Good For Your Soul

Sound DNA

• Electronic
• Synth-Pop / New Wave

• brittle
• playful
• art school

About

The last album to feature the original Oingo Boingo lineup, <i>Good for Your Soul</i> is marked by darker themes—a conscious reaction to critics pigeonholing Danny Elfman as the perpetual ringleader of a chaotic house party. Then again, the album does boast some of the band’s best madcap dance tunes, including “Sweat,” “Little Guns,” and the punk-inflected “Who Do You Want to Be.” The foreboding undertone is epitomized by “Wake Up (It’s 1984),” in which Elfman moans: “Whole world is watching, observing every move/Is it beginning or the end?” He keeps brooding on “Good for Your Soul” and “Pictures of You,” a pair of eerie, ambiguous love songs in which his elastic yelp is tamed in favor of a midnight croon. The album’s slow tribal feel is ratified on “No Spill Blood,” a jungle chant based on the 1932 tropical horror film <i>Island of Lost Souls</i>. The spooky equatorial vibe extends to the smoldering reggae of “Fill the Void” and “Cry of the Vatos”; the latter is a dub-infused instrumental that stands as one of the album’s highlights.

via Apple Music

Tracklist

Credits