Dead Man's Party

It baffles me to this day that some people don't know who Oingo Boingo are. Especially when those same people can stand there and talk to you about the music of Danny Elfman from all the Tim Burton films. To me, they're as iconic as Aerosmith, Queen, Duran Duran, etc.

Last time I talked about them, it was regarding their 1983 album, Good For Your Soul. Today, I want to talk about their 1985 (technically) follow up, Dead Man's Party. Admittedly, this one's going to be a bit of a "gimme". One, I'm clearly going to have a bias opinion. Two, it happens to be my all time favorite studio album from them.

First, let me step back a moment and clarify the "technically" part of my last paragraph. That would be the 1984 album, So-Lo, which was credited to Danny Elfman. However, the album is still very much an Oingo Boingo record. It was only released under the singer's name in order to circumvent a dispute with the band's record label. While So-Lo is credited to the bands complete discography, those unfamiliar with the group will of course only associate it to Elfman.

To me, Dead Man's Party is a masterpiece. The album delivers consistently fantastic tracks, one after the other. It's one of the very few records I have which I want to listen to front to back because I'm not about to pick a song here or there. It's up there in the ranks of my all time favorites alongside Michael Jackson's Bad, Prince's Purple Rain and, well, anything from Queen.

I believe it also showcases Oingo Boingo at their strongest. Granted, this was at the loss of some of its prior members leaving. But, sometimes less is more, and that certainly rains true here.

Fans of John Hughes films will immediately recognize the title of the movie, Weird Science. The band included an alternate take of the song as the last track on the album. This version is approximately six minutes, two minutes longer than the version from the soundtrack. Unfortunately, it was the shortened version from the film which received airplay, and eventually went to number forty-five on the charts.

Just Another Day, the opening track from the album also hit the charts at number ninety in early 1986. Sadly, it was gone the following week. To date, Just Another Day and Weird Science remain the only two songs from the band to land on the charts.

I highly recommend this album to anyone who hasn't heard it. You're missing out.

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