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Danny Elfman's BIG MESS (2021)


Disco Stu

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Yooooo what is this????  New solo Elfman pop song?  Was there an announcement I missed?  It just randomly showed up in my Youtube recs.

 

 

It's a pretty interesting song too.  It's nice to hear that impish weirdo energy from him again!  The lyrics are very relatable :lol:

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On 10/20/2020 at 11:05 AM, mstrox said:

 


Elfman has been teasing something on his Instagram - what seems like rock songs!  Definitely drums and his vocals, based on the minor snippets he has shared.  I could use a little Boingo-style back in my life.


We knew something was coming, although this is the first I’ve seen that it dropped!  Looking forward to listening!

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42 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

Yooooo what is this????  New solo Elfman pop song?  Was there an announcement I missed?  It just randomly showed up in my Youtube recs.

 

That was great!

 

I think we've talked a bit about this earlier in the thread. Over the last few weeks, we've seen Elfman recording some rock stuff on his Instragram feed. We've assumed it was new songs originally planned for his Coachella gig (which was cancelled), but it could be something else too; I can dream of a whole new studio album - finally realized after covid-19 has freed up some of his time. And that this song is the first of that album.

 

In any case, it's great mish-mash of Elfmanisms - a little bit of NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, a little bit of Philip Glass-ian minimalism and a little bit of punkish New Wave, Boingo-style.

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17 minutes ago, Thor said:

 

 

In any case, it's great mish-mash of Elfmanisms - a little bit of NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, a little bit of Philip Glass-ian minimalism and a little bit of punkish New Wave, Boingo-style.

 

I agree it's a really fun song.  And lyrically a really great summation of what the pandemic has felt like.

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Here's the music video for it:

 

I like it!

 

Quote

“I originally wrote ‘Happy’ to perform at Coachella 2020,” Elfman said in a statement. “It was written to be an absurd anti-pop song, designed to begin as a very simple pop tune that degrades into something more subversive. The cynical nature of the lyrics echo how I feel about living in a semi-dystopian world turned upside down.”

 

https://pitchfork.com/news/watch-danny-elfmans-video-for-happy-his-first-new-solo-song-in-36-years/

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Violent, repetitive and uninspired.

 

That's how it sometimes turns when composers don't have a director to tell them what to do!

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That's a great song too!


Speaking of which, we still need a dedicated score release of SUMMER SCHOOL.

 

1 hour ago, mstrox said:

I'm partial to "It Only Makes Me Laugh" (assuming we count So-Lo as a solo album, since it was basically an Oingo Boingo album).  

 

Oh, if we're doing favourite Boingo songs in general, we'll be here all night.

 

I guess if I were to really, really boil it down, it would be a toss-up between "Insanity" and "Grey Matter".

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That was pretty interesting. Again, it proves the best kind of Elfman these days is non-film Elfman. Wouldn't mind hearing more of this kind of a thing.

 

Karol

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1 minute ago, crocodile said:

That was pretty interesting. Again, it proves the best kind of Elfman these days is non-film Elfman. 

 

Yes, non-film Elfman and non-blockbuster Elfman. That's where he's shining at the moment.

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  • 2 months later...

It's interesting, but not as good as "Happy", IMO.

 

Both of these singles are a natural continuation of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers/Ninch Inch Nails-type sound that defined their last album in '94 (the children's chorus in "Sorry" brings the children's chorus in "Insanity" to mind). Only darker. Personally, I wish he went back to his funkier and cleaner New Wave roots a bit more, rather than being all grungey and metally and fussy, but I'm just thankful we're getting new rock songs from him. Would be awesome if these singles amounted to a whole allbum at some point.

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55 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

I don't hear anything in there that could be anyhow related to the red hot chili peppers. This is Metal sound. The Peppers never did Metal.

 

I was talking about the '94 Boingo album, which has RHCP all over it in many of the tracks. These singles are one step beyond that; more NiN than RHCP, perhaps, but still very much an organic continuation of that '94 album.

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2 hours ago, Thor said:

Would be awesome if these singles amounted to a whole allbum at some point.

He posted on Instagram that he’s releasing a single on the 11th of each month for the foreseeable future. So I’m sure that’s exactly what will happen. I just wish he’d dump the entire album at once so we don’t have to wait a full year. 

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58 minutes ago, Thor said:

 

I was talking about the '94 Boingo album, which has RHCP all over it in many of the tracks. These singles are one step beyond that; more NiN than RHCP, perhaps, but still very much an organic continuation of that '94 album.

Ok. Don't know that '94 album. Still from that track hard to imagine that the quite natural sounding music of the RHCP had something in common with this. Apart from NIN the sound reminds me more to Linkin Park or Clawfinger, those 90s electronic NU Metal bands, who created their riffs rather at the laptop than in the rehearsal room. But it might be different for the other album.

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10 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

Ok. Don't know that '94 album. Still from that track hard to imagine that the quite natural sounding music of the RHCP had something in common with this. Apart from NIN the sound reminds me more to Linkin Park or Clawfinger, those 90s electronic NU Metal bands, who created their riffs rather at the laptop than in the rehearsal room. But it might be different for the other album.

 

Yeah, it's rather different. "Hey" is a typical track from BOINGO that has a very RHCP-like sound.

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1 hour ago, Thor said:

"Hey" is a typical track from BOINGO that has a very RHCP-like sound.

 

Wow! I've never explored Oingo's music at all before, but this tune is great!

 

And yea, definitely RHCP adjacent

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12 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

I'm not a huge Boingo fan generally, but that last album is the one I enjoy most.

 

Yes, I consider "Insanity" a masterpiece -- Elfman's best song (outside of films). Has plenty of other great tracks too, but I do lean more heavily towards the 80s stuff. "Grey Matter" might be a favourite of that material, due to the awesome xylophone solos. The 1995 live performance is great too (although more rock, and less synth):

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZftIZtU5mU&feature=emb_title&ab_channel=nutstothis

 

(hmmm, embed doesn't work, for some reason).

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The last album is a completely different beast than the rest of the Boingo discography - eschewing the 80s Boingo sound in favor of some funkier 90s rock, and very clearly influenced by Elfman's and Bartek's work in film score.  It was my gateway into Boingo - and their live album, Farewell, presents tons of their older tracks through that mid-90s filter as well.

 

Bought Elfman's single last night - looking forward to listening soon!

 

There are so many B-sides and demos etc.  I wish they'd put together a one or two disc Boingo rarities album.  Thinking about tracks like Helpless, Vultures, Water especially.  I used to have them downloaded, but I've since deleted them from my library due to how they were obtained.  I'd love to hear those songs I remember from old bootleg archives in pristine quality.  And, it would be a nice way to revisit their legacy without having to do the reunion that Elfman has no interest in.

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John Powell says

 

Quote

So I know I wasn’t gonna post for a bit but Danny Elfman just released a new track “Sorry”, and as Holly Sedillos is singing on it, I gave it a few listens.

 

Thus, a mental spiral of questions started to draw me in. How did he come up with something so unusual? How did he get the energy to make such vibrant music at a time like this? How does this song work so damn well?! The answers only spawned more questions. Clearly, Danny is really good at communicating ANGER, so how does he do it in a way that makes us all so damn HAPPY when we hear it? Were I able to make music that so clearly expressed MY anger, I feel it would merely provoke despair in the listener - a cruel use of music.

 

So the lesson here is - and I’ve harped on about this before - Paradox. A great artist can show us two opposing ideas simultaneously, making them resonate together, helping us understand our love of life - its unlikely, clattering, painful, repetitive, unique yet sensual joys. And I’ve never been so happy to hear someone screaming “I’m sorry you exist because you suck the fucking air out of my lungs” 🤓

 

https://www.facebook.com/johnpowellmusic/posts/2784361238453827

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22 hours ago, mstrox said:

There are so many B-sides and demos etc.  I wish they'd put together a one or two disc Boingo rarities album.  Thinking about tracks like Helpless, Vultures, Water especially.  I used to have them downloaded, but I've since deleted them from my library due to how they were obtained.  I'd love to hear those songs I remember from old bootleg archives in pristine quality.  And, it would be a nice way to revisit their legacy without having to do the reunion that Elfman has no interest in.

 

I remember back in the early days of the internet -- around 2000 -- there was this site that had a gazillion of songs from the Mystic Knights days, mostly bootleg recordings from obscure, underground concerts in the late 70s and early 80s, but also some rare singles and the like. I remember downloading all of them at the time, and thank God I did, because the site is no longer available. Some of them were in RealAudio (remember that?), but thankfully most of them were in mp3. I've assmembled them all in two folders:

 

 

 

 

boingo.jpg

mystic.jpg

 

But yes -- I would buy a boxed set of these rarities in a heartbeat!

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That's the site I was talkin' about!  They had tons of stuff, and I too downloaded everything they had in MP3 at the time.  A lot of stuff was clearly sourced off of cassette, vinyl, VHS, etc.  There's a goldmine out there.

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  • 5 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

 

 

OK, so this one isn't really for me. Too all over the place. But I'm digging Elfman's covid/rock haircut at the moment.

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  • 5 weeks later...
29 minutes ago, Thor said:

This month's song, "True". I'm kinda tiring of the angst-ridden grunge stuff now.....hoping for something a little more open and melodic soon:

 

 

Have to admit that I'm not really sold on getting the album... this is a part of his musical personality with which I cannot connect at all. Hopefully he'll get back to concertos and other concert works soon!

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The album now has a name -- BIG MESS -- and will be released June 11:

 

171025640_301323171356262_80735365137970

 

Track Listing:

 

Sorry - 4:53

True - 4:24

In Time - 4:27

Everybody Loves You - 7:04

Dance With The Lemurs - 4:14

Serious Ground - 5:00

Choose Your Side - 4:33

We Belong - 3:50

Happy - 4:33

Just A Human - 2:46

Devil Take Away - 2:49

Love In The Time Of COVID - 3:31

Native Intelligence - 4:23

Better Times - 3:14

Cruel Compensation - 3:11

Kick Me - 2:11

Get Over It - 4:06

Insects - 3:09

 

---

 

I wonder if "Insects" is a new version of the old Boingo song? That would be cool!

 

3 hours ago, Tom Guernsey said:

Have to admit that I'm not really sold on getting the album... this is a part of his musical personality with which I cannot connect at all. Hopefully he'll get back to concertos and other concert works soon!

 

I love his rock/pop/Oingo Boingo songs from back in the day, but I'm not quite sold on this new stuff. "Happy" was good, then it's been more uneven stuff after that.

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7 minutes ago, Thor said:

The album now has a name -- BIG MESS -- and will be released June 11:

 

171025640_301323171356262_80735365137970

 

Track Listing:

 

Sorry - 4:53

True - 4:24

In Time - 4:27

Everybody Loves You - 7:04

Dance With The Lemurs - 4:14

Serious Ground - 5:00

Choose Your Side - 4:33

We Belong - 3:50

Happy - 4:33

Just A Human - 2:46

Devil Take Away - 2:49

Love In The Time Of COVID - 3:31

Native Intelligence - 4:23

Better Times - 3:14

Cruel Compensation - 3:11

Kick Me - 2:11

Get Over It - 4:06

Insects - 3:09

 

---

 

I wonder if "Insects" is a new version of the old Boingo song? That would be cool!

 

 

I love his rock/pop/Oingo Boingo songs from back in the day, but I'm not quite sold on this new stuff. "Happy" was good, then it's been more uneven stuff after that.

I enjoyed a couple of the new songs, but the rest have done little for me and the videos are quite off-putting (I'm not really into that kind of grotesque imagery, interesting though it is). I have enjoyed some of the Oingo Boingo stuff, but never really explored very much. I enjoyed So-Lo. For songwriters turned composers, I'll stick with the songs of Randy Newman I think... but love them both as film composers.

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Guess I’m gonna stop buying the singles!  I’ll buy the CD.  It will be nice to hear the pieces placed into order and context instead of individually once a month.  I suspect I’ll appreciate them more.
 

There’s also a $180 vinyl boxset if you want a useless and unwieldy companion piece to the Burton/Elfman box.

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23 minutes ago, Thor said:

I wonder if "Insects" is a new version of the old Boingo song? That would be cool!

 

 

 

Quote

 "Choose Your Side", "Serious Ground" and "Sorry" all anchor themselves in the political intensity of our times. Even a reworked Oingo Boingo song, "Insects", transforms itself into a meditation on the greed and sickness of the American ruling class-but Big Mess is also a deeply personal work, with songs like the droning "In Time", the haunting "We Belong", and feverish "Everybody Loves You" revealing more of Danny Elfman than we've heard at any stage of his remarkably eclectic career.

 

https://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwmusic/article/Danny-Elfman-Announces-New-Album-Big-Mess-20210412

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48 minutes ago, Jay said:

Even a reworked Oingo Boingo song, "Insects", transforms itself into a meditation on the greed and sickness of the American ruling class-

 

Cool!

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  • 1 month later...

So, the latest - and I presume LAST (since the whole album is out in just a couple of weeks) - song was released yesterday, Elfman's new version the classic Boingo song "Insects".

 

Totally bonkers, epilepsy-inducing music video, but fun. I'm less thrilled with the new version, however. Too much fuzz and noise going on; I prefer the more clean-shaven original, with the brass section:

 

 

And, for comparison, here's the original, for those who haven't heard that before:

 

 

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