Danny Elfman To Release First Solo Album In 37 Years

Oingo Boingo founder Danny Elfman is about to release ‘Big Mess’, his first solo album in 37 years.

Covid lockdown was the big inspiration for Elfman to work on his own record after years of some of the biggest soundtracks in the world. “Once I began writing,” Danny says, “It was like opening a Pandora’s box and I found I couldn’t stop. None of it was planned. I had no idea how many songs I would write but from the start it quickly became a 2-sided project with heavily contrasting and even conflicting tones.”

“I knew from the start that this wasn’t going to be a neat, easy-to-categorise record,” says Elfman. “It was always destined to be this crazy cacophony, because that’s who I am. The Big Mess is me.”

Oingo Boingo were active from 1979 to 1995. The band formed in Los Angeles but Australia delivered their best chart positions. The band’s sixth album ‘Dead Man’s Party’ gave them at no 39 with ‘Weird Science’ and a no 30 with ‘Stay’.

However, Danny’s “day job” developed into the award winning composer. Elfman wrote the Grammy winning score for ‘Batman’, and composed the music for ‘Beetlejuice’, ‘Scrooged’, ‘Edward Scissorhands’, ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ ‘Batman Returns’, ‘Dick Tracy’, ‘Spider-man’, ‘Spider-Man 2’ and ‘Spider-Man 3’, Justice League’, ‘The Grinch’, ‘Dumbo’, ‘Men In Black International’, ‘Mission Impossible’ and ‘Shades of Grey’, and that is just naming a few.

Possibly Elfman’s best known piece is his theme for The Simpsons.

Danny Elfman – Big Mess – June 11, 2021

Track List

1. Sorry
2. True
3. In Time
4. Everybody Loves You
5. Dance With The Lemurs
6. Serious Ground
7. Choose Your Side
8. We Belong
9. Happy
10. Just A Human
11. Devil Take Away
12. Love In The Time Of Covid
13. Native Intelligence
14. Better Times
15. Cruel Compensation
16. Kick Me
17. Get Over It
18. Insects