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86 of 90 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Elfman Scores Again with a Merry, Scary 'Christmas', October 21, 2000
'The Nightmare Before Christmas' lies at the top of Danny Elfman's superior film scores, because it allowed him to pour all of his creative talents into one phenomenal work. This isn't just underscore, it's the feature--this time Elfman scores a MUSICAL, with music that accentuates Tim Burton's brilliant story. The mood is deliciously dark and yet devilishly fun; it's moody and evokes fear, but like a roller coaster, you know it's all in good fun. The vocal songs are well-orchestrated, and the lyrics range from clever fun to poetry at its most beautiful. The "Overture" builds and builds, pulling you in until you can't resist listening further. The "Opening" is handled perfectly by Patrick Stewart, with a very subtle bit of "Sally's Song" playing underneath. His reading, like a creative father reading a bedtime story to his child, is dead-on and just what's needed to lull the listener/viewer into the realm where reality fades into imagination. The unabashed fun of "This is Halloween" makes you crave the holiday all over again. The sometimes terrifying descriptions pass right by without affecting you, because you're too busy having fun--the general effect of the whole film. Elfman himself voices Jack, and his scary, longing reading and dramatic, over-pronounced phrasing gives Jack a wonderfully distinct voice. "In the Forest" is a great piece that tremors with excitement and a foreshadow of the coming adventure, shown best with the drumming, twinkling segue into "What's This?" at the end which lasts only a few seconds and fades with quiet chimes playing the song's opening notes. The actual performance of "What's This?" soars, with sweet, delightful lyrics and Elfman projecting Jack's wide-eyed glee so well that one can see the skeleton's grinning face without even watching the movie--he sounds as if he might burst with joy! The "Town Meeting Song" has sometimes scary lyrics, especially with Jack's introduction of "Sandy Claws," "like a lobster huge and red" who "sets out to slay with his reindeer on," but the melody is so cute and the feeling so fun that it's impossible to mind. "Making Christmas," a full-cast effort, has a bombastic, side-splitting feel reminiscent of a Broadway production number. Listen for when Jack tells a citizen who's proud of his 'dead-rat hat' "That's all wrong...It's been dead for much too long; Try something fresher, something pleasant!" The highly disturbing "Kidnap the Sandy Claws," performed superbly by Paul "Pee-Wee Herman" Reubens, Catherine O'Hara, and Elfman as Lock, Shock, and Barrel, is one of the soundtrack's high points. The battling siblings go on and on at length about their devious deed of nabbing the Christmas icon and torturing him to distraction--the lyrics are cruel, horrible, and downright sadistic. The first time around, in fact, it may shock and revolt you--it did me. But a really excellent marriage of orchestration, lyrics, and performers outmatched only by "Oogie Boogie's Song." The malevolence heightens with each verse, the brass blaring and the sailing flute turning up the fun. The singers sound like they're getting a real kick out of it--O'Hara sounds positively giddy when she squeals, "Kidnap the Sandy Claws/Beat 'im with a stick..." It will surely frighten most children, and even older listeners who enjoy it may feel guilty for doing so, but just let yourself go and laugh out loud--that's the intention. O'Hara, also the voice of Sally, does a lovely understated job on the beautiful, heartbreaking "Sally's Song." Showstopping "Oogie Boogie's Song," belted emphatically by the great Ken Page, is a wonderful take on the classic jazz-injected show tune, with stong piano comping and a hot, stomping blues arrangement tinged with a sexy, pumping stripper beat. The song benefits extraordinarily from the soulful voice of Broadway musical veteran Page (though this is a far cry from his Old Deuteronomy in 'Cats'), who wails, growls, and cackles his way through the lyrics. His robust, larger-than-life voice combines with his impeccable phrasing and wonderful hammy reading to make this a groovy treat. Listen to how he laughs at Santa's plea for mercy! This crucial scene in the movie should be terrifying and dramatic, but this song does the trick by making it so much fun; Oogie's words may be threatening, but he's enjoying himself so much you end up being swept along for the ride. Hearing Page work his charm is a marvel for the listener, a masterful casting choice that pays off big time. A plus--the soundtrack contains the middle of the song, missing from the film. The letdown--besides "This is Halloween," where he has two spoken lines, this is his only number. Elfman's use of cues is probably better here than in any of his scores, with so many different ones to choose from. "Sally's Song" is used a few times to great effect, as are "Jack's Lament" and "What's This?" which are both put to good use in the dynamic "Christmas Eve Montage." Many of the score's great elements come together here, inducing fear, excitement, glee, and the foreshadowed sense that everything is horribly wrong. With a simultaneously scary and gorgeous Christmas feel highly reminiscent of Elfman's nice work from the Bill Murray vehicle 'Scrooged' five years earlier, it becomes peaceful and beautiful at times, threatening and harsh at others; at one point, it even breaks into a wild tuba-trumpet romp that hearkens back to his brilliant score from 'Beetlejuice.' Doctor Finkelstein gets his own cantankerous cue as well, and the most enjoyable cue is the lascivious stripper music that kicks up repeatedly during "To the Rescue," which is set in Oogie Boogie's lair. The "End Title" music is one of the most amazing tracks, simply because it is a well-arranged instrumental medley of all the vocal songs, with "Jack's Lament" and "Making Christmas" reappearing throughout. Included are a whimsical waltz of "This is Halloween," a beautiful "Sally's Song," a maniacal "Making Christmas," and an all-out swinging sample of "Oogie Boogie's Song," riddled with saucy piano and sassy brass.
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gorgeous, literate soundtrack, December 11, 2002
Danny Elfman's "The Nightmare Before Christmas" transcends a movie some people didn't like for its dark view of holidays--even if you disliked the movie, you may like the CD because the music is so devilishly clever and literate. Elfman has managed to winningly combine the joy and purity of Christmas music with a darker look at this treasured holiday. The lyrics are terrific (innocently sung but baldly truthful) and the music swoops, soars, and turns back on itself with astonishing ease and imagination. It's like an aural roller coaster in the best possible sense of that image.Elfman sings the part of main character Jack Skellington (the "Pumpkin King," or master of Halloween) here, and he does a masterful job of conveying Skellington's yearning to do something different and important. Skellington goes after the Christmas holiday with all his energy and ends up botching it badly. Elfman manages to show us Skellington's earnestness as well as his dark side--this is no cardboard character, but a real (if not flesh-and-blood!) person, and we care about him. Catherine O'Hara does a super job with her brief work here as Sally, the Frankensteinian rag doll who falls in love with Skellington. This is a terrific paean to the holidays in general, and Christmas specifically. With each listen, you'll find new things to admire and love about Elfman's nimble, imaginative music.
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27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
As with all musicals, the soundtrack..., June 25, 2004
Is more fun than the movie itself. I take this in some respects as being an innate flaw in musicals, but also an innate virtue as well in other ways.
The songs on this CD each have a slightly different mood and feel to them, but each seems almost to represent a different style of music along the same basic storyline, almost like a celebration of all kinds of music used in the themes of darkling whimsy that Tim Burton is so famous for.
The music tracks containing no lyrics (there are only a handful of them, since this was the soundtrack for a musical, as I said,) are good, and set the moods when seen in the film, and are enjoyable by themselves, but like all "soundtrack music," they change mood in mid-number a lot.
The beginning and ending were not really music, but they allowed me to get a much better feel for what the story was really meant to be. Patrick Stewart is one of my favorite actors of all time, and he does a wonderful job telling those parts of the story in a style reminiscent of a grandfather with children sitting and listening to him on the floor, combined with the rhyming silliness of Dr. Seuss.
"This is Halloween" is a number that is so perfect at establishing its feel and mood that I consider it, to this day, to be my favorite "holiday song," even above "Carol of the Bells."
"Jack's Lament" is a beautiful, soul-filled song about how lonely it is to be on top and to know there's more to life, but to never experience it. Beautiful song that switches freely between pride and sorrow, inasmuch as those two emotions are entirely connected.
"What's This" is probably the most openly joyful song on the album, but there's an underlying feeling of depth to that joy, because of how well Elfman voiced the main character, which makes me feel as he does when I hear this song. Jack is so involved in this number that I can even almost see him leaping around in joy as the song plays.
The "Town Meeting Song" is a very amusing little number that is, in some ways, rather methodical. It had probably more funny rhymes than most of the numbers, but isn't as deeply emotional as many.
"Jack's Obsession" is an indulgence in curiosity, ambition and pride that is so much fun to listen to, I almost always smile when I hear it. Also, like most of Jack's numbers, there is deep emotion in it; in this case, the anguish of being unable to solve the problem with his brain alone.
"Kidnap the Sandy Claws" is a jarring and, if you think about it, rather a nasty little song, but it's also the most whimsical on the CD, while still remaining dark, and for that it has earned my respect.
"Making Christmas" is just another indulgence in pride over common sense, which, thanks to the way the story goes, is ultimately doomed to failure. The people plunge blindly ahead with their plan, simply because they think they can do no wrong. The song itself is, therefore, rather to be taken as a part of the tale rather than by itself, but there's pleasure to be found here alone.
"Oogie Boogie's Song" is a real kick. I know Oogie Boogie is the villain, but he worries so little and is obviously having such a blast in this song that you can't help but enjoy it.
"Sally's Song" is a celebration of sorrow and worry. Sally fears that Jack's plan is doomed to a disastrous failure, and so her song is slow and emotional. She depicts this sorrow almost as well as Elfman himself.
"Poor Jack" starts out sorrowful and depressing, but makes up for that as it lauches back into the confidence and satisfaction that Jack used to enjoy from being the best at what he did, and indeed, the joy of what he attempted that very night.
And lastly, the Finale contains a veritable collage of all these emotions to lesser degrees, but especially those from "What's This," and "This is Halloween," while indulging in a new emotion; Hope.
All in all, a beautiful album that both tells a wonderful story and is an extremely emotional ride through a world which, though it isn't always human, always feels that way.
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