DEAD MAN'S PARTY

At 1985, Oingo Boingo moves to the MCA records and quickly becomes a pop-oriented band between ska and post-punk with their fourth release, Dead Man's Party. The album tracks was already used as soundtracks for a hundred movies and TV series: Back to School, Weird Science (the song of the same name was written specially for the film), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Casper, Chuck, the Brazilian telenovel Top Model, and more.

The album is good, but it have some weak tracks. I must admit that my favorites here are their best-known songs, Stay and Weird Science. By the way, this release has nothing to do with prog, and it's not as good as their early albums.

This album, the first on MCA released under the band's name (se "So-Lo" for the explanation for that), continues Oingo Boingo's journey away from the dark circus freak show style that made their A&M albums so wickedly enjoyable. Sure, Danny Elfman humorously touches upon the topic of death in Dead Man's Party and No One Lives Forever, but the rest of the tracks, lyrically, are forgettable. And musically, the prog elements are all but completely eliminated. What's left is slightly elevated pop. And although the horn section makes a greater appearance than they did on "So-Lo", with the exception of Weird Science, their parts are bland and nondescript. The low point is Fool's Paradise, which sounds like a remnant from David Bowie's dismal disco ("Let's Dance") period. The high points are the three songs mentioned above. While not progressive, they each provide a nice groove. And the pop music? It's listenable, but nothing special. I give this just barely three stars.