Customer Reviews

Best O'Boingo

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The re-recorded tracks that people have mentioned are from the 2-cd set "Boingo Alive" that was released in 1988. I am not particularly fond of "Boingo Alive" and I think that they should have stuck with the original versions for the "Best O' Boingo" set.

Do not buy this disc... instead, buy "Anthology" where you can find the proper versions of the songs.

This includes "We Close Our Eyes" for those of you who are looking for it.

Having been a major Boingo fan for years, I found the "Best o'Boingo" to be a bit of a disappointment. They kept many of their better songs intact for this collection - "Stay", "Not My Slave", and "Just Another Day" are three of my faves. However, eight of the seventeen tracks are not the original Boingo classics, but re-recordings; and nowhere near as good as the original releases. (The re-recordings of "Dead Man's Party" and "No One Lives Forever", well, stink.) If you are a serious collector of Oingo Boingo music, this might be a good choice to round out your collection; but if you're buying your first Boingo CD, I'd suggest going with one of their older albums, such as "Dead Man's Party".

"Best O' Boingo" is a basic necessity for any good collection. Songs such as "Not My Slave" and "Wild Sex in the Working Class" showcase Danny Elfman's songwriting talent, and get you moving. No Halloween Party is complete without Boingo on the stereo.

There are re-recordings of some of the more popular songs on this album, most notably the one that starts the whole thing off: "Dead Man's Party".

This isn't a bad thing. In the case of "Dead Man's Party", the oddly sluggish feel of the original is gone entirely. Most of the songs, in fact, sound tighter, brighter, and the whole thing just *bounces* along with the cheerily macabre sensibility that an Oingo fan dotes on. I listen to it and find I get the keenest enjoyment from it in the car, despite my rotten speakers. There you are, zooming through space in your little tin-can with internal combustion. Death is not far from your mind, more often than not, and it's invigorating to hear it discussed with such happy relish.

The mood of this compilation is perhaps a bit lopsided: the friskier pieces such as DMP and "Not My Slave" tend to be near the beginning, while the album slides toward wistful sentiment and pretty minor-key warbling toward the end. In the car, the opening trumpets of DMP are a clarion call back to the lighter side of things. Without the "Repeat All" function, it kinda wiggles to a halt. Not bad at-awl.

This is a great CD. It's very fun and danceable with a dark sense of humor running throughout. It is, however, incomplete for anyone wanting an overall look at Oingo Boingo. The band was together for seventeen years and collects only about five years worth of their hits on MCA Records. There is another collection called "Skeletons in the Closet" that covers the earlier part of their career. But if you want a collection Oingo Boingo at its best doing their greatest songs, spring for the 2 disc "Farewell." It's an album recorded from their final concert.

If you love Oingo Boingo like I do, then I almost guarentee that you'll also love this c.d. It has a lot of re-recorded, really cool music on it, like Only A Lad, and Dead Mans Party. All of the songs are great, and I just can't stop listing to it, althought I have had it for more than seven months, so you'll never get tired of it.

Oingo Boingo made records that managed to appeal only to a certain in-the-know crowd, and almost all seemed to be in California. They were possesed of a certain goofiness that permaeated all their best songs and a positively rivitig frontman in Danny Elfman. This best-of offers some re-recordings of the Boinger's best known songs (which did not bother me all that much), and shows off the band's greatest gifts.

"Dead Man's Party" and "Weird Science" show the band at their peak. The rythym is irresistable, the hooks undeniable, and Elfman's yelp cutting through it all. Horns percolate in and out, and the band had a chemistry that just cooked. But they also show the band's shortcomings. Elfman knows basically one song style (busily frenetic) and one arrangement style (loud and stuffed). To the band's (and Elfman's) credit, they do this better than absolutely anyone else. It makes early stuff like "Only A Lad" sounds great even almost 30 years on. Given that Elfman eventually transitioned this very same style into his film-scoring career, "Best o'Boingo" makes a good look at the man's roots.

I live in Brazil, and in 1989 I heard Oingo for the first time here. Some songs from the album "Stay" (may be this one was exclusively to Brazil). Since then, I've been trying to find this album in CD, but is very hard to find some CDs in Brazil, as you may know. This "best of" is very good in my opinion, but there's only one fail: they forgot the song "We Close Our Eyes" that is the moust magical song that I heard from Oingo. If you have some hint, please send me e-mail to: pp1cz@bol.com.br

The lesser revered punk band, yes Oingo Boingo despite the wretched name is a little bit creepy punk. They are disturbing and they amuse me greatly.

I love Dead Man's Party, it's one of my faves. But this best of album gives you a good sampling of all of the crazy stuff they came up with.

This CD is a fairly good compilation of Boingo songs. I love this CD, even though it seems to go by too quickly when I listen to it.