Wednesday marked thirty-five years since Oingo Boingo dropped their cult-classic record Dead Man’s Party, featuring its iconic title track, and the “Weird Science” theme song. Not that frontman and Brian Wilson-level genius Danny Elfman has been hiding in the shadows for years, but it’s certainly been a minute since he has released anything on the level of what he dropped today.
After only a few sneak peeks on social media, the composer behind at least one movie you are familiar with has released his first rock-oriented song in years. “Happy” is a tribute to all eras of Elfman’s eclectic career, starting out with the low synths of the Dead Man’s Party album, and featuring backing vocals that sound precisely parallel to his unmistakable Halloweentown choir. After two verses, there’s a sudden silence, and an electrifying continuation, in what sounds like the hardest and most hopeless piece Elfman has ever whipped together. “My own motherfucking life/burned down like a hole in the warm soft ground,” he bellows.
The music video is perfectly eery in his own ideal Danny Elfman way. It’s just his partially-lit face, followed by, as I heard someone put it, a reunion of every drug trip you’ve ever taken. You know, his eyes popping out of his head and multiplying, a beating heart that appears to be spinning…regular stuff like that.
“Happy” is sort of like a Yes song: If you wrap your head too far around the lyrics, you’ll fry your mind. But from what I can tell, Elfman is raising a middle finger to COVID-19 for ruining the flip side of his 60s. Though he hasn’t toured since Oingo Boingo split in 1995, (and even then, it was limited to mainly the west coast of the US) I have no trouble in saying that a new album is a very good possibility.
If Dylan, Springsteen, McCartney, and Taylor Swift can do it in the same year, why not Elfman? Not that he owes us anything, though.
Josh Bradley Live 