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Which ONE Elfman OST is essential?


Jurassic Shark

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I feel like limiting Elfman to just one essential score isn't doing his overall oeuvre justice, but if there's one Elfman score I return to the most it's Batman Returns.There's just something about it that really clicks to me. I also love Sommersby, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Big Fish.

 

11 hours ago, Yavar Moradi said:

Nightmare Before Christmas is his magnum opus and utterly brilliant, but perhaps not for all tastes. My favorite Elfman score however is Black Beauty, and I can’t fathom why anyone wouldn’t fall for that score’s incredible beauty. So that would be my recommendation.

 

Yavar

 

Black Beauty was a recent wonderful discover for me. I never knew Elfman was capable of writing such beautiful "personal sounding music" until recently. Now that I've listened to a lot more of his work I feel stupid for even questioning that. I love the "sheer joy" that comes from this track.

 

 

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10 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

JS had already checked out those compilations and didn’t like them.  What a pointless effing thread.

 

Well, he's done a lot after those compilations came out, Stupid.

 

Anyway, you don't have to like all of a composer's works to name one that's essential to you.

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Batman

 

Edward Scissorhands, Black Beauty, Sleepy Hollow and Batman Returns come close.

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43 minutes ago, SteveMc said:

Susanna Hoffs covered one of his Oingo Boingo songs.  Essential for me.

 

 

It's a great song. I have several versions of it, but I think I prefer Hoffs' version Elfman's own.

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I prefer the live version with the accordion that Oingo Boingo did in their later tours.  I never particularly cared for the album version with the 80s drum beat.  Hoffs' version has always fallen in between those two for me.

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The accordion version is fine, but I'm a sucker for 80s and early 90s production values, so Hoffs gets the nudge. Plus, while I generally love Elfman's vocals, in this case I think the ballad aesthetic is more suited to her than him. Elfman's is a bit "whiney", in lack of a better word.

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7 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

I like that song from So-Lo that sounds like Elfman's take on the Talking Heads

 

That could be several. Perhaps "Sucker for Mystery"?

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17 minutes ago, Thor said:

The accordion version is fine, but I'm a sucker for 80s and early 90s production values, so Hoffs gets the nudge. Plus, while I generally love Elfman's vocals, in this case I think the ballad aesthetic is more suited to her than him. Elfman's is a bit "whiney", in lack of a better word.

 

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It's true, my general Oingo Boingo preference has always been later era (Dark at the End of the Tunnel, Boingo, their last few tours including as-captured on the Farewell album).  I like that sound a lot better than the 80s sound.

 

If you're a sucker for those kind of glossy production values of that era, more power to ya!

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10 minutes ago, Thor said:

 

That could be several. Perhaps "Sucker for Mystery"?

 

Yeah that whole album is pretty Talking Heads influenced I guess.  I like it more than any Oingo Boingo album, most of which just don't hold my attention.  I find Elfman's pop song writing much less interesting than his film scores.

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16 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

 

Yeah that whole album is pretty Talking Heads influenced I guess.  I like it more than any Oingo Boingo album, most of which just don't hold my attention.  I find Elfman's pop song writing much less interesting than his film scores.

 

Agreed, and on that note:

 

 

 

 

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3 hours ago, Nick Parker said:

 

Agreed, and on that note:

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah I love that song and it's practically got a neon sign flashing "INFLUENCED BY DAVID BYRNE"

 

Bowie too of course.

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