Danny Elfman on Repeat

What in the world..

I am frustrated here people. How many times is Danny Elfman (Front man of Oingo Boingo and later Boingo) going to be asked to make a score for a movie and have it be the same as many he has done in the past?

Don't get me wrong, I love the work he has written, but hearing a new score by him doesn't excite me anymore as I already know what it is going to sound like: fast pace sections, quick changes on the flutes and strings occasional choir-like human vocals.. It used to be “Kick ASS! Another OST by Elfman!” now it is “Oh.. An Elfman soundtrack…” after only few bars into the title theme… It has become that predictable.

I admit he does have a range of OST abilities, but as a friend once said “If you listen to enough of this stuff it all sounds the same. After a while you can’t tell the difference between it and Row Row Row your Boat”

Examples below are linked to WMA files on the amazon website (30 second clips). If you want to buy one of these pieces of duplicated music, feel free to, but I suggest you check them all out first before you drop 16 bucks on your favorite soundtrack, as you may already have most of it in a slightly different form in your home.

[links to amazon broken due to archive age]
Batman, Batman Returns, Batman Forever, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissor Hands, Spiderman 1, Spiderman 2, SleepyHollow, Planet of the Apes, The Hulk, Men in Black, Men in Black II, Red Dragon, Mars Attacks, Army of Darkness:March of the Dead, Nightbreed, Tales from the Crypt, Nightmare before Christmas, The Corpse Bride, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Movies like Big Fish surprised me. While mixed into the OST I could hear tones and sounds that reminded me of Elfman's work, and I was fairly surprised when I found out it was him. All in all it would be an example of why he should be hired for the work vs why the job should be offered to some “up and coming” nobody so they can have a shot at the biz and the biz can have something original for a change…

A Civil action was out of the norm too, its not the Easy Out that he has taken with so much of his work.

By far, one of his best soundtracks would be the music for “Proof of Life”.. We wont go into it except that it is fantastic and another surprise that it was done by him in this time of his duplicating nature.

You may also be interested in the compilation [link dead] that was put together which mainly focuses on the music that is outside his general production and make him appears to be less of the OST factory that he has become.

I am not saying I could do a better job, but I am saying HE could. He has the skill and experience, but it seems like people are paying him to make the same shit, slightly rehashed and I am one of many that are tired of it. If I have to hear Row Row Row your boat at the beginning of “Batman 29 : Batman and Robin scandalous sex kittens.” then so be it.. It will be better.

This movie would also be known as “Batman XXiX – Lube up and imagine yourself in jail bad guys, cause we are gonna show you what a Dark Knight and pretty boy can do to you when tag teaming with no referee..”

You can hear a theme in a lot of the soundtracks he has helped write, even as far back as the Forbidden Zone OST (directed by Richard Elfman). It is almost as if he is trying to find something he was attempting to grasp back in the beginning when Oingo Boing had as many band members as letters in their later truncated name…

(obviously I like his work otherwise I wouldn't have put this much thought into writing this up.. I am just frustrated..)