Customer Reviews

Only a Lad

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is one of the hallmark albums of the "New Wave" era. With this recording OB jumped onto the music scene with a mix of upbeat high energy ska-punk music and brooding lyrics about middle class S. California life.

This is one of my favorite OB recordings. This CD marked the beginning of Danny Elfman's best writing.

If you want to know what true OB sounds like, this is one of the albums to own (along with "Nothing To Fear" and "Good for Your Soul").

How do I even start? This is one of Oingo Boingo's best. It's classic!

The layering of instruments is really awesome. What You See has so many turns it takes a while to get sick of it.

The lyrics are really clever...I'm assuming Danny Elfman wrote them. They're dripping with sarcasm, dry comments on people in our society...awesome! It takes a real genius to turn a subject like pedophiles into a song that makes you smile and tap your foot.

Speaking of pedophiles, "Little Girls" deserves its own paragraphs. It opens up the album. The first time I heard this song I was like, "this is so awful!". The lyrics were just so...yikes. But at the same time I was having way too much fun listening to it. After awhile you begin to think, "how can you NOT love this song?".

Finally, Danny Elfman is unbelievably fun to listen to. He just might be my favorite singer. The vocals in "What You See" are fantastic. His voice can go from sounding tender to demonic in a few seconds, and he's so expressive.

I think I've listened to nothing but Oingo Boingo for about two weeks now. This CD is a complete earworm! It wriggles into your skull and camps out. Don't worry, you won't mind at all! It's nasty, it's controversial, it's funny, it's a good time!

This album captures the early sound of Oingo Boingo, with all of their quirkiness and unusual instruments. You get some top hits like, 'Only a Lad' and 'Little Girls', but they also have some great grooves like, 'Perfect System' and 'On the Outside'. The lyrics on 'Capitalism' are spectacular as well.

You may know Danny Elfman from his movie scores, but this is where it all started. Oingo's greatest hits contains some of these songs, but this album is still worth owning for the lesser-known gems.

You will listen to Only a Lad. You will not stop. You will learn to appreciate every song on here, even the ones (or perhaps especially the ones, depending on your tendencies) dripping with libertarian sympathies. You will admit that Danny Elfman is an evil mastermind and trust him when he says "Put your life into my hands/Look around you'll understand". You will like all of the other Boingo albums very much, you will appreciate Danny's soundtracks, but they will never match the hyperkinetic joy of Only a Lad. Submit.

My very first impressions of Oingo Boingo came from songs like "Little Girls," "Only a Lad," and especially "Nasty Habits." I think this album, however, is one you have to be in the mood for to really appreciate. Usually Danny Elfman's music can put me in the mood, but this one is very much a single style, which is very 50s rock sounding, albeit new wave 80s at the same time. I think "Perfect System" (Track 2) is one of the most overlooked of Boingo's stuff that ought to have more attention. In the same vein is "Controller," both based on sort of crazy political ideas - reeks of "Manchurian Candidate" which I wouldn't put past Elfman, as he really likes the literary stuff ("Wake Up (It's 1984)," "No Spill Blood").

No one will forget the opening song, "Little Girls," the absolutely outrageous gleefulness in Elfman's vocals is just a wonderful portrayal (as well as quite sarcastic) of a pedophile. Something that's not a really common topic in music even nowadays. "Nasty Habits," forgetting to put the covers over his head, Elfman quite sarcastically says that "nasty habits I must condone." That song alone is very reminiscent of his vocals for Jack Skellington in "The Nightmare Before Christmas," so if you like that, listen to "Nasty Habits." It will get you in the mood for the pouring out of a world of Elfman.

Many reviews say that the rest of Boingo's material is not nearly as good as "Only a Lad," lacking in the edgy sarcastic lyricism or missing the new wave mark that so many fell in love with. But I think they only got better and better, or at least they changed a lot and just remained good the whole time, I don't know which.

If you like "Only a Lad," I definitely suggest "Nothing to Fear" and "Good For Your Soul" - and check out the rest of Danny's music! He's a genius with flaming red hair and a strange obsession with skeleton artwork.

Being a fan, I enjoy the entire catalogue but I keep returning
to the first three albums.It's the faster pace and energy that seems to appeal to me.Only A Lad, along with Nothing To Fear and
Good For Your Soul are the records I would gladly recommend to
a virgin ear and mind.Danny sings with such mad glee that I find
myself forced to listen and even sometimes think about what he's
actually singing.Little girls?????Nasty habits??????
I love it!!!!!!!!Cheers!!!

I think I came to be an Oingo Boingo fan when I heard a little bit of their music on Amazon. I thought they had a great sound! So, I went to my local music store and they didn't have this album, so I put in a special order and I picked it up yesterday and haven't listened to anything else, but this.

Little Girls - 5/5 A great opening song for a great album. I love the horns in the beginning.

Perfect System - 5/5 I love Danny's voice when he starts out this song. And his vocals throughout this song is amazing. This song has a great sound.

On The Outside - 4/5 The guitar in the beginning is great. I like the lyrics and Danny's singing.

Capitalism - 5/5 I love the drums in this one. The song is so great. "There's nothing wrong with capitalism"

You Really Got Me - 5/5 A great 80's cover of a classic song.

Only A Lad - 5/5 One of my four favorite songs on this album. Little Girls and Perfect System being two others.

What You See - 5/5 A great dance song. And, believe me, "What you see is what you get" ;) I think Danny's falsetto is wonderful.

Controller - 5/5 Another great dance song. Another song where Danny sounds great.

Imposter - 5/5 I love the sound of this song. The drums, and oh the guitars!

Nasty Habits - 5/5 This is the fourth to my four favorites off of this album. I love the way this song starts out! And another one where Danny sounds great.

All in all, this album is really worth having. I'm a huge fan of 80's music, so this album is a thrill to have.

Although not as consistant as some of their later releases, Only A Lad is an album unlike any other. It is piled high with fiendishly catchy tunes (Only A LAd, Little Girls) and incredibly witty lyrics (Perfect System, Capitalism).
Although I normally don't like political music, I find Danny's views to be well thought out and on par with my own. However, if you are not into that sort of thing it certainly won't hamper your listening experience. Sadly, there are a couple of duds on this album (Imposter, What You See) but it's a small price to pay for one of the most enteraining and original albums I've ever heard.

This was my... 2nd? Boingo album, I started with Dead Man's Party. I must say there is not one bad track this entire CD.. buy it. Trust Elfman and Co.. they know what they're doing

In the year 2002, I downloaded a song called "Weird Science," to put on a mix CD. I had heard the song many times and I loved it, but I had never heard of the group Oingo Boingo. (The singers of the song.) So I went online to find more of their music. The first song I heard was "Little Girls." The song was genius, and as I soon discovered all their songs were a genius. So the first CD I bought by them was Only a Lad. I cannot tell you how many weeks this CD sat in my Cd Player. I lisened to it Day and Night. Danny Elfman is a genius at writing music. One of his best Oingo Boingo Cd's is Only a Lad. Great songs like "What you see," and "On the outside." I highly recommend this CD.