Search - Oingo Boingo :: Only a Lad

Where Do I Start?

Casey Germane | CF, IA | 03/07/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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!"

BRILLIANCE!

A. F. Rigum | The US of A. | 10/15/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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."