Only a Lad

Oingo Boingo

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Original Release Date: 1981
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: A&M
• ASIN: B000002GC5
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #9,701 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Oingo Boingo, October 25, 2000

By	Water Monkey "Marc B." (Santa Clarita, Ca.) - See all my reviews

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").

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spectacular Boingo, March 8, 2000

By	Sean O'Neill (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

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.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Where Do I Start?, March 6, 2006

By	Casey Germane (CF, IA) - See all my reviews

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!