DANNY ELFMAN: SO-LO

Don't be put off by the cover. The album was released under Danny Elfman's name, and the title is "So-Lo", but with all of the members of Oingo Boingo (and no one else) performing, song written by Elfman and arranged by Steve Bartek, this is an Oingo Boingo album. In fact, it was recorded as an Oingo Boingo album, but a contractual dispute with A&M caused it to be released on MCA under Elfman's name. Unfortunately, this also began the decline in Oingo Boingo's sound. The horns, a standout feature on the first three OB albums, barely make an appearance. And on the two songs where they can be heard, It Only Makes Me Laugh and Tough As Nails, they are low key and non- distinguished. Elfman's songs are good, but it's beginning to sound like he's on cruise control. And while there is a bit of darkness in his lyrics, it's far more tame than on the previous albums. Judging by the later MCA releases, I've always wondered if this trend was more of a edict by the new label than a trend from Elfman himself. Oh well. This isn't a bad album. It's got some nice, and even a few somewhat exciting tracks. But it was a disappointment.

An odd little quirk in the career of a rather quirky band, after Oingo Boingo experienced the departure of bassist Kerry Hatch and keyboardist Richard Gibbs, the band sort of took an extended hiatus after being dropped by I.R.S. Records (a division of A&M) which hosted their first four releases, EP and singles. After finding interest by MCA, band leader DANNY ELFMAN was enticed to the label only under the condition that he remain a solo act. This led to the next album SO-LO appearing as a solo DANNY ELFMAN release despite the fact that every musician involved was in Oingo Boingo itself thus making it a bonafide followup to "Good For Your Soul" and the "Forbidden Zone" soundtrack. The album also featured a fledgling Flea from the newly founded Red Hot Chili Peppers offering extra bass contributions.

Despite being a band effort, ELFMAN used the opportunity to offer a different album from what had come before with slower tempos that focused on a more overtly pop musical construct that eschewed many of the musical liberties of the earlier releases and focused on the current trends of mixing new wave, synth-pop and the ska revival without sacrificing the horn section that made Oingo Boingo stand out from its competition. Slightly frustrated with the lack of national success despite having a huge fandom base in Southern California, SO-LO tamed things down a bit to flirt with a more mainstream approach that would hopefully attract a few more newbies to the cult. The album only generated one single in the form of the opening "Gratitude" which provided the perfect synthpop sound for 1984 and unlike many such bands never lost that post-punk grit provided by the feisty guitar workouts.

The album follows the playbook the lead single generated with less frenetic performances that stick to a tight groove, super catchy melodic hooks and the usual Oingo Boingo instrumental interplay that featured call and response efforts from the horn section and rhythm section. ELFMAN also toyed with various synthesizer tricks of the trade such as on the Devo-esque "Cool City" with only ELFMAN's idiosyncratic singing style and the band's already established sound keeping it all firmly planted in the Oingo Boingo universe. "Go Away" keeps the album humming along with a wider array of rhythms, stylistic approaches and songwriting techniques that seemed to stem from the fact the band wasn't playing at lightning fast speeds any longer. This track takes on somewhat of a "New Romantic" vibe in the vein of Duran Duran, ABC or Ultravox once again without crashing anyone else's party. "Sucker For Mystery" took Boingo into even stranger territory with less focus on the guitar aspects and almost totally dominated by the synth-pop and vocal interchanges between ELFMAN and the backing singers but still offering an instantly infectious melodic construct.

"It Only Makes Me Laugh" went straight for the ska revival sounds of Madness or The Specials only accompanied by a heavy synth-pop presence. Seemingly alienated from previous efforts despite the band throwing a complete curveball still maintains the high quality pop music melodies ELFMAN cranked out effortlessly. Same goes for the following "Last Time" which while extremely watered down compared to the rest of the album still finds a unique way to express a completely new idea without sacrificing its instantly ear worm hook likability. For me the least palatable track is "Tough As Nails" which tries to deliver a funk-based groove with an accompanying horn section but ends up sounding one of those early cheesy albums from Red Hot Chili Peppers that couldn't quite muster up the musical mojo until later in their career. "Lightning" is the closest as it gets to the Oingo Boingo old school of yore so much so that it easily could've been slipped onto a previous album without anyone noticing. Dynamic instrumental interplay with some spazzy keyboard playing, punk infused guitar energy and ELFMAN firing on all pistons. "Everybody Needs" also delivers an interesting mix of of old school Boingo with what makes this album unique and the best example of the funk being used on the album.

For those who only love hardcore Boingo or nothing then anything from this album on will be a true disappointment but for those who love the simpler expressions of 80s new wave music in addition to the more experimental passionate liberties of the early years then SO-LO turns out to be a very fascinating album. It did take me quite a while for me to warm up to this because ELFMAN used the transfer to MCA to water down his classic sound enough to go mainstream and although this album has become somewhat of a footnote in the greater Oingo Boingo canon, it served as a huge experimental transition that took them to their next successful album "Dead Man's Party" which after convincing the record label to renegotiate to become a band effort again, produced one of Boingo's most successful hits "Weird Science." While this is hardly the peak of the Oingo Boingo run of albums that were released between 1981 and 1994, SO-LO is actually a very brilliantly designed album that lover's of classic synth-pop new wave will love. While the experimental purists will run away in horror at this point, i have found myself revisiting this one quite a bit over the years and it has easily slid from a 3.5 side note to a 4 star highlight in my collection.